The Grimm Conclusion
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40 free The Grimm Conclusion trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Grimm Conclusion is the last and bloodiest book in Adam Gidwitz's trilogy of retold Grimm stories. Twins Jorinda and Joringel promise never to leave each other, then spend the whole book being dragged apart by murder, magic and some truly terrible adults. This quiz follows them from the grisly opening chapters to the strange place where their story ends. It covers the plot, the characters they meet, the old stories Gidwitz borrowed and twisted, the narrator who keeps interrupting, and the author and the other books in the series. It is written for readers who have finished the book, whether for school, a book club or fun. The questions start easy and get harder, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Grimm Conclusion, what dish does the murderer make from young Joringel's body after beheading him?
A stew
A stew is what becomes of Joringel, and his unsuspecting mother is served it. The scene reworks an old Grimm story in which a murdered boy is cooked and served to his own parent.
Q 02Jorinda is nicknamed Ashputtle in The Grimm Conclusion, the Grimms' name for which famous fairy-tale heroine?
Cinderella
Cinderella is the heroine the Grimms called Aschenputtel, or Ashputtle. Their version has no fairy godmother, and it is far bloodier than the one most children know.
Q 03Which fairy-tale siblings lead A Tale Dark & Grimm, the first book of the trilogy The Grimm Conclusion ends?
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel head A Tale Dark & Grimm, and they are not forgotten in the finale. Characters from the earlier books make cameo appearances in The Grimm Conclusion.
Q 04In The Grimm Conclusion, Joringel performs CPR on which cursed princess from a famous fairy tale?
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty gets CPR from Joringel, a very modern twist on the old story. Adam Gidwitz also swaps her spindle-pricked finger for a different curse.
Q 05In The Grimm Conclusion, the twins step out of their story to visit the narrator in which New York borough?
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is where Jorinda and Joringel meet the narrator in person, far from their fairy-tale kingdom. Adam Gidwitz lives there, and the visit lets him explain why he tells such grisly stories.
Q 06In The Grimm Conclusion's Ashputtle episode, what do the stepsisters cut off in hopes of marrying the prince?
Parts of their feet
Parts of their feet come off so the shoe will fit, a detail taken straight from the Grimms. Adam Gidwitz keeps the gore that gentler retellings leave out.
Q 07What were the first names of the Brothers Grimm, whose collected tales Adam Gidwitz reworks in The Grimm Conclusion?
Jacob and Wilhelm
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were academics and linguists as well as collectors of folk tales. They gathered the stories as part of their study of German culture and language.
Q 08Which streaming service turned A Tale Dark & Grimm, first of Adam Gidwitz's Grimm books, into an animated series?
Netflix
Netflix released the animated series worldwide, and it earned a nomination at the first Children's and Family Emmy Awards. A second season was never made.
Q 09Reborn as a bird in The Grimm Conclusion, Joringel takes revenge on his killer by dropping which heavy object?
A millstone
A millstone lands on the murderer, and Joringel then comes back to life. In the Grimm story the scene comes from, the bird earns the stone by singing for a miller.
Q 10In The Grimm Conclusion, Jorinda's cruel nickname Ashputtle is freely translated as which unflattering job title?
Toilet Cleaner
Toilet Cleaner is the joke translation, because Jorinda's chores include scrubbing the household chamber pots. Her stepsisters use the name while she does the dirtiest work in the house.
Q 11Who beheads young Joringel near the start of The Grimm Conclusion and then tricks his sister into taking the blame?
His stepfather
His stepfather does it, turning the Grimms' original on its head: in their version the killer is a stepmother. Jorinda is fooled into believing she knocked her brother's head off herself.
Q 12After swallowing a magic berry in The Grimm Conclusion, Joringel can no longer feel which emotion?
Fear
Fear disappears for Joringel once he swallows the berry. The idea echoes an old Grimm story about a boy who leaves home hoping to learn how to shudder.
Q 13Which lesser-known Grimm tale, about a murdered boy who returns as a bird, does The Grimm Conclusion retell?
The Juniper Tree
Q 21Which literary term fits The Grimm Conclusion's habit of letting characters hear and even visit their own narrator?
Metafiction
Metafiction is fiction that openly admits it is a made-up story. Adam Gidwitz called the finale very metafictional, since one of its themes is its own reason for being.
Q 22Which author of The Little Mermaid do Adam Gidwitz's closing notes for The Grimm Conclusion credit beyond the Grimms?
Andersen
Andersen, the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, is named in the closing note on where the stories came from. Adam Gidwitz credits his own imagination there too.
Q 23Adam Gidwitz said each Grimm book tackles its own issue; which did he name for The Grimm Conclusion?
The power of storytelling
The Juniper Tree supplies the gruesome opening, with the boy's bones buried beneath the tree of the title. Adam Gidwitz mixes it with far more familiar stories.
Q 14What is the name of the terrifying ogre with a haunted mansion in The Grimm Conclusion?
Malchizedek
Malchizedek is the ogre, one of the new characters created for the final book. Lasting three nights in his haunted home is one of the story's trials.
Q 15Whose help does Joringel receive when he brings his murdered sister back from hell in The Grimm Conclusion?
The devil's grandmother
The devil's grandmother lends a hand, a character borrowed from the Grimms. In one of their tales she hides a boy in her clothes and plucks golden hairs from her dozing grandson.
Q 16What name is given to the anarchic Kingdom of Children where the twins end up in The Grimm Conclusion?
Jungreich
Jungreich is the Kingdom of Children, which works rather like an anarchic day camp. The twins find their happy ending there after making peace with their mother.
Q 17Which trio of talking creatures offers arch commentary on events throughout The Grimm Conclusion?
Three ravens
Three ravens comment on the action with dry wit. A trio of the same talking birds narrates the animated series made from the trilogy's first book.
Q 18Before she is murdered in The Grimm Conclusion, what kind of ruler does young Jorinda become?
A tyrant queen
A tyrant queen is what Jorinda becomes while still a child. The story later builds to a battle involving a whole army of children.
Q 19Which nursery-rhyme pair lead the middle book of the trilogy that The Grimm Conclusion completes?
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill lead In a Glass Grimmly, the book Adam Gidwitz wrote about peers and image. Each volume of the trilogy sends a new boy and girl out into a harsh world.
Q 20How are the narrator's frequent interruptions set apart on the page throughout The Grimm Conclusion?
Bold type
Bold type marks every moment the narrator butts in with a warning, a joke or a word of comfort. The device runs through all three books of the trilogy.
The power of storytelling is the finale's subject, and the twins slowly become tellers of their own story. The first two books dealt with parents and with peers.
Q 24How does author Adam Gidwitz say the J that begins the names Jorinda and Joringel should be pronounced?
Like a Y
Like a Y is the rule, so the names come out as YOUR-inda and YOUR-ingle. Adam Gidwitz jokes that German is weird.
Q 25In the Grimm tale that gave The Grimm Conclusion's twins their names, a witch turns the heroine into which bird?
A nightingale
A nightingale is the heroine's fate, one of many maidens the witch keeps caged as birds. A magic flower finally breaks the spell.
Q 26Which Grimm tale about children beheaded by their parents did Adam Gidwitz read aloud to second graders?
Faithful Johannes
Faithful Johannes was the story, and the pupils urged him to make it into a book. Adam Gidwitz added jokes and warnings as he read, which became the trilogy's trademark.
Q 27Adam Gidwitz credits a stint in which job with inspiring the trilogy that The Grimm Conclusion completes?
Substitute librarian
Substitute librarian was the role, at a school where he had taught. Told to read the children whatever he liked, he grabbed his Grimm fairy tales off the shelf.
Q 28Which later novel by The Grimm Conclusion author Adam Gidwitz, set in medieval France, was named a Newbery Honor book?
The Inquisitor's Tale
The Inquisitor's Tale follows three magical children and a holy dog across medieval France. Its frame of travellers swapping stories at an inn was inspired by The Canterbury Tales.
Q 29Which series about mythical creatures did Adam Gidwitz create after finishing his trilogy with The Grimm Conclusion?
The Unicorn Rescue Society
The Unicorn Rescue Society is the series, and Gidwitz wrote most of its adventures with a guest co-author. Partners have included Joseph Bruchac, David Bowles and Emma Otheguy.
Q 30After finishing The Grimm Conclusion, Adam Gidwitz wrote a young readers' retelling of a film from which franchise?
Star Wars
Star Wars was next, with Gidwitz retelling The Empire Strikes Back under the subtitle So You Want to Be a Jedi.