Kein Schnee im Hexenhaus

Das Cover ist super! Es passt super zur Geschichte und ich wäre gerne einfach ins Bild gesprungen (wie bei Mary Poppins) :D Der Titel ist übrigens für mich ein totaler Blickfang! Die Kulisse war toll. ich konnte es mir richtig gut vorstellen, wie die Jugendlichen dort leben und arbeiten. Das Gewächshaus hätte ich gerne selber in meinem (nicht vorhandenen) Garten. Mir ging Hansi richtig auf die Nerven...ich war oft richtig kurz davor mir mein Handy (auf dem ich das Buch gelesen habe) an den Kopf zu klatschen. Dieser Junge ist großkotzig, bescheuert und nervig...Aber er liebt seine Schwester und das merkt man. Das war die Sache an ihm, die ich wirklich gut fand. Gretel war mir ein bisschen zu unterwürfig, erst am Ende kam sie mal aus sich raus...da fing ich sie dann mal an zu mögen :D Auch bei ihr merkte man sehr gut, dass sie ihren Bruder über alles liebt. Frau Hag erweckte am Anfang bei mir Misstrauen, was aber sehr schnell weggeblasen wurde, weil sie eindeutig den Kindern nur helfen möchte. Ihr Verhalten gefiel mir sehr gut und ich wünsche mir für viele Einrichtungen solche Leiter. Genauso ihre Angestellten. Vor allem der Drache gehört zu meinen Lieblingen __ Ich würde ihn gerne adoptieren.

The story is told in different chapters that start with low page beginnings and in a mixture of outside-look and Hansi’s/Gretel’s-perspective. Towards the end there is a great perspective change to a different character, that I truly enjoyed as it felt much more mature and coherent than anything the youths’ brains could come up with… Even if it starts off and ends with the typical Fairy Tale quotes the narration itself feels like a report of what happened. At first the chapter beginnings irritated me a bit, but I’ve gotten used to it. The perspective change was strange too, but what bugged me most, was the combination of teeny-slang-speech with high, sometimes even seemingly contrived language. Knowing the original Fairy Tale Hansi’s paranoia took me in and I just wanted to continue reading to see, if my brain send me the correct images for the hog roast and what that implied, but at some point it turned into frustration on my part, because of the youths’ behaviour and I was curious whether Hansi’s and Gretel’s behaviour would change in the end. At the same time I was also kind of waiting for a big twist. Was it all really happening or just a figment of their drug-abused brains? Never saw THAT ending coming though… I was impressed by the way the drug-therapy was incorporated into the story and turned into something I would indeed expect from a witch and I’m sure it would be something a lot of therapists could benefit from, if it were real. There was also a very funny comparison of a crystal ball and a webcam. This and the end-twist to the original were some of my favourite things. The characters It’s not strange for me to have troubles liking main characters. On the one hand can you see how damaged Hansi and Gretel are, on the other hand do they seem as superficial as the side characters. The characters I liked most, though, were Frau Hag (Mrs. Hag) – the witch and director of the reformatory and her assistant Bodo, even if the latter didn’t get that much screen time. 😦 What I liked though were the names as someone really had fun with naming troublesome children: Hansjörg, Kevin, Serena…they already paint a fitting picture. 😀 But the other names were chosen just as well: Frau Hag, the witch; Waldmann (Forestman) for the Woodchopper-family; Krude (crude) the slimy social worker and the fairies Tinky (Tinkerbell) and Ali (Galadriel), even the Bodo, that I associate with a wiener dog. 😀 General Opinion An alternate version I enjoyed to venture into. An interesting take on the original stuff, with many great ideas, that portrays many important topics. Unfortunately did I not like the linguistic realization in some passages and the characters stayed pretty superficial… And there were too few moments with Bodo. 😉 Full Review: Susanne Eisele: Kein Schnee im Hexenhaus