Alix E. Harrow proves to me in 100 pages she has a masterclass in the art of doing a great deal with very little. A Spindle Splintered is a entertaining and frequently tense portal fantasy adventure, one full of oddball characters and offbeat diversions that made each trek through the world of Sleeping Beauty feel unique and totally worthwhile. Harrow has done a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of this childhood nostalgic story while giving us a massive toolbox of modern elements. A main character with an incurable illness, gay princesses, and cleft chin princes who don't do any of the saving.
Full review to come in an upcoming YouTube video.

A quick but incredible and magical read. I love Harrow's writing and really enjoyed it in a short story format.

Full of badass female characters and a wholesome retelling of a classic fairytale. If you want a quick, but engaging read, this is the book for you!

This was a cute story! Harrow took the Sleeping Beauty story and turned it on its head...and then sent it down a waterfall until it landed right side up again. Very sweet and unexpected version of a classic story.

A Spindle Splintered is a fun, lighthearted novella that is a nice twist to Sleeping Beauty. While I am used to the more darker approach to modern retellings, Spindle Splintered was a lighter and more enjoyable retelling of a classic story. Zinnia and Primrose were interesting and delightful interpretations of Sleeping Beauty. Different yet the same. both tragic yet reclaiming their stories and lives. I enjoyed this novella.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Maybe the universe doesn’t naturally bend towards justice, either; maybe it’s only the weight of hands and hearts pulling it true, inch by stubborn inch.”

When I read the blurb and comps for A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow, I was enthusiastic as all get out about the premise but skeptical about the execution. To make a long story short: I needn’t have been. Harrow delivers a satisfying, robust, feminist, queer reimagining of Sleeping Beauty in this novella with an Into the Spiderverse multiverse flavour.

There’s so much to love about this novella I hardly know where to start. Protagonist Zinnia Gray’s voice shines in a much different way than Harrow’s previous books; the informal tone and irreverent humor somehow adds to rather than detracts from the emotional gravity of the story. The relationships in the book, particularly the one between Charm and Zinnia, are three-dimensional and compelling. And of course, the moral of the story—because every fairy tale has to have one, right?—hits home in all the right places, a testament to the resilience of those who rail against their unjust fates.

Saying too much more would spoil the experience, I think, but if you like clever reimaginings full of heart and feeling, with healthy doses of nerdy folkroricism and meme references heaping on the side, please be sure to check out A Spindle Splintered.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Nothing is as perfect as the author's own pitch of 'Sleeping Beauty Spider-verse'. On her twenty-first birthday, Zinnia Gray faces her own mortality as well as the ironic often cruel similarities to the infamous fairy tale. But when Zinnia encounters her spinning wheel, she is instead whisked away to the traditional setting, meets the traditional beauty and together decide to challenge their inevitable fates.

Harrow delightfully weaves together the familiar fairy tale beneath a queer feminist lens and a dash of old school meme humor. A quick novella, this book holds plenty of heart. Fans who delight in fairy tales and the darker origins thereof will be wonderfully pleased and are sure to find a new favorite in "A Spindle Splintered".

It wasn't a good sign when the first paragraph of this novella made me disagree with the narrator. Leave Ariel alone. She always loved the human world before she met Erik. He was just a catalyst for her doing something rash to get there. Plus, she wagered her voice that he could fall in love with her. It wasn't supposed to be permanent. Also, it's pretty ableist to assume a mute person isn't lovable. Side note, if you're trying to show how woke you are, don't use Jezebel to prove it. Jezebel is full of authors trying to create outrage by overreacting.

Anyway, this story is very meta to the point where the setting felt flat. Harrow seems to want to use references in place of creating a feel for everything. The main character is supposedly dying, as in dead in a couple of weeks, yet she never acts ill. She goes along with Sleeping Beauty in hopes that she can be cured, but I'm being told that Zinnia's body is dying instead of being shown how this made-up disease has made her bodily feel. Telling me that she has modules in her lungs means nothing to me. Demonstrating how that wears her down would make her need for the cure more pressing.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

As expected, this was phenomenal. I’d read a menu if Harrow wrote it. Her storytelling is amazing and always keeps the reader fully invested in the story.

I’m always up for a good fairy tale retelling, especially one written by Alix E Harrow. This is a novella-length reworking of Sleeping Beauty featuring a woman with a genetic disease counting down the days until her death. She becomes consumed by the myth of Sleeping Beauty as a child and goes on to research all the different ways the story has changed and evolved over the years.

Despite having the best of best friends and loving parents, she feels smothered and over-protected at times. Almost like in their quest to find a cure, they’ve forgotten to just let Zinnia live. But after spending her 21st birthday with her BFF Charm in a forgotten tower she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and ends up in another realm, with a real sleeping beauty, desperate to escape her own fate.

A Spindle Splintered was a wonderful surprise. This feminist retelling is short on page length, but a satisfying read nonetheless. Introducing some truly unforgettable characters and spanning multiple worlds. It sets the original version on its head, changing the narrative of the “villain” and lending its heroines agency to fight for their independence and change their future. There is even a sweet romance that made my heart happy.

Rating: 5/5 Chronically ill heroines

Format: ebook. I’d like to thank the author and Tor-Forge for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

To sum up:
Zinnia Gray isn’t supposed to live past the age of 21. She is doomed to soon sleep forever. Except that she gets pulled into a fairytale version of Sleeping Beauty where she isn’t the only girl cursed to sleep. This is a contemporary and wildly fun reimagining of Sleeping Beauty where the MC has a chronic/fatal illness. It’s about cursed girls and finding strength amongst impossible odds and sisterhood!

What I enjoyed:
THIS BOOK MADE ME SO HAPPY! I have loved everything that Alix Harrow writes and I could have gladly read 500 more pages of this delightful novella! The writing is lyrical while also having sharp-tongued dialog and lots of sass. It made me see the tale of Sleeping Beauty in a whole new way, turning the tropes we are familiar with, a full 180. This made me laugh, it made me cry, and it felt like Harrow was reaching into my heart to give me exactly what I needed from this retelling. I can’t even put into words all the great things about this so let’s sum up with a list.

Reasons to read this book:
✨ Alix Harrow. Harrow is one of my favorite authors so you bet this book jumped the line on my arc tbr! I love her writing so much!
✨ A contemporary Sleeping Beauty retelling like you've never heard it before
✨ The sass and pop-culture references!
✨ The casual queerness and friendship between the MC and her bff!
✨ The chronic illness rep! As someone with a chronic illness, the way Harrow layered this into the retelling was absolutely superb and made me want to cry with the relatability!♥️😭

Overall, this was an absolute delight. My only criticism is that it wasn’t long enough, but seriously it was actually the perfect length so I can’t even complain about that lol!

Thanks to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a really enjoyable novella based on Sleeping Beauty. It falls somewhere between YA and adult. In the author's words, "This is basically PG-13 except for the swearing. There's no explicit sex and no real bloodshed, although there are off-screen references to sexual assault, and a lot of discussion of a (fictional) terminal illness." Although this was my first time reading this author, it won't be the last!

This was such an innovative way of reimagining a fairytale! Loved how intriguing the plot was despite the familiarity, and was super engaged with the characters as well!

A Spindle Splintered is the third book I’ve read by Alix Harrow. While I found this to be an interesting, modern take on the Sleeping Beauty tale, I found the story and writing to not be on par with Harrow’s previous works. The character development was a bit lacking which could be due to the short length of the story. I didn’t find myself rooting for Zinnia as I had for the three sisters of The Once and Future Witches or January from The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This story served as an entraining quick read but it wasn’t my favorite story by Harrow.

This is such a wonderful re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty through the multiverse. I loved the modern commentary on the fairy tale and the brilliance of adding multiple layers to the story. This is a great way for readers to enjoy the fairy tale while helping them think critically about the story.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Rep: terminal illness rep (the one in the book is fictional, but the type of illness could be real)

TW: society in which LGBTQ+ characters (in this instance Lesbians) have to be closeted

I went into this book knowing that it was some kind of Sleep Beauty retelling and that’s it. I would say this is more a modern reimagining which takes a Fairytale, makes it real and expands upon it. Quite frankly, I am starting to have a new appreciation for standalone novellas because the amount of plot, character development, conflict and resolution packed into this story astounds me.

We follow Zinnia, Zin for short who lives in Roseville with her overbearing parents, her best friend Charmaine, Charm, and has just had her twenty-first birthday. People who suffer from Generalized Roseville Malady, her terminal illness, usually do not make it to their twenty-second birthday, so as you can imagine the emotional turmoil she was going through. Without saying too much, Zin is transported and she comes to gain a better understanding and appreciation for her story and her path.

I like how Harrow gave us things we know and love about Sleep Beauty but also played around with the different renditions and added in her own spin to the legend. There was a point at the end where I thought this book would become a cliche and follow a particular trope that I thought would be harmful and offensive. However, it didn't happen and I was grateful for the way the story panned out. Endings leave me unsatisfied more times than not, but this was an ending that felt authentic to the story without changing anything too drastically.

My e-galley did not have the illustrations, so I am looking forward to getting my hands on a finished copy to fully appreciate all the beautiful illustrations scattered throughout the story. If you’re a fan of fairy tales, female empowerment, and owning one’s fate I think this would be a great, quick read for you.

Alix E. Harrow definitely hit the mark when she described this story as a "Spider-versed 'Sleeping Beauty.'" (I would also argue this shares DNA with Disney's Enchanted, probably one of my favorite movies and a brilliant deconstruction of the Hollywood-style fairy tale.) And yet, A Spindle Splintered is less of a retelling or reimagining of a classic fairy tale than it is a commentary on the power of fairy tales and how we connect to them as individuals. What draws us to certain fairy tales more than others? How many versions of these archetypal stories exist out there in the universe(s)? Well, as many as there are people to tell them.

It's Zinnia Gray's 21st birthday and she is facing her own version of Sleeping Beauty's curse, only without the promise of a princely kiss to save her. Through a magical mishap at her (likely last) birthday party, she finds herself dragged from the real world into a traditional, Disney-esque version of "Sleeping Beauty," only to discover the many layers the story has hidden beneath its glossy, slightly anachronistic surface. What if the fairy's "curse" were actually a blessing? Sometimes, it seems, sleeping for a hundred years certainly beats the paltry options available to the Auroras, Briar Roses, and Talias of the world.

Zinnia, as a narrator, is very much a girl of the 21st century (memes and all) and her voice is superbly dry and cynical, but with a deep well of sadness and sincerity constantly sitting just below the surface. What sells the story best is not the fairy tale conceit but Zinnia and her conflicting desires to both succumb to and fight against her situation. While the story overall is lighthearted, there is a tonal balancing act Harrow pulls off that can be difficult to do well; generally, incurable diseases are incompatible with this kind of portal fantasy adventure. But pull it off she does, with a strong push-pull between reality and fantasy, between gallows humor and genuine heart. In the end, Zinnia—and the reader—comes to a deeper and more complicated understanding of the meaning of curses and happily ever afters.

I loved this! It's actually my first Alix Harrow, and a novella - a bit non-traditional - but oh how I loved it! I love retellings, and Alix nailed this one. It was so creative and different from any Sleeping Beauty retelling I've read. I really enjoyed this, and I highly recommend it to beef up your summer reading!

I'm a big fan of Ms. Harrow and she did not disappoint with this Sleeping Beauty retelling. It was definitely a very different take on the sad old story and I loved all her heroines! The romance is minimal and as usual she is very inclusive.

The kids are gonna love it.

Here I thought I was tired of fairy tale retellings, but A Spindle Splintered is smart, sharp, and still satisfying for fairy tale lovers. Zinnia Gray turns 21 with a congenital medical condition that makes it unlikely she'll ever turn 22. When a friend sets up an abandoned tower to resemble her favorite fairy tale, it triggers... something that will change her life, and connect her to all the versions of this tale in the past. This story was such a delight to read and one with great crossover appeal for the teens in my library, who are always looking for stories with less romance and more adventure. What a treat.

Trust Alix E Harrow to weave magic everytime!
In this feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Zinnia Gray,the girl with an incurable, terminal illness
fights her way to save Princess Primrose, aka Sleeping Beauty!
A fantastically bound novella with wit and sarcasm at it's heart and ofcourse boundless imagery and an organic story
that E.Harrow is known for!