A Locus Award Finalist!
An Amazon Editor's Pick!
A Goodreads Most Anticipated Summer Read!
A SIBA 2023 Southern Book Prize Finalist!
A Paste Magazine Best New Fantasy of 2022!
“A lively, engaging fairy-tale retelling perfect for devouring in a single sitting.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Series fans and lovers of fractured fairy tales will find plenty to hold their attention.” —Publishers Weekly
“Readers who love stories that twist narratives into knots will fall for Harrow’s fractured fairy tale” —Library Journal
“Zinnia is a wonderfully unique figure in the long tradition of bibliofantasy: a reluctant heroine whose superpower doesn’t derive from spindles or mirrors, but from skillfully deconstructing the very stories she’s in.” —Locus
Praise for A Spindle Splintered
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
“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
2022-04-27
A woman who specializes in helping fairy-tale princesses is kidnapped by a villain who wants her own happy ending.
Zinnia Gray has a very special skill: She can travel through portals to different versions of “Sleeping Beauty.” A former Sleeping Beauty herself, Zinnia uses this ability to help other princesses reach their own happily-ever-afters. But one day she looks into a mirror and sees not her own reflection, but an evil queen on the other side. The queen reaches out of the mirror and pulls Zinnia through. Suddenly, Zinnia isn’t in the Sleeping Beauty–verse anymore; she’s in the world of “Snow White,” and the infamous evil queen wants her help escaping the grisly end promised to all fairy-tale villains. This short novel, the sequel to Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered (2021), makes efficient use of its limited word count, wasting no time before immersing the reader in Zinnia’s many fairy-tale worlds. Zinnia and the evil queen have wonderful chemistry, and Harrow guides both characters through compelling arcs as they consider what it means to be the protagonist of your own story. Zinnia’s snappy, pop-culture– heavy dialogue can sometimes come across a bit smarmy, but it suits the genre well.
A lively, engaging fairy-tale retelling perfect for devouring in a single sitting.