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Fantasy. Fiction. Mythology. LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.) HTML: USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered brings her patented charm to a new version of a classic story. Featuring Arthur Rackham's original illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty, fractured and reimagined. "A vivid, subversive and feminist reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, where implacable destiny is no match for courage, sisterhood, stubbornness and a good working knowledge of fairy tales." â??Katherine Arden It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one. Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.… (more)
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Zinnia Gray is twenty-one, and presumably will die soon, having been one of the unfortunate
For her last year, she informs us:
“. . . really I have nothing planned but a finite number of family game nights, during which my parents will stare tenderly at me across the dining room table and I will slowly suffocate under the terrible weight of their love.”
Because Zinnia knew she was cursed to die, she identified with the story of "Sleeping Beauty." Starting in childhood when she insisted on Sleeping Beauty character bed sheets, to being a college student majoring in Folk Studies and Anthropology at Ohio University, she has made the story the theme of her life.
Zinnia's best friend “Charm” (short for Charmaine) arranges a 21st Sleeping Beauty themed birthday party for Zinnia replete with a spindle in an old abandoned tower. When Zinnia pricks her finger on it at the stroke of midnight as a joke, suddenly she is thrust into a different universe, waking up in the bedroom of Princess Primrose. Primrose was cursed to prick her own finger on her 21st birthday, which was the day before. She would then fall into a deep sleep for 100 years, unless she was rescued by the kiss of a handsome prince. Since her father the King has had all the spindles destroyed, she has resisted her fate so far, but Primrose knows it is only a matter of time. The only trouble is, Princess Primrose has no desire to be rescued by the pompous Prince Harold or any other prince for that matter - she would prefer a princess, if the truth be told.
Thus Zinnia ends up with a couple of problems to solve: she needs to get back to her own universe, but first she needs to help Primrose escape her curse. She is aided by the fact that she still has some memory left on her smart phone, which improbably still works, and can get assistance from Charm. Zinnia snaps a photo of Primrose to send to Charm, who, also gay like Primrose, is immediately smitten. Added to her devotion to her best friend, Charm has plenty of motivation to work on a solution.
This all may sound over-the-top, but Harrow manages to carry it off. With Zinnia’s sense of irony and self-awareness, she helps convince readers to believe in her and in this story that gets more convoluted by the chapter but also more “charming,” as it were.
One of my favorite passages has Zinnia explaining to Primrose why she would find Zinnia’s world appealing:
“You wouldn’t be a princess anymore, but you’re hot and white and young, so you could be pretty much anything else you wanted.”
As for Zinnia, she discovers that as one moves among universes, “fairy tales are flexible about gender roles.” She also finally figures out what she wants to do with the rest of her life, however long it may be: “I’m just looking for a better once-upon-a-time.”
Discussion: As Harrow has done in her other books, she turns preconceptions upside down with her through-the-door-to-other-worlds perspective and her unblinking honesty in interrogating hard subjects. What happens when you know someone you love is going to die? All too often, others get so focused on their own pain of the impending loss, they either suffocate or alienate the person who actually is the one needing the most care. We also see how perceptions of time between those who are dying and those who aren’t - “every minute has to count” versus “all the time in the world” - are as different as if these people did reside in different universes. And of course, in so many ways, they do. Harrow shows how fairy tales aren’t so unlikely and unfounded, when you universalize them into common human experiences.
Evaluation: I have found all of Harrow's books so far to be entertaining, thought-provoking, and offering fresh enlightened perspectives on a number of subjects.
I've read a number of pieces by Harrow for the Hugos the past few years, and this is definitely the best of them. This is a sort of postmodern,
Zinnia Gray is turning twenty-one at the opening of the story. That wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that Zinnia has a rare disorder that will most likely kill her before she makes it to her next birthday. Her best friend, Charm, decides to throw her a Sleeping Beauty party complete with a spinning wheel. When Zinnia pricks her finger on the spindle, she is thrust into another world where Sleeping Beauty’s life is as desperate as her own.
I loved the characters in this book. Zinnia was such a strong character. Her life has had a lot of challenges but I felt like her outlook was as positive as could be expected. I love that she wanted to help Primrose change her life and was able to rally others to make that happen. I felt like Zinnia showed a lot of growth during this story by learning to fight for herself and others. I also thought that the supporting characters were all expertly crafted, likable, and added a lot to the story.
Amy Landon did a wonderful job with the narration of this book. I loved the way that she was able to bring Zinnia’s character to life. She added a lot of excitement and emotion to the story. This was just a really great listen!
I would highly recommend this story to others. The writing was superb and I really liked the modern elements brought into the tale. I thought that the multi-verse was well done and I liked what it brought to the story. I will definitely be reading more of Alix E. Harrow’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.
Fractured fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty (yes, it is the worst fairy tale, as the protagonist says on page one), but improved through acknowledgment of how awful it is. I really wanted to know the stories of those other cursed princesses, especially the space princess.
Like a few dozen other children in her small town, Zinn (short for Zinnia, the flower) was "cursed" to die by the age of 21 by a factory that pumped toxic chemicals into the local water. She's lived her life acutely aware of her limited time, dashing
On her 21st birthday, which will probably be her last, Zinn's best friend, Char (Charm? Our car isn't very soundproof, so it was hard to tell) arranges a Sleeping Beauty-themed party in an abandoned tower, complete with antique spindle.
This extremely self-aware story is very fun but definitely requires some appreciation of fairy tales and knowledge of (pre-pandemic) pop culture. Harrow does a good job of using Zinn to explain the various variants of Sleeping Beauty that you need to know to follow the story, so you won't be totally lost. Zinn also has a pretty dry, morbid, and sarcastic sense of humor that I suspect could annoy some people. (As someone who uses too many parentheses and em dashes, I also enjoyed Zinn's asides that might otherwise be annoying, especially in an audiobook where you can't easily review the part of the sentence that came before.) It also doesn't hurt that I loved the story of Sleeping Beauty when I was growing up (despite Zinn's insistence that no one likes Sleeping Beauty).
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this feminist fairy tale retelling/critique that featured a lot of women making the best of bad situations, lots of friendly and familial love, and a sweet crush-to-girlfriend side story. The retelling mashup was a unique approach in my reading experience, and as someone who is a casual nerd about fairy tales, I enjoyed the meta elements. I'd be happy to read the forthcoming sequel!
I have enjoyed Harrow's novels, but I liked this novella even more. It's a feminist and queer retelling, and I loved how many references to fairy tales and other fantasy stories were included. The illustrations of silhouettes by Arthur Rackham have been redesigned in unsettling ways but fit with the story beautifully. And though there is a sequel out, the ending was pretty satisfying on its own.
Sleeping Beauty was cursed to prick her finger tell her prince came and dropped a kiss on her lips. Ha ! This sleeping beauty tale doesn’t follow the old
Sad, fun, sad, more fun, with a great ending. It’s such a short read I really can’t say much without spoiling it.
I enjoyed this open version of the Sleeping Beauty Tale
A delightful little bonbon box of a novella, to relish in a single sitting. "A Spindle Splintered" is witty, coy, adventurous, and full of sly cultural references for fantasy genre
Zinnia Grey lives in Ohio in the near-present. She has a degree in folklore and suffers from Generalized Roseville Malady caused by corporate damage to the environment. She's not expected to live long. Her 21st birthday is expected to be her last.
Our erstwhile heroine is queer of course, having flirted with lesbianism before imposing a no-romance rule upon herself. She is comfortable without any complications of the sexual sort, not wanting to drag another person into her tragedy. Zinnia has been obsessed forever with the Sleeping Beauty story, so her BFF gets her a spindle for her 21st birthday. When she pricks her finger, she is transported into another dimension, Perceforest, where she meets Princess Primrose, a standard cursed Sleeping Beauty who is drawn to prick her own finger and go to sleep. Primrose would rather not marry the dashing Prince Harold.
Zinnia and Primrose go in search of a way to break their respective curses. The moral of the story is: sometimes the story you are dealt is the story you are going to get—unless you decide to fight. And once you fight for a happy (happier?) ending for yourself, or even for your friends, the fight may be long from over.
Zinnia Gray has a disease that will kill her young. A disease caused by an industrial accident but she does not want to go quietly. She has always been fascinated by the Sleeping Beauty Myth and
I really enjoyed this read and it's take on the various versions of the story.
~ Netgalley Arc
Thank you to Alix E. Harrow, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for a free audio copy of A Spindle Splintered for an honest review.
It remains a truth uncrackable, I will find and fall in love with everything that Alix has written. This is a delightful story about
I want to galavant across the multiverse with the amazing girls of this story, finding ways to free the princesses (and the Evil Fairies & Queens) of our longest-held mythos bits. This story has something for everyone in it, and a whole lot of girl power, breaking free of your chains, and learning how to fan the flames of hope into a blaze nothing is allowed to knock out. I can't wait to own a copy of this.
A Spindle Splintered is a retelling of sleeping beauty through the multiverse. Alix has filled this short story with tributes to empowerment, LGBTQUI+, death, and chronic illnesses. The images throughout the novella do not depict the actions of the story. Rather, they appear to be mischievous. Even so, they are mesmerizing to look at.