This is a wonderful novella--a "fractured" re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story with a modern day twist. I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed this book, because I'm definitely not much into this genre, but Harrow gives the perfect feminist, lesbian-affirming twist to the tale.

Zinnia Gray is turning 21, and knows she's living on borrowed time. Afflicted with a disease that causes protein deposits to build up in her organs, she knows her life is short. Her lifelong obsession with all Sleeping Beauty-related stories spurs her best friend Charmaine to organize an epic Sleeping Beauty themed 21st birthday party in "the highest tower in the land" (the guard tower of a defunct penitentiary), complete with a spinning wheel on which Zin pricks her finger. Zin is transported to another dimension, a fairy-tale world with a perfect princess, Primrose, whom Zin knows she needs to save because she knows what's ahead for Primrose. But the events that follow aren't like any fairy tale Zin has ever read, and who knows what might happen to provide a happily ever after?

This tale is fast-paced and creatively told. I was rooting for the best outcome for all involved, and Harrow delivered that for me. There's a great deal of sarcastic humor throughout and I'm all for that! There are surprises around every corner, and I just loved the directions and twists the author took in her writing of this tale. The characters are unique and fun, and the dual timelines? dimensions? are also totally unexpected and fun.

I listened to this as an audiobook and Amy Landon's narration is fantastic. She provides the perfect voice for Zin and I believe helped me to be even more invested in the story than if I had read it on the page.

This is the first book in the Fractured Fables series, and I can't wait to see what happens to Zin and the crew in the next installment.

I didn't like the tone this book struck between YA and adult; it feels like it's trying to be everything for everyone, and this does the story a disservice. I liked Zinnia and the overarching plot, but the voice was all over the place.

An intriguing Fairytale retelling; a queer feminist multiverse Sleeping Beauty retelling that will completely captivate you!

Alix E Harrow is a master with her penmanship, world building, diverse character development and storytelling imagination. Loved this tale with all my heart.

The premise was unique and enthralling. Zinnia’s narrative style was brilliant: the way she saw her own life; her desire to choose her own fate and write her own story. I also adored her friendship with Charm and Primrose. The story evolved with a mesmerising precision- absolutely flawless! There were many moments I felt tearful; equally many moments I laughed.

It’s a truly fascinating and inspiring wake up call for all us sleeping beauties out there!
I also enjoyed the subversive elements of this genius story.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this wonderful e-arc

I adored this book. I thought the chronic illness rep was particularly clever, and I appreciated the fresh take on sleeping beauty. However, readers should be warned that this is not a full length novel. It’s a novella.

Alix Harrow could rewrite the phone book and I'd buy a zillion copies. This was such a sweet fractured fairy tale filled with a great plot twist and excellent characters. I'm eagerly looking forward to the sequel.

This smart, snarky update on Sleeping Beauty was a delight, one I can't wait to suggest to teen readers and adults.

A Spindle Splintered is a charming tale that requires a total suspension of reality, but that is what makes it beautiful and empowering and had me cheering for women everywhere to stand up for themselves and break free from their cursed chains of oppression and outdated gender roles. I just wish the book was longer.

This was a delightful and surprising retelling of Sleeping Beauty, in a compact novella format. Feminist, funny, heartfelt, and original - I absolutely love Harrow’s work and will read anything and everything she writes!

The start was kind of rough for me and I almost didn't keep going. I'm glad I did. It was an interesting retelling and kind of different from what I have read in the way of retellings. Everyone should have a friend like Charm. She was hands down my favorite character!

I often talk about diverse reading or reading outside my comfort zone, but it’s usually about heavy novels on difficult topics (like last week’s We Are Not Like Them), but how about FUN reading that falls in genres you don’t normally read? Such as fantasy or more specifically, fairy tales. We all know about Sleeping Beauty, but what if she were a young woman about to turn 21 who was going to fall asleep forever due to a rare disease rather than a witch’s curse? That’s the premise in Alix Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered, a marvelously creative reconstruction of a tale that was fine for its time, but could use some freshening up.

Zinnia Gray’s genes were compromised by corporate negligence involving chemical waste. No one with her disease has lived past the age of 21 so she’s rushed to get as much life in before time runs out. Her circumstances have fed her fascination with women dying young in folklore which led to her major in college and graduating two years early. For her 21st birthday her best friend Charm throws her a party in a deserted tower with an antique spinning wheel to mimic the Sleeping Beauty tale. After too many drinks, Zinnia jokingly pricks her finger on its spindle. All hell breaks loose as Zinnia slides out of this world and into one that’s both familiar and unreal.

A world where the real princess from the fairy tale lives. Zinnia saves her from her fate only to realize that maybe it wasn’t a curse. That maybe the alternatives for Princess Primrose’s life were not so great either. This is just the first step A Spindle Splintered takes in dissecting and ultimately dismantling the Sleeping Beauty myth. Harrow bridges the alternative fabled world with today’s magic wand—the smart phone. Despite being in a different reality Zinnia is able to text her brilliant friend Charm to help her out, but the battery and her options are dwindling.

This might sound juvenile or for younger readers, but while it’s not literary fiction A Spindle Splintered is ageless in its themes. Depending on how old you are it will feel familiar. I grew up reading fairy tales that were variations on the same premise: Young women cursed by (older) witches and only a man could save them. What’s wrong with that? Actually, what’s right about that?

I’m not going to jump on a soapbox about the problematic themes in historical European Folk Tales nor is Harrow. This is fun, empowering reading, imaginatively written, and at less than 150 pages not a major time commitment. Even better, A Spindle Splintered is the first book in Harrow’s new series, Fractured Fables. If you want to relax and read an alternative to the traditional tales we knew as children then this is a wonderful choice.

Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered, a feminist extrapolation of Sleeping Beauty, is the first in her Fractured Fables series - and it's an impressive opening!

In rural Ohio, Zinnia Gray, who suffers 'fatal teratogenic damage caused by corporate malfeasance' and is doomed to die young, has been obsessed with Sleeping Beauty since childhood.

Through inter-dimensional travel, she meets - and helps - other Sleeping Beauties 'who deserve better stories than the ones they were given.'

Her next text is an image of a PowerPoint slide titled, So You Fucked up and Got Lost in the Multiverse.

Zinnia Grey is twenty-one, and she’s got a year left to live…if she’s lucky. She’s always known her time is short thanks to localized industrial contamination that left her with a rare condition, and because of it, she’s always felt strangely akin to Sleeping Beauty. When her best friend Charm throws her a fully themed Sleeping Beauty party, Zinnia is having a blast—until she is literally blasted into another world, with a girl just as fated as herself. Zinnia can’t solve her own problems, but fuck it if she won’t let someone else die from their fate.

I consider trying to explain that my world doesn’t have curses or fairies. That my fate was determined by lax environmental regulation and soulless energy executives and plain old bad luck.

Okay, this was delightful.

I’ve found Harrow’s writing style to be dense and falling more onto the beauty of its prose than the strength of the story, but this novella prunes the prose just a touch and falls deep into the storyline of a multiverse-like Sleeping Beauty.

Zinnia’s voice shines through, the chronic illness storyline is well handled, and the aftermath of corporate pollution is done quite well—and I adored how Harrow twisted and turned various version of Sleeping Beauty and made shit queer as hell. And fuck, you should all know how much I adore characters who express emotions through weird PowerPoint slide titles.

And Zinnia is a fantastic bi heroine. Yes! Bi!!!

I cannot wait for the second book in the series. Finally, my favorite line in the series (out of context it’s not a spoiler):

“Well, Harold,” I say gently. “They’re lesbians.”

Trigger Warning: chronic illness

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

Zinnia knows her 21st birthday will likely be her last. She has the “Sleeping Beauty Condition” – a nickname for the genetic disorder that’s affected dozens of children from her hometown. Zinnia is the only one left and aware she doesn’t have much longer. Until a prick on her fingertip the night she turns 21 sweeps her into another sleeping beauty’s tale – and Zinnia is suddenly a guest in someone else’s story. Both girls desperately want to rewrite their own endings and their unlikely team-up might be the key to just that.

What started out seeming like a fluff read quickly turned into something deeper and far more thoughtful than anything I could have expected. An overabundance of name brand drops and references that could only be understood by someone in the present day is followed shortly by a trip to an alternate universe that resembles the Middle Ages – but with magic. A fierce feminist retelling that turns into retellings, plural, and received with plenty of enthusiasm and fanfare.

Zinnia’s battle with her body and her impending demise cause her to use comedy and self-deprecation as a foil, language that the sleeping beauty she meets can barely decipher. The two inevitably bond over their similarities and teach each other that perhaps their own fate isn’t the worst thing after all – there is always a story with a worse ending. But that doesn’t prevent them from attempting to change their tales.

With a keen eye, deep observations, and thoughtful contemplation, this story takes all expectations and tosses them right out the window. More of a novella than a novel – it’s only 128 pages in its hardcover form – I can promise you’ll be left wanting more. A good thing there’s a sequel coming next year then! I for one can’t wait to revisit Zinnia and see where else her adventures take her – and whose fairytale she might crash into next.

Trigger warning: blood, genetic disorder, terminal illness, mention of sexual assault.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

There are many versions of fairy tales that exist around the world. From the dark and horrific early versions, to the morality tales of the Brothers Grimm. They all culminate in the sanitized and kid-friendly Disney versions. How many ways can an old story be told? How many times can it be told before the characters become unrecognizable? These are the questions that author Alix E Harrow tackles in her new novella A Spindle Splintered. 

The story starts off with a dying girl, whose body is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Zinnia Gray has been obsessed with the story of Sleeping Beauty from a young age. She can see herself reflected in the text, a young woman whose agency and choices have been taken from her. She is living under a curse, only one that will end her life instead of sending her into an enchanted slumber. With a projected lifespan of only 21 years, Zinnia finds herself celebrating what may be her final birthday atop an old tower. Her best friend Charm has made it all Sleeping Beauty themed, complete with a spinning wheel.

When Zinnia pricks her finger on the spindle of the wheel, she does not expect to be thrown headfirst into the fairytale. But soon she finds herself in a medieval fantasy land, facing down a princess named Primrose. The princess is living the standard Sleeping Beauty story. Cursed from birth to prick her finger and fall into an enchanted slumber. Only Zinnia's arrival stopped her from touching the spindle. And now her fate may be even worse - she may actually have to marry her betrothed. And Prince Charming he is not. 

Together Zinnia and Primrose set off on a journey to find the fairy who originally cursed her. Zinnia hopes that the magic of this land might be powerful enough to cure her biological curse. But what they discover is not what they expect. And soon they must make a decision that will affect all the princesses of all the Sleeping Beauty stories told across the ages. 

A Spindle Splintered is the first of Harrow's Fractured Fairytale series, and it establishes the world(s) and characters nicely. Zinnia draws from her knowledge of fairytales and folklore to seek solutions to what seem like impossible problems. She is a bold and gutsy heroine, but one that is coping with her own fear of mortality.  She runs from romance, determined never to break anyone else's heart. It seems as though she has spent much of her life avoiding dealing with the reality of her illness. And now with death looming, she is desperate to escape her fate. This is not unlike the character of Primrose, who has spent her life under a curse. She also seeks to run from her fate, and together the two of them are parallels of the idea of the cursed Beauty. 

Harrow updates the story for the modern era. Primrose is no damsel in distress, despite initial appearances. And Harrow plays with the idea of her "Prince Charming" actually being a woman. Zinnia is painfully aware of the many sexist undertones of her beloved fairytale. Sleeping Beauty is a story about women cursing one another for perceived slights. It is a story about sleeping through your life, and being "awoken" by true love.

In all of these stories there is a "happily ever after" where the a man rescues the Princess, despite the questions of consent surrounding men kissing sleeping women. But rarely do these stories delve into the interior lives of the women involved. But Harrow does that extremely well, although Primrose is not the POV character. Both Zinnia, Primrose, and Charm come to life on the page. They get an astonishing amount of characterization for such a short novel. Even the fairy gets a chance to tell her side of the story. In this fractured fairytale, the women's stories are finally t0ld.

Of course author Alix E Harrow has some experience with this format. She gave voices to a trio of sister witches in The Once And Future Witches - my favorite novel of 2020. In both of these stories, Harrow subverts common stereotypes and tropes surrounding the type of stories that women tell. And the type of stories women find themselves in. She is gifted at turning the reader's expectations on their head. Fully aware of what is expected from the story and doing the complete opposite. Her female characters are complex, and flawed individuals. Even when they are practicing magic - or living in a fairytale - they are still real humans struggling to find agency over their own lives.

In A Spindle Splintered, Harrow also toys with the idea of 'narrative resonance.' This is the meta aspect of the story. Zinnia's awareness and knowledge of fairytales and folklore inform her every action. She is aware of how many Beauties there are who are sleeping through their lives, all of them different and unique. Much like in The Once And Future Witches there is significant magical power in storytelling. When a story is retold over and over again, it takes on a life of its own and becomes real in a vital way. Zinnia always thought of herself as the character in Sleeping Beauty, and she soon realizes how many others exist across untold and unknown worlds who are in the same boat. How can a dying girl save others from their dire fates? How can she save herself?

A Spindle Splintered is decidedly a feminist fairytale for the modern era. It is lyrical and beautiful like a fairytale should be. But it is also unexpectedly funny and full of heart. This is also the first of a new series that Harrow is working on. She has already announced a sequel A Mirror Mended that delves into the character of the "Evil Queen" from Snow White. Something tells me that Harrow's queen will not be as evil as we think, and I look forward to reading the exploration of another famous fairytale character when A Mirror Mended comes out in June of 2022.

A multiverse of Sleeping Beauties?
Sign me up.
This fantastic story had me staying up way too late powering through and laughing at the wry comments that Zinnia makes as she changes her own narrative and that of people around her.
The best part? This is book one so we can look forward to more of this universe!

I'd not read an Alix E. Harrow book before. I've got several of them on my TBR, but this one spoke to me louder, I suppose, and here we are. And wow, did I love this story. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from it, but whatever I did, my expectations were exceeded. It's a feminist twist on Sleeping Beauty, which the author fully acknowledges as one of the crappiest fairytales.

So you know from the start that it's going to be fabulous. We meet Zinnia, who is such a charming and entertaining main character, full stop. Sure, I could go into more detail I guess, but I can't do her justice so just read the thing for yourself. I promise, you'll love her. She's got a rare and fatal disease from some humans messing up the environment, and she feels like she's on her last legs. But when she's thrown into another universe and it isn't just her fate at risk, she has to take action.

Her best friend Charm is also incredible, and I loved how well developed all the characters are in such a short novella. I also really enjoyed the relationship Zinnia has with her family, and how she has to navigate that with her illness in the mix. The story is great, basically amounting to women reclaiming their agency, with some powerful messages mixed in. And the writing! The writing has such a lovely quality to it- it just feels smart and emotive and clever.

And the best news? There's to be a sequel! I am a million percent here for it, and cannot wait to jump back into whatever world Zinnia ends up in next!

Bottom Line: I was able to care so much about Zinnia, her relationships, and her story in such a short number of pages. A huge win!

I’m not a fan of novella-length work, because it’s not long enough for me to really get into the story and its characters. That said, I’m becoming a big fan of Harrow, having read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Once and Future Witches.

A Spindle Splintered is the first of a series of fairy tale retellings and in this one, Harrow takes on probably the hardest fairy tale to modernize — Sleeping Beauty. Harrow begins by telling readers exactly why Sleeping Beauty is the least feminist of the Grimm stories. It’s about a princess who does absolutely nothing until she’s kissed while unconscious. Very few girls would say Sleeping Beauty is their favorite princess — she has no adventures, she just goes into a coma on her birthday.

But Harrow’ protagonist, Zinnia, has always fantasized about Sleeping Beauty. That’s because she has a disease caused by chemicals in the water and she’s never been expected to live past the age of 21. Her best friend, Charm, throws her a Sleeping Beauty-themed birthday party and suddenly Zinnia is thrust into a parallel universe with a princess, an enchanted spinning wheel, and an evil witch.

I enjoyed Harrow’s magical, dream-like writing. I also have to love an author that references classic Arthur Rackham illustrations.

We ride on – we dying girls, we sorry girls, gallows-bound — until the fairy tale spires of Perceforest Castle rise through the trees, gilded by the setting sun.

I don’t know when I start dreaming, or whether it’s a dream at all. What do you call the vast nothing between the pages of the universe? The whisper-thin nowhere-at-all that waits in the place where one story ends and another begins?

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

It’s hard to retell a story that gives you so little to work with, but Harrow brings Sleeping Beauty’s story to life with originality and humor. It’s fun to see how Beauty’s story might have played out across different universes, and I liked the idea of making your own fate rather than accepting the one you’ve been given.

I particularly appreciated the way Harrow gets into Zinnia’s head, showing the mindset of someone who knows they have limited time. Zinnia has created a lot of rules for herself, like not wasting time and no romance. She also has a complicated relationship with her parents, which I imagine anyone with a serious illness can relate to (guilt for what you’re doing to them, frustration when they’re too protective).

If you love fairy tale retellings, I recommend this one. Otherwise, I’d recommend The Once and Future Witches, which has a lot more depth of character and story.

Note: I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Macmillan-Tor/Forge. This book published October 5, 2021.

Into the Sleeping Beauty-verse. In this short but super fun novella, Sleeping Beauty literally meets...Sleeping Beauty.

I LOVED this!! It's short but packs a punch, telling an emotional story of women determined to change their fates.

It's also the second sapphic Sleeping Beauty adaptation I've read this year? Love that for me.

This is oddly the first book of Alix E. Harrow's I've read but I'm now rushing to read her other ones. I absolutely adored her writing style. So fresh and funny.

Lmao at all the digs at how evil Pfizer is though.

I loved the concept of this, I love retellings. And Sleeping Beauty doesn’t get enough attention.
This was a wholly female centric retelling, which was just perfect. There was no man saving anyone. Nor was there an evil, wicked woman cursing everyone.
I think my favorite part of this story was how it tied Sleeping Beauty to all of the other beloved fairy tales.
I don’t love a tragic heroine and Zinnia gave me “not like other girls” vibes but she was self motivated and not reliant on a man. I think I would have liked her more if this wasn’t a novella.
There wasn’t enough character development, and that was highlighted by the way it was told. It was like drunk girls in a bathroom giving life advice when you don’t even know them. I was like I mean I guess we can be casual buds but like I need to know who you are. I think Primrose suffered the most from the lack of development, with Charm not faring much better. I just wish the story was longer so we could get to know these characters.