Spindle's End (2000)

I really like all the world-building in this. There's such a lot of it, right from the first few pages. The problem with it is that there's too much of it -- it's very vivid, but it weighs down the story. The story of Sleeping Beauty is usually fairly unadorned, and the elements of the original story seemed bogged down in all this detail.

It's delightful to read, in some ways, but it did take me a long time to finish reading, and it didn't grip me or become compulsive. I loved the tongue-in-cheek element to some of the details, like the way the fairy godmothers' gifts went awry, and absent-minded fairies getting burnt on their kettles.

I did care about the characters -- especially, though slowly, Narl -- but there wasn't enough happening. It's an awkward cross between a thick fantasy novel and a delicate little fairytale that doesn't quite work. It doesn't help that you start with Katriona, and get close to her as a narrator, but then she's supplanted by Rosie as she grows up. It's a bit like a bait-and-switch: I don't know how else the story could have been the way it is, but I liked Katriona and was quite happy to settle down in her POV.

I do like the ending. I was wondering, all through it, how various things were going to work out, and I like that they did work out... not perfectly, but as well as they could possibly do. I was almost surprised by how much I cared about the happy ending for Narl, but considering I haven't stopped grinning yet... I liked the way the traditional elements were all present, although not in quite the expected way -- in the kiss to wake the princess, for example. I liked the way that Rosie had to go out and fix things herself, that she didn't have to wait for any prince to come and save her.

I still feel oddly ambivalent about the whole thing, though. It's not a book I can see myself reading again because it took so long to read, and didn't grab hold of me in the way I liked. ( )

Hypnotic, tangled and often impenetrable narrative. The briar roses that grow up around the sleepers in this oddly compelling retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend are a good metaphor for how McKinley's words coil around each other in paths untraceable by me. There are lovely, memorable passages which exist almost independent of the story, one of which I think I'll keep forever.

"What you describe is how it happens to everyone: magic does slide through you, and disappear, and come back later looking like something else. And I'm sorry to tell you this, but where your magic lives will always be a great dark space with scraps you fumble for. You must learn to sniff them out in the dark."


At the end I'm left with the feeling of having read a lovely fairy tale, most of which was far beyond my ken. ( )

I feel bad giving this book so few stars. But I honestly can't say that I enjoyed it. I actually skipped parts, and the darn thing was only 300 or so pages long.

McKinley is a good writer; she produces gorgeous and very funny prose, she's a master worldbuilder, and she creates believable characters and complex plots. I would have happily read the short story version of this novel. But I got bored at about the hundred page mark.

The reason I got bored is that this novel began with Rosie's birth (as it had to) and ended with the events surrounding her twenty-first birthday (as it had to). In the meantime, we had to watch Rosie grow up. And it was BORING.

It was boring, first of all, because of the style. McKinley *tells* the story rather than shows it, especially in the middle, and she is such a lovely writer that it almost works. Except that all of her pretty words actually form a barrier between us and the characters. Rosie and the others are interesting enough that we really could have fallen in love with them and rooted for them at the end. However, we're told what Rosie is like rather than witnessing what she's like, and as a result reading about her is not very compelling. In addition, whenever McKinley tries to create an emotional response with dramatic language, the subtle beauty of the words falls flat because it comes out of nowhere; all of a sudden this character who we don't really know all that well is having a poetical life-changing moment, and I'm left wondering, why? And so what?

Conclusion: Even writers who are super brilliant aren't allowed to break the "show don't tell" rule in long form fiction unless the story demands it. Not the story they think they're telling, the story that they're actually telling.

The other problem was that, oh yeah, NOTHING HAPPENED. It was about the characters and not the plot, and these characters were not dynamic enough to carry the story. Of course good characters don't have to be dynamic. In Coraline, the titular character is not, when you stop to think about it, a super dynamic or complex character, but she's believable and likable and as a result we're rooting for her every moment. The difference is that Coraline is always doing something, always in danger. By giving us a long middle in which there's only occasional danger, McKinley put the onus of interest on her characters, and thus fails.

I also have found that I generally dislike stories with friendly animal helpers. Did she really expect us to remember all of the names of the different animals? But I can accept that this might just be my problem.

I know a lot of people really like Spindle's End, and I do think it had a lot to like (how 'bout that worldbuilding)? I also know that it's often shelved as a children's or YA book (although I got it from the adult's section), so faulting it for a lack of complexity is perhaps not fair. But there are so many children's books that are super enjoyable for adults to read that I'm not going to give this one a pass on that account.

Not writing off McKinley entirely - I liked Beauty when I read it in high school! But I think I'll skip ahead a hundred pages in the next thing I read by her, to make sure that abrupt boredom does not ensue. ( )

For as long as I can remember I've said Sleeping Beauty is my favorite fairy tale, and here's the reason why. I can't think of SB without thinking of this book, which is in fact my favorite book of all time. I've read this so many times and each time it's beautiful, magical, haunting, uplifting, and peaceful and romantic.

The every-day realism McKinley mixes with magic is a combination that I love. The characters here (and what wonderful characters they are) are really the heart of the story, and the fact that magic is a part of their world is just a part of the book. The centrality of women and their bravery in almost all of McKinley's books is something I love, but this book especially takes the cake. ( )

As a retelling of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairytale, this book is interesting--it takes the source material and twists it and transforms it, mostly in a wonderful way. The characters were lively and likable. But there was a tone here that bugged me; it was like the book tried to be witty at the reader's expense, and the bits that were obviously supposed to be humorous and witty were just that: obvious. For me, the tone often fell flat. And there were so many unanswered questions, at least for me. I have huge problems with the antagonist's motivation (where was it?) and with much of the ending, in general. This is, unfortunately, a thing that has begun to bug me with this writer's books--by no means do I believe that she has to wrap up every single thread in her endings, but I think that sometimes, she sacrifices reader satisfaction for brevity. I dearly love several of McKinley's books (The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, and Sunshine chief among them), but for me, Spindle's End was not a fun read. ( )