I fell hard for Alix E. Harrow’s writing with The Ten Thousand Doors of January. With The Once and Future Witches, she owned my soul with her exquisite writing, complex world-building, and fully realized characters. I haven’t ugly cried over a book the way I did with Witches in a long time.

As a fairy tale lover, especially retellings, I was so excited to learn that her new book was a queer retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

Zinnia’s always known her expiration date; due to a rare medical condition, she expects to die by the time she turns 21. She’s got deep cut fairytale knowledge and a serious love of Disney princesses so when Zinnia’s 21st birthday arrives, her best friend does everything she can to give Zin a fairytale party right down to the tower and spinning wheel.

Magic happens and sends Zin into a multiverse of Sleeping Beauties. She lands in the world of a Beauty who doesn’t want the nap or the prince but is being compelled to follow the traditional storyline. It’s up to Zin to figure out solutions to both their problems before sleep and death claim them.

Alix Harrow has filled the hole in my reader’s soul left by a lack of new Robin McKinley novels and the fairytale anthology of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Her descriptions are lush, magical, and beautiful. She creates well-developed characters that are s easy to fall in love with that I find myself incredibly invested emotionally with no effort on my part. I want Charm to be my BFF and I want to talk fairy tale origins with Zin for hours.

I love the subversion of Sleeping Beauties who aren’t going to passively prick a finger and fall asleep. And if they can’t rescue themselves, they’re willing to risk everything for another Beauty in need. I love that Alix E. Harrow has again brought together a diverse sisterhood who aren’t going to calmly accept their fates.

For fans of Laini Taylor, Leigh Bardugo, and Angela Carter.

What happens if you enter into a multiverse...of sleeping beauties? Zinnia Gray suffers from a sickness that will kill her very soon, and her 21st birthday is the last one she will have. She has always been obsessed with the story of Sleeping Beauty because only dying girls love sleeping beauty. As Zinnia says “ basic girls love Cinderella, goth girls love Snow White.... but dying girls love Sleeping beauty”. On her birthday her best friend Charm gives her the full sleeping beauty treatment, complete with a spinning wheel... but once Zinnia pricks her finger on the needle she finds herself falling into a world.... with another sleeping beauty and this one in desperate need of saving as she wants to escape her fate. Now Zinnia must team up with Primrose (This world’s sleeping beauty) in order to help her escape her curse and maybe in turn, break her own curse. This was such an interesting take on the Sleeping Beauty story and really delves into the fairytale, both the good and the bad. I enjoyed Zinnia as a protagonist and the story was so intriguing.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

"Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it. It's aimless and amoral and chauvinist as shit. It's the fairy tale that feminist scholars cite when they want to talk about women's passivity in historical narratives. Even among the other nerds who majored in folklore, Sleeping Beauty is nobody's favorite. Romantic girls like Beauty and the Beast; vanilla girls like Cinderella; goth girls like Snow White. Only dying girls like Sleeping Beauty."

Zinnia Gray has always known Sleeping Beauty has its problems, even before she read about the medieval version Zelladine (don't Google that one, you don't want to know). She also knows that Sleeping Beauty is the one story where a girl like her manages to turn things around and get a happy ending. Of course Zinnia loves Sleeping Beauty.

After years of moving fast and trying to pretend her clock isn't running out thanks to the rare Generalized Roseville Malady taht causes protein to build up in all the places it shouldn't be in her organs, Zinnia knows she's almost out of time. She rushed through high school, a degree in folklore at the local college, and she tried to rush away from her parents' stifling efforts to save her.

Now Zinnia is here at her twenty-first birthday. She knows no one else with GRM has lived to see twenty-two. She knows true love's kiss isn't going to save her because she never gave herself permission to fall in love. That doesn't stop her best friend Charmaine "Charm" Baldwin from loving Zinnia fiercely and giving her the exact kind of Sleeping Beauty themed birthday party she'd want for her last one.

The party is about what you'd expect: Whimsical and ironic until it turns maudlin and sad. Until things go sideways when Zinnia pricks herself on a spindle (she has to try it, okay?) and finds herself in another version of Sleeping Beauty with another dying girl trying to dodge her supposed happy ending--one that Zinnia might actually be able to save--in A Spindle Splintered (2021) by Alix E. Harrow.

A Spindle Splintered is a standalone novella inspired by Harrow's desire to "spiderverse" a fairytale. The story includes silhouette illustrations by Arthur Rackham that, as the copyright page notes, "were unaviodably harmed, fractures, and splintered during the design process." These illustrations add an eerie note to the physical book while hinting at the darker origins behind many fairy tales that have become sanitized over time.

Zinnia's narration is sharp-witted and often bitter--fitting for a character who knows she's almost out of time--while her unshakeable friendship with Charm provides a grounding force throughout the fast-paced story. On the other side of the portal (or whatever it is that transports her, Zinnia was never big on science) she meets another dying girl. Primrose is the epitome of a fairy tale princess. Except that after she's saved from her own hundred year sleep, she has no desire to marry her rescuer, Prince Harold, or any other man for that matter.

Part portal fantasy, part retelling, A Spindle Splintered offers a new interpretation of Sleeping Beauty both for Zinnia and the girl she meets after that fateful spindle prick. Recommended for readers looking for a no nonsense protagonists and a decidedly modern take on a classic fairy tale.

Possible Pairings: Sleepless by Cyn Balog, Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust, Stain by A. G. Howard, Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay, Ash by Malinda Lo, A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan, Into the Spider-Verse

This was SO fast-paced and interesting. I honestly very rarely read novellas, unless they are set within an existing series, but the premise of this one was interesting enough that I requested the e-arc.

I am also surprised that I didn't know where the plot was going, considering it's a retelling of a very well known fairy tale.

Overall, the characters were so easy to root for and the combination of magical realism (kind of) and 'urban fantasy' was SO compelling.

Harrow's re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty is amazing. She combines folk tale history with the feminist future I want to see. Loved it! great for fans of Naomi Novik.

A reimagining of Sleeping Beauty! Yes, please!
It is Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday and probably her last. She suffers from a rare condition that no one has survived past this age. Her friend Charm has arranged a Sleeping Beauty-themed party in the tower of an abandoned penitentiary. When Zinnia pricks her finger on a spinning wheel, she wakes up in a different when. She meets Primrose, a princess destined to marry a prince she doesn't love. They both find a way to take back control of their lives, and I loved these two characters.
It isn't a long book(128 pages) but we do meet other princesses who are all suffering. These were all unique characters, and I thought the author's dedication was perfect,” for everyone who deserves a better story than the one they have”.
For such a short book, it covered a lot of topics and well. Diversity, male power and privilege, friendship, empowerment, and hope.

Take the Sleeping Beauty story and combine it with the multiverse and you have Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered. Zinnia Gray has always known she was a sleeping beauty. Cursed from birth with a rare disease from an industrial accident, she's destined to die by her twenty-first birthday. But when her best friend Charm throws her one last birthday party, in a tower filled with roses and a spinning wheel, Zinnia is falls into another world and encounters another sleeping beauty named Primrose. It's a race against time to see if Zinnia can help Primrose change her fate, and maybe alter her own in the process.

This was an inventive book filled with humor and adventure. I liked Harrow's different takes on the Sleeping Beauty tale, although at 128 pages, I think the story would have benefitted from having more room to grow into. With a longer book, Harrow could have expanded on her characters and the roles they are given, and dove deeper into the multiverse, which ended up as a very narrow slice of the story. Nevertheless, this was a fun read. Those who like fairy tales and unconventional heroines will enjoy this book!

"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."

Sleeping Beauty, the worst and least feminist of fairy tales, gets a modern, multiversed, feminist AF update in a sharp-as-a-spindle little novella that reads a bit like a prequel. (It's the first of a new Fractured Fables series that I now have very high hopes for).

Zinnia Gray is celebrating her twenty-first, and probably her last, birthday. She's not exactly okay with that, but she's managing, thanks. She's had this fatal illness for years and has put aside her childish hopes of escaping its curse to reach twenty-two. Still, she's secretly happy to indulge in the Sleeping Beauty-themed surprise party her best friend is throwing for her. She used to be obsessed with Sleeping Beauty — in a way that only dying girls could be. Maybe she still is. Why else would she press her finger to the sharp spindle of the party-prop spinning wheel, drawing blood and a path into another Sleeping Beauty's tale? She can't have her happily-ever-after, but maybe she can find a better once-upon-a-time...

"I don't know about the moral arc of the universe, but our arcs sure as hell don't bend toward justice. Unless we change them. Unless we grab our narratives by the ear and drag them kicking and screaming toward better endings. Maybe the universe doesn't naturally bend toward justice, either; maybe it's only the weight of hands and hearts pulling it true, inch by stubborn inch."

I love Alix E. Harrow's writing. This feels like a strikingly new voice for her, but with the familiar undertones of strength, lyricism, thoughtfulness, subversion. And plenty of meta, literature-nerd catnip. If it didn't have that sort of prequel feel to it, I'd definitely give it 5 stars. And if it turns out to be the start of an awesome series so the prequel feel makes all kinds of sense, I'll definitely revise my 4-star rating.

Topics, tropes and themes:
chronic illness, mortality, parent-child relationship, friendship, feminism, arts and science, metaphysics, metanarratives, fairy tales, folk lore, coming of age, adolescent development, self-determination, community, activism, mental health, magic, story-telling, meta literature nerd references, pop culture,
Content notes:
fatal chronic illness, vague references to sexual assault and abortion, self-inflected minor wounds and bleeding, talk of teenage runaway plans, fainting, organ failure, hospital scene, strong language

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow.

A re-envisioning of fairy tales and the power of story and the power of friendship and love.  This is a short, almost novella length work which picks up Sleeping Beauty and shakes it into a million versions over an equal number of realities. The dying heroine, Zinnia Gray, has a folklore degree and a best friend named Charmaine Baldwin (alias Charm) who has dedicated herself to the study of Generalized Roseville Malady, Zinnia's disease, and to shaking up Zinnia's short doomed life. After her twenty-first birthday dinner, Zinnia and Charm meet in the tower in the old ruined penitentiary where Charm has thrown Zinnia a Sleeping Beauty themed keg party, complete with spinning wheel.

The writing is so bright and youthful and true. When asked what she will be doing in the fall, Zinnia answers, "You know, just playing out the clock."  Later, when they are alone, Charm tells her to "Just prick your finger already!"  And Zinnia does, and this creative sideways retelling begins.

You don't have to know the ins and outs of different versions of Sleeping Beauty as our folklore degreed main character will explain the variations and what they mean for this story.  The realizations of which elements are in play is woven into the plot action so that the reader is never forced through any dry descriptions. Attraction between characters is smoothly handled and turns many of the fairy tale tropes on their heads as the Princess rejects the boorish Prince and instead chooses Charm, a choice her mother the Queen never had.

A lovely, creative, and thoughtful presentation of an old favorite.

I want to start this review by saying g I enjoyed this book VERY VERY much. This twist on the Sleeping Beauty story was fun and such an interesting read. We follow Zinn who has a disorder that will kill her before her 22 birthday. She grew up with this knowledge and has come to terms with it….for the most part. But she has a lifelong fascination with Sleeping Beauty. On her 21 birthday she ends up traveling through worlds and finds herself meeting Primrose, an actual princess who has the curse of sleeping beauty, fated to die as well. Together they find a way to walk through worlds and take charge of their own futures.

My ONLY complaint with this book is that it was so short. I would have loved to see the characters and the worlds fleshed out more. I want to explore more of Primrose’s world. I want to meet and spend time with more of the princesses who also share their same fate. That ending gives me hope for another book but I would have loved to see much more added to the world given to us here. But overall a very fun and quick read!

Loved it! I am a huge Alix Harrow fan, and this book did not disappoint. It was exactly what I needed: a mixture of magic, adventure, sass, and hope. I only wished it was longer so I could linger with the story and the characters. Awesome. I will definitely be recommending it.

I did not realize this was a novella until I saw the page count. But it was the perfect length. There is new depth and meaning that Harrow adds to a classic fairytale that most people don’t like. Sleeping Beauty is a fairytale of it’s time and is still relatable today which Harrow does an amazing job of showing. Truly a beautiful retelling.

Have you ever had a book come along at the right time and just sweep you away to a place where not only are your troubles forgotten for awhile, but you feel better about them once finishing the final sentence before? If you haven’t, THIS IS YOUR BOOK!!

Sleeping beauty as a tale has been told countless times in so many various ways, but Alix Harrow, in my opinion, takes the cake with this retelling.

Do you like your traditional medieval princess with poofy dresses and flowery language? Check! Or, do you prefer your princess to be more of the Viking, battle trodden, large as a house and takes no guff variety? That’s also a check! What about that dark 90s type, short hair, loner kind of princess? You’re still in luck! Prefer your princess to be futuristic with sleek silver lines and come equipped with a blaster? Oh yeah. Harrow still has you covered! You say you prefer your princess to be modern, of this day, toting a cell phone, typical youthful, colorful language, and sporting a best friend that brings the power of equality for LGBTQIA+ rights? Yup, this book packs a princess with a punch for all tastes!

Then add in the cosmic twist of multiverse themes and princesses and witches throughout time and you have one heck of an amazing read. I will shamelessly admit I woke this morning at 3:45 am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I opened my kindle and chose <i>A Spindle Splintered</i> and oh my goodness, I read the entire thing in about 3 hours, tapping furiously on my kindle, flying through this adventure with wild abandon, reaching the end and wanting desperately for there to me more. This is the third book by Harrow I have now read and I must say, I have become a huge fan, patiently (ok maybe not so patiently - silently begging her creative juices to keep kicking in) waiting for the next novel with her name attached.

If you haven’t read her, why? If you need a feel good, page turning book addiction, jump on that electronic gizmo you have and pre-order this for its release date October 5, 2021. Just in time for the veil between the worlds becoming thinner around Halloween. Harrow is spot on in her dedication of this book “for everyone who deserves a better story than the one they have. “ What more can you say?

So many thanks to #NetGalley, MacMillan-Tor/Forge, and the master spinner of female empowered fairy tales Alix E. Harrow for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is one EVERYONE could use in their life. Read it!! Highly 5 out of 5 star recommend!

This feminist LGBTQ retelling of sleeping beauty is exactly what the world needs right now.
Easily a 5 star short little read for me. Such a fun quick little read. Highly recommend for someone looking for a one sitting read that includes:
✨ Friendship
✨ Fairytales
✨ LGBTQ stories
✨ Happily ever Afters
✨ Magic
✨ Travel to different worlds

I should've known a fairy tale/Spider-verse mashup by Alix E. Harrow would wreck me, even coming in at about a hundred and twenty pages. I don't know if it's the morals of the story, or the journey, or all of it, but I have a feeling A Spindle Splintered is going to leave its mark on readers, just as it has me. This retelling has superseded all others of Sleeping Beauty for me, and perhaps all fairy tale retellings ever. The story is realistic and the illustrations are a wonderful delight. I will have to go back and admire them fully, because it only took a few pages for the words to capture my attention more than any image could. For me personally, this story has pulled back a curtain I didn't know existed and I looked at Sleeping Beauty with new eyes and new perspective. Hats off to Alix E. Harrow for another fantastic story. Her winning streak continues and I am always looking forward to reading more from her and going on many more adventures!

Zinnia Gray has been fighting a deadly genetic disease since she was little in this LBGT friendly re-telling of the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. Told in the first person, this is short journey crossing through the multiverse of sleeping beauties. Great characters and inspiring growth on Zinnia’s part make this fast-paced story a joy to read. My only objection was that all the male characters were portrayed as weak or cruel. Perfect for a beach or traveling read.

Trigger warning: terminal illness, mention of suicide, and implied rape

Things that are my wheelhouse:
1. fairy tale retellings
2. sapphic fantasy
3. snarky millennials
4. pop culture references

This book should be 800 pages longer.

Wow wow wow. I absolutely adored this novella. I read it in a single sitting - easy to do both because of its length and because of how absorbing the story is - and now my only regret is that it’s not out till October and I’m already begging everyone I know to read it, knowing they have to wait. It’s so funny and clever, but Alix Harrow does such astounding things with words that it manages to also be profound and touching and frightening and sweet.

One of my favorite fairy tales is Sleeping Beauty so I was really excited to read this! Sadly, I was let down. It was not at all what I expected and just seemed thrown together quickly. I did love seeing queer relationships, it's about time our fairy tales got them. I love Harrow's books, this one just missed the mark for me.

A Spindle Splintered is a lovely tale that pulls you into the multiverse of fairy tales. It is fast-paced and unique featuring beautiful illustrations. This novella follows Zinnia, a young woman with a rare illness, who has always thought of herself as a “sleeping beauty,” cursed to a horrible fate. She knows that her twenty-first birthday will be her last so when her best friend throws her a party complete with a tower and spinning wheel, Zinnia makes the most of it. But when she pricks her finger, she is suddenly thrown into another world, one with its own sleeping beauty who is desperate to escape her fate. What follows is an engaging story of courage and friendship, one you won’t want to miss.

It also has great LGBTQ+ representation!