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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)
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Horrow is a great novella for fans of a fairytale reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. Zinnia Gray has a rare illness that doctors don’t know much about, except that others with the same illness have not lived past age 21. For Zinnia’s 21st birthday, her best friend, Charm, plans a special celebration for Zinnia with a complete sleeping beauty experience. The birthday party takes place in a tower with a spinning wheel. Zinnia pricks her finger on the spinning wheel and she finds herself in another world with a young woman hopeful to change the course of her destiny.
Alix takes a historic fairytale and turns it into a modern telling of the story. Zinnia pulls at my heart strings; to be such a young woman fighting a rare illness that has her, and her parents, feeling like death is constantly at her back door is agonizing. Her best friend, Charm, is an amazing friend determined to save Zinnia’s life by solving the mystery of her illness. The conclusion of the story was terrific. A satisfying, yet unexpected ending, with a beautiful revelation. I love seeing characters grow.
The hardcover edition of this book is a work of art. There are beautiful black and white images throughout the pages.
I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below. A Book And A Dog( )
A Spindle Shattered is a fantastic feminist re-telling of the "Sleeping Beauty" fable. Beautifully written and brimming with pop-culture references, a thing I love, this was a fantastic read. I was absolutely captivated by Zinnia, narrator and protagonist, her strength, her inventiveness, her bravery, and by her best friend Charm and her fierce loyalty and protectiveness. Strong women taking back the narrative and writing their own scripts, in a fairy-tale setting. What's not to like? ( )
Zinnia Gray is terminally ill and just turned 21 when she finds herself in the castle of a real Sleeping Beauty. The story is one part The Fault in our Stars and one part Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle. I loved the author's other books, but by its very nature this slip of a novel doesn’t give the reader enough time to feel too attached. ( )
Ultimately, I found this story disappointing. Having read Alix Harrow's Starling House, I was expecting to love her fractured fairytales. I only finished it because it was so short, and because the story itself really was interesting. I struggled through it, though, because I struggled to relate to the characters. I also felt like at times it was trying to hard to push an agenda, which usually turns me off. Maybe if I had read this first, I would have enjoyed it more, not having such high standards. ( )
For everyone who deserves a better story than the one they have.
First words
Sleeping beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it.
Quotations
I wish briefly but passionately that I'd been zapped into a different storyline, maybe one of those '90s girl power fairy tale retellings with a rebellious princess who wears trousers and hates sewing. (I know they promoted a reductive vision of women's agency that privileged traditionally male-coded forms of power, but let's not preten that girls with swords don't get shit done.)
Last words
This time, when I press my finger to the end of a splintered spindle, I'm smiling.
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.
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