Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo [book review]

About Children of Chicago

Children of Chicago is a horror/crime thriller by Cynthia Pelayo. The book takes place in Chicago and follows Detective Lauren Medina. When a couple of kids are murdered she insists that she has to be a part of the investigation. Whoever is doing these killings keeps tagging the area with Pied Piper. But is this a gang-affiliated thing and the gang member is just trying to make a name for himself? Or is there something a bit more sinister going on? When another kid is killed at the lagoon her sister was found dead many years ago is when Lauren’s memories start coming back to her from that time. Will she be able to stop what’s going on so no more kids get harmed?

What I thought about Children of Chicago:

Children of Chicago is a modern-day fairy tale that is beyond creepy. This story brings the Grimm Fairytale of Pied Piper to a modern-day world and how exactly he would be in this time frame. How do you guys think fairytale characters would be in modern times? Do you think they would be able to cope with how things are now? I guess it also depends on what version we get of them that would help us determine how exactly they would be in our world. I always love these sorts of stories because I like to see how others would do their retelling of a certain story. I’m hoping to read more books by Cynthia soon!

The Characters

I actually really like Detective Lauren Medina. She’s smart and pretty quick on her feet. My only issue is that she really doesn’t have a lot of depth to her. Don’t get me wrong though. She’s a really good character and she’s tough, but I kind of found myself not exactly caring what happened to her in the end. I guess I should say that I didn’t exactly find myself fully invested in what happened to her.

I would have liked to find out more about her past. Why does she like fairytales as much as she does? Is there a reason why she seems so closed off? And does that have anything to do with what happened in the past? Even though her past is kind of kept a secret until the end I would have kind of liked to get to know her background a little more.

That’s not a huge thing though because I still really ended up enjoying her and figuring out how she was going to handle things.

The Plot

So, the plot of this story is actually really good. It is very paced and keeps you interested. I do have to say that there are parts of this book that is pretty creepy too. So, Cynthia Pelayo does a really good job setting up the story and getting the creepy vibe to the story. I love love love how she sets everything up and perfectly mixes modern-day life with the classic Grimm fairytales and how it seems so realistic. That is if fairytales were able to affect our daily lives.

The Children of Chicago deals with the Grimm fairytale version of Pied Piper. I have to say that I actually haven’t heard of this one before. Fairy tales haven’t really been something I’ve read about (even though I wanted to and just haven’t got around to it), but most of the fairytales that I know about are the ones that have been turned into Disney movies. However, I have heard of The Grimm Fairytales but just haven’t gotten around to reading them. This story has really made me want to read more books that deal with Fairytales that aren’t Disney-related. The Children of Chicago has really sparked an interest in what I want to read next. I just hope I can find more!

The only thing that I wish was different when it comes to the story is that we get more of a background as to why only certain people were able to read the nursery rhyme. Is there a reason for that? Despite what happened towards the ending of the book I do hope we can get a second book so we can find out more. Also, with how something ended in the story with the rhyme I also want to know more about what happens with that! I hope I’m not the only one who feels that way with this book!

How do you guys feel about books that incorporate fairytales with a modern day world?

If you enjoy stories like this then you might enjoy The Gallagher Hotel.