Library Journal - Audio
12/01/2021
Harrow (The Once and Future Witches) gives a feminist twist to the classic Sleeping Beauty tale in this inventive and empowering novella, which is the first in a new series of fairy tale retellings. Zinnia Gray's 21st birthday is bittersweet; she has a rare condition that no one has ever lived with past the age of 22. The clock is ticking, and she is torn between wanting to enjoy her own life and comforting her parents. When her best friend throws her a surprise birthday party in an old prison tower complete with warm beer, roses, and an old spindle, Zinnia is touched. She may be too old for her favorite fairy tale, but what's the harm in a little make-believe? When she jokingly pricks her finger on the spindle, she is transported to another time and place where a young girl's clock is running out just like hers. The two girls decide to take their destinies into their own hands and race against the clock and their curses to make better futures for themselves. Amy Landon brilliantly narrates this inspired retelling, making it exciting and magical. VERDICT This quick listen is a great start to a new series that fans of fairy tales and feminist literature will enjoy.—Erin Cataldi, Johnson Cty. P.L., Franklin, IN
DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
Amy Landon's lively narration unites present-day Ohio and Perceforest, a fairy-tale realm, in this immersive reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty universe. On her 21st birthday, Zinnia Gray is transported into a world resembling that of her beloved Sleeping Beauty stories. At the same moment, a princess about to prick her finger on a spindle calls for help. Landon’s characterizations of Zinnia and Princess Primrose illuminate their strengths and vulnerabilities. The story is told through Zinnia's perspective, and listeners absorb her sense of urgency over her chronic illness and Primrose's fate. Landon also creates haughty, slightly British-sounding royal denizens whose tones contrast with those of Zinnia’s parents and stalwart best friend, Charm. A powerful sisterhood anchors this entertaining Fractured Fable production. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/12/2021
Part portal fantasy, part dissertation on Sleeping Beauty adaptations, this overly complicated novella from Harrow (The Once and Future Witches) offers a layered look at how fairy tales serve as mirrors to society. Sleeping Beauty–obsessed Zinnia Gray is dying of Generalized Roseville Malady. She celebrates her last expected birthday by jokingly pricking her finger on a spindle at a fairy tale–themed party thrown by her best friend, Charm Baldwin—and immediately falls through the multiverse into a Disneyesque, “knock-off fairy tale” world. There, she must help Princess Primrose escape the unhappily ever after that’s in store for her, with the help of Charm and a motley assortment of other Sleeping Beauties from alternate versions of the tale. Though intended to be tongue-in-cheek, Primrose’s high fantasy dialogue is cringeworthy at points (“From whence have you come?”), and Harrow devotes more pages to pop culture references—with nods to both classic literature and contemporary memes—than to secondary character development, leaving some of the alternate Sleeping Beauties little more than flat caricatures. Though Harrow’s ambition isn’t realized, the concept is delightful and the queer romance that arises between Charm and Primrose is, well, charming. This deeply researched fairy tale version of Into the Spiderverse is sure to please Harrow’s fans. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
An NPR Best Book of 2021
A Locus Best Book and Editor Favorite of 2021
Shortlisted for the 2022 Hugo Award
A Locus Award Finalist
Shortlisted for the 2022 British Fantasy Award
“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.” —Katherine Arden, bestselling author of the Winternight trilogy
“An exceptional heroine, smart writing, and a winning plot.” —Nancy Pearl
“It's funny, sharp, queer, and deeply loves its source material...This novella pushes against the hopelessness of inevitability; it dares us to believe in sympathetic magic; it tells us we're connected through story. It might dent your heart a little, but it's good fun.” —NPR
“Like Into the Spider-Verse for Disney princesses, A Spindle Splintered is a delightful mash-up featuring Alix E. Harrow’s trademark beautiful prose and whip-smart characters.” —Mike Chen, author of Here and Now and Then
“A wonderfully imaginative, and Queer as hell, tale for those who wish to be the authors of their own stories.” —Kalynn Bayron, author of Cinderella is Dead
“This is a self-aware, empowered riff on Sleeping Beauty that manages to be thrilling, funny, smart, and sweet.” —Sarah Pinsker, Nebula Award-winning author of A Song for a New Day
“Alix Harrow takes traditional fairy tales, turns them inside out, then upside down, and uses them to kick ass. Brava!” —Ellen Klages, Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Green Glass Sea and Passing Strange
“A Spindle Splintered is a princess story gone rogue. At times sweet and funny, at others bitingly acerbic, this whirlwind tour of fairyland jabs at the old happily-ever-afters — and asks whether we might want more than a prince and a palace.”—Kerstin Hall, author of The Border Keeper
“Harrow creates a lush and magical world with well-developed characters who are easy to love and root for.” —School Library Journal, starred review
“Themes of female friendship, female strength, and female independence leave good feels behind, not to mention some laugh-out-loud bits...This fairy tale–superhero movie mashup is pure entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Best-selling author Harrow revives and rejuvenates the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale with a feminist twist in her latest... Harrow uses her excellent skill as a storyteller to give agency back to the passive princess.” —Booklist
“Accompanied by Arthur Rackham's original illustrations, this quick read is a must for fairy-tale readers.” —Buzzfeed, Best Books of October List
Library Journal
10/01/2021
A feminist revision of Sleeping Beauty by Hugo Award winner Harrow (The Once and Future Witches). It opens on Zinnia Gray celebrating her 21st birthday at the top of a ruined tower. She has a terminal illness and doesn't expect to see 22—nor does she expect to prick her finger at the stroke of midnight and find herself swirling through the multiverse of Sleeping Beauties. Zinnia can't save herself from her illness, but she can save Princess Primrose from the curse of an evil fairy and her destiny as a wax doll in a pretty casket. The quest to save Primrose leads to a fairy who is not a fairy, a curse that is not a curse, and a chance for Zinnia and Primrose to save each other in a way that the Brothers Grimm never imagined. VERDICT Sleeping Beauty crashes into the multiverse in Harrow's queer, subversive, explicitly feminist retelling. This story of power, agency, and sisterhood is recommended.—Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA
School Library Journal
★ 12/01/2021
Teen readers will absolutely love this fantastical, feminist, reimagined version of "Sleeping Beauty" starring Zinnia, a white young adult, newly 21, and living on borrowed time. Zinnia has a (fictional) rare genetic disorder that cuts her life short. On her birthday she pricks her finger and is transported into one of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tales. But this Sleeping Beauty, Primrose, is no helpless princess. Quickly, Zinnia bonds with Prim and the two set out to break their own curses. Through the help of a not-so-evil witch and countless Sleeping Beauties from different fairy-tale multiverses, Zinnia learns what it means to save herself and others. Harrow creates a lush and magical world with well-developed characters who are easy to love and root for. Employing the popular technique of multiverses, Harrow is able to give readers a diverse cast of Sleeping Beauties that are anything but passive. Although Zinnia is bisexual, her sexuality is not the focus of the story. Zinnia's best friend, Charm, is a lesbian who begins a romantic relationship with bisexual princess Primrose. VERDICT For fans of Laini Taylor, Leigh Bardugo, and Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle.—Melanie Leivers, Burnsville, MN
DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
Amy Landon's lively narration unites present-day Ohio and Perceforest, a fairy-tale realm, in this immersive reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty universe. On her 21st birthday, Zinnia Gray is transported into a world resembling that of her beloved Sleeping Beauty stories. At the same moment, a princess about to prick her finger on a spindle calls for help. Landon’s characterizations of Zinnia and Princess Primrose illuminate their strengths and vulnerabilities. The story is told through Zinnia's perspective, and listeners absorb her sense of urgency over her chronic illness and Primrose's fate. Landon also creates haughty, slightly British-sounding royal denizens whose tones contrast with those of Zinnia’s parents and stalwart best friend, Charm. A powerful sisterhood anchors this entertaining Fractured Fable production. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-08-18
A modern Sleeping Beauty determined to rewrite her story finds purpose in her life’s curse.
Harrow’s version of the sleeping princess is from Ohio. She’s not actuallySleeping Beauty, but she considers herself a kindred spirit of sorts. “It was my own shitty story made mythic and grand and beautiful. A princess cursed at birth. A sleep that never ends. A dying girl who refused to die." But Zin’s curse is a bit more permanent. She has a disease called Generalized Roseville Malady and no one with it has lived to see the age of 22. Zin has just turned 21, and not even a Sleeping Beauty–themed party thrown by her best friend, Charm, can distract her from impending eternal sleep. That is, until she pricks her finger on the needle of the party-decor spinning wheel and is thrown into a parallel reality with a more standard-model Sleeping Beauty named Primrose. Given that Zin has found herself in a strange place lacking modern medicine, you’d think she’d be quick to get home. But not so—despite pleas from Charm over many texts which are inexplicably still received—because Zin has just found a purpose beyond waiting for her last breath: “I’ve fallen out of my own story and into one that might have a happy ending.” Zin’s arrival in Prim’s world prevented Prim from pricking herself on her spinning wheel, and if her curse can be altered, what about Zin’s? The one-dimensional world of Prim’s Disney-like universe sets the tone for a rather one-dimensional quest to alter fate, but themes of female friendship, female strength, and female independence leave good feels behind, not to mention some laugh-out-loud bits. The short length, brisk pace, and pop-culture references definitely make this young-adult friendly, though anyone who enjoys a sarcastic first-person narrator can take this for a spin.
This fairy tale–superhero movie mashup is pure entertainment.
