Zinnia Gray is back and this time she seems to have gotten herself stuck in Snow White. She is also not speaking with her former best friend, Charm and her wife, former Sleeping Beauty, Primrose. There were just too many stories to make right and so Zinnia has run away from her problems (and imminent sickness). While leaving yet another Sleeping Beauty trope, she gets roped into the Evil Queen’s story. This novella follows Zinnia as she tries to save another princess. Or maybe the queen.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor.*

I have some major feelings with this book. First of all, I absolutely adored the first book and when I received the second book via ARC from Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, I screamed. I squealed. I rushed to start it because I was so excited to see what Zinnia was up to.

This book is the definition of an easy read. I mean the audio book was roughly 3 hours, the first book was a 128 book. It's an easy read. You're not going to find pages and pages of character building and world building, there will not be paragraphs of character development and descriptions. So if that's what you're looking for, this book is definitely not for you.

I, for one, loved it. You immediately get swept into this feminist, Sapphic retelling of Sleeping Beauty meets the Evil Queen from Snow White. I was caught up from the first moment. The narrator [Amy Landon] did a phenomenal job at portraying the emotions of the characters and keeping your attention through this entire book. I highly recommend listening to this audiobook. The book just hits differently.

I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review

After reading A Spindle Splintered, I instantly became a fan of Alix E. Harrow's work and couldn't wait for the sequel to be released, but I do remember being a little disappointed that the main character didn't seem to be queer. I was THRILLED when I started A Mirror Mended and Zinnia is almost immediately attracted to The Evil Queen. Watching these characters' relationship grow and shift as they get to know one another better and give Zinnia the chance to see that maybe The Evil Queen isn't as evil as she once believed (and, inversely, maybe the good guy isn't always so great, either) was so lovely. Harrow did an incredible job of continuing the story and showing how Zinnia's obsession with putting off her ending has hurt her relationship with Charm and showing so many different changes that have come about in Zinnia's life as a result of her focusing on saving fairy tale characters instead of living her own life.

The audiobook performance is fantastic! This was my first experience with Amy Landon's work, but I definitely look forward to listening to more from this narrator. Just a reminder for anyone who hasn't read A Spindle Splintered, you've GOT to read the first book to be able to fully enjoy the experience of this sequel. You won't be disappointed!

Short but sweet, this queer, feminist fairy tale retelling is full of witty characters who shatter the stereotypical gender roles and tropes. Zinnia Gray spends her life traversing the multiverse, rescuing fairy tale heroines when she gets waylaid by a disgruntled 'evil queen' who demands she help her find her own HEA. I loved the way the author turns the tables on our preconceived notions of good and evil and what it takes to find happiness. Zinnia and Eva were perfect together! I wanted more of this story and I can't wait to see where the series goes next. Great on audio narrated by Amy Landon. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance listening copy!!

I was excited to listen to this second installation of Harrow’s Fractures Fables series since I really enjoyed the first book. While the first one focused on the Sleeping Beauty story this featured aspects of Snow White. Unfortunately this one felt like it lacked the focus and driven plot I wanted. I liked the concept of Zennia falling for Snow White’s evil queen but I just felt that the chemistry and development of the relationship wasn’t really there for me. Still, the writing style was just as good as the first book and it was a easy listen. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC audiobook.


Description from NetGalley:
Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.

Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone.

Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?

This is a fun, quick read without all the fluff that sometimes goes into these kinds of stories. Zinnia is snarky, and the Queen matches her wit for wit. I do wish we got more time with Zinnia and the Queen together. I think they make a great pair. The narrator does a great job with the character voices. I’ll admit I haven’t read the first one, but now it’s getting moved closer to the top of my reading list.

Overall: 4/5

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow
4/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

I read book one in the Fractured Fables series earlier this month and really enjoyed it so I was so happy to be able to read the second one right away!

Set 5 years after A Spindle Splintered, Zinnia has been traveling between fairytales and has rescued 49 other versions of Sleeping Beauty from their fates. When she is sucked into a different fairytale, she must be willing to help the villain if she wants to escape back to her reality. And, just maybe, she will realize that everyone deserves a happily ever after. Even an evil queen.

Fast paced, witty, and wholly unique, I enjoyed A Mirror Mended even more than the first book. It will be released June 28th, and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sharing an arc with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

I’m always ridiculously pleased with myself when I get approved for a popular author, so I was over the moon to be approved for A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow. Her 500+ page Once and Future Witches was the March 2022 book for my work book club, and I enjoyed that enough to finish it. Since that was the only one of her books that I had read, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a Fractured Fables novella. Having no expectations turned out to be a good thing.

Overall, I enjoyed the audiobook. At just under four hours, it was enough to entertain me as I did some rote and routine tasks for work. And it was engaging enough to make me resent the meetings that interrupted my listening pleasure. The narrator was superb. Her voice was warm and inviting, and she did different voices without being irritating about it.

Unfortunately, this novel felt like it lacked the exposition and background to stand alone. Because I hadn’t read A Spindle Splintered first, I felt like I was missing a lot of context for the relationships in the real world. Zinnia Gray, the protagonist, felt properly introduced, and her multiverse felt adequately explained. Once the action in the multiverse kicked off, that was seamless and entertaining. However, the context for the multiple mentions of Charm and her ultimate rescue of Zinnia were so underdeveloped that those spots in the story always felt clunky and/or non sequitur. I would have been happier if Zinnia stayed with Eva in the multiverse until the end of their adventure and then made her decision on where she wanted to be. Interrupting the multiverse adventure with a trip home that dumped all her home baggage on Zinnia really ruined the flow of the narrative for me.

The novel overtly challenged (and occasionally unabashedly bashed) the underpinnings of classic faerie tales. It wasn’t subtle at all. At first, I thought that was just part of Zinnia’s devil-may-care attitude, but it became so prevalent that it felt like the author was putting words in Zinnia’s mouth and thoughts in Zinnia’s head in order to make a political statement. For example, anything “heteronormative” was intrinsically bad. And the novel was rife with discussion of having agency.

Despite this novel’s inability to stand alone and its uncomfortable preaching, I still added A Spindle Splintered to my reading list. I’m hopeful that I can get that audiobook in short order from my local library and then come back to relisten to A Mirror Mended. I may enjoy this one more after I get the proper background.

I received this audiobook as a digital advance reader copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was an amzaing sequel! I will admit to not expecting the time jump but what a fun ride this was! I did not realize how attached I was to the characters until everything started to implode. Alix Harrow does an amazing job of telling these stories and developing these worlds within so few pages! Amy Landon is a fantastic narrator and did a really great story(not her fault by any means but I was convinced she narrated another book that I've listened to which bugged me for the whole book).
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

It's not a surprise I loved this.
I loved the first one, and this didn't disappoint. I actually think I like this one more.
Watching a villain become her own protagonist. Yes. More. Please.

4.5 stars rounded to 5 stars

Just as good as A Spindle Splintered, and possibly better. This sapphic YA novel is one that I would actually listen to again and enjoy, and I rarely reread my books. The swearing is kind of unnecessary, but otherwise it is really well put together. Eager for the next volume to be released! Would recommend this book to any older youth or adult who enjoys a fractured fairytale, or anyone who appreciates queer reads. Well done!

(ALC received from NetGalley in exchange for honest review. Thank you.)

2.5 stars, rounded up.

I could say that this is a cute, easy-reading, funny reworking of the Snow White fairytale, and stop there. In fact, I'm sure that many readers do. It's escapist and fun, with grand adventure and a cute romance thrown in. I didn't absolutely love it, but it was (mostly) a great way to spend several hours this week.

But as the journey of our fairytale-fixer and the evil queen continues on, I became more and more uncomfortable with the incredible disability tropes being used to carry this story. Perhaps there are simple, non-ableist reasons for the story's foundation that I missed by not reading the first book in this series.... but I doubt it.

As someone who has lived with the ongoing severe pain and various after-effects of an illness for the passed 13 years, and as someone who identifies as disabled, I have numerous problems with the protagonist. Perhaps making her disabled/chronically-ill was a convenient plot device to make her want to run away from her own life in its entirety - but a disabled life is not inherently something to run away from, nor is that at all helpful. Going on huge adventures, followed by partying, never getting enough sleep, not taking your meds, etc... UGH. The overcoming disability trope, the running away disability trope, the outsider, the genius cripple ... and the absolute worst: the idea that a disability can be "healed" (or sent into/kept in remission) through sheer force of will, without treatment (or even basic human needs being met on a regular basis). There are so many disability tropes in this short 4-hour audiobook that it should honestly be used in classes to teach how not to write about people who are disabled and/or chronically ill.

Honestly, it makes me **insert several strong emotions** that in a time of better understanding, reconciliation, increasing inclusion and after two full years of a global pandemic that there isn't more thought put into the millions of us that live with ongoing illness, pain and/or disabilities. Accessibility is essential. But these tropes also continue to disadvantage and misrepresent us at both systematic and interpersonal levels every single day. It is absolutely time for everyone to start telling stories about disabled people that doesn't fall under the category of inspiration porn and worse.

I have also now realized that I have read absolutely enough books that are altered fairytales.

The audiobook is well read by Amy Landon.

Huge gratitude to the author Alix E. Harrow, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the audiobook, in exchange for my honest review.

In this follow up to A Spindle Splintered, Zinnia Gray of Ohio, able to travel the fairy tale multiverse of Sleeping Beauty, is tired of rescuing multiple Sleeping Beauties in the various dimensions of the multiverse. She sees a face in a mirror, and ends up in a Snow White dimension, meeting the Evil Queen. The book then explores multiple facets of the Snow White story, deconstructing the fairy tale, at times hilariously. It also shows how people can change for the better, and explores the themes of love and family.

The narrator, Amy Landon, is absolutely excellent. Her narrative style is just wonderful, and Zinnia’s sarcasm is perfectly rendered.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and to Netgalley for providing an ALC of the book.

This was a really great sequel to A Spindle Splintered. It's really such a fun take on fairy tales. I loved the continuation where instead of Zinnia going through Sleeping Beauty retellings, she gets pulled into Snow White somehow. She doesn't just get pulled in to Snow White, she transports directly to the Evil Queen who really wants what Zinnia wanted in the first book. A way out of her life.
We get to see some fun takes on Snow White and get some crazy action and even some romance. Zinnia isn't on best terms with her best friend Charm from the first book which was something I wasn't expecting since they had such a strong bond. I enjoyed watching that play out by the ending.
Definitely check this one out if you want a fresh take on retellings!

A “Mirror Mended” continues with Zinnia’s travels between fairytale worlds and this time explores a villain’s journey. It is insightful and deconstructs the experiences that shapes her life and her own happily ever after.

I was so happy to receive this audiobook as I previously read “A Spindle Splintered” and loved it. Alix E. Harrow did not disappoint with this continuation in the series.

Once again, Amy Landon captured each character and their personalities perfectly bringing them to life. I liked her narration so much I will be looking into additional books voiced by her.

I want to thank NetGalley, Alix E. Harrow and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

This is the first book by this author that I’ve read, and I admit that I had no idea what I was getting into.

The story was fun and the pacing kept things exciting. The narrator was absolutely fantastic. The tone she took as the main character as well as Eva was perfect, and she’s probably the reason I kept listening.

While the story was fun, it felt like the author borrowed quite a few story elements. I might be a Marvel fan, but if I wanted to read about the multiverse, I’d read a Spider-man comic and not a fairytale retelling that references said multiverse,

Overall, it was an entertaining read, but not my favorite retelling.

Funny and imaginative, this novella continues Zinnia's story from A Spindle Splintered but didn't feel wholly necessary. I like what Harrow is doing deconstructing fairytales, exploring the archetypes of heroes vs villains and what comes after the happily ever after and this still had all of the snark that I loved from A Spindle Splintered, but something in the execution fell flat and several aspects of the plot felt contrived.

I still think this was an enjoyable read and I will be interested to see if this is the end or if Alix E. Harrow continues this series. Also, Amy Landon's narration was great, and when I reread the series I will likely choose to do so via audio as I previously read the first physically.

While I didn't love this one as much as I loved A SPINDLE SPLINDERED, I did really enjoy A MIRROR MENDED. I loved seeing Zinnia Grey again. This character is really so fun to listen to as she finds herself crossing paths with an Evil Queen (yes that evil Queen) who wants to rewrite her role in a story she never asked to be involved in. I loved what Harrow did with Eva (i.e., evil queen) here and how this traditional fairytale villain was given some much needed agency, actually, it was agency I didn't even know it needed, but I was here for this! Once again, Harrow's writing is equal parts endearing and heartfelt while packing a punch. I still wish these were full-sized books, but as far as novellas go, these don't read incomplete, which is something I like to see. A MIRROR MENDED is a story about stepping up to rewrite your own story, where heroes are villains and villains reclaim their own destinies.

Am I in some kind of a fairytale mashup? Is Chris Pine about to pop up and sing songtime lyrics in an confused accent? :)

Lady Zinnia of Ohio is back! She's still in the princess rescuing game. Because as long as she is saving other people she can forget briefly that she cannot save herself. But this time she doesn't find herself in the Sleeping Beauty verse, she is in another fairy tale. Is the worlds are merging because Zinnia won't finish her story?

I could do anything to not return to her own story after all. Find a way to break free of this endless cycle of cursed girls and pricked fingers, to punch through the wall of my own plot and bust into other narrative dimensions. If I can make a new beginning for myself in some other story what's to stop me from making a new ending too."

So in A mirror is Mended Zinnia finds herself going from different worlds but still in the same story with the Evil Queen from Snow White in tow. Dead Girls and coffin lids, wicked mothers and poison apples, the same story repeated again and again. As Zinnia starts looking at Evil Queen's story from her perspective she and the reader start feeling an inconvenient sympathy towards the Evil Queen or Eva. (Zinnia names her Eva)

I loved the world building in these novellas. There is no doubt Alix E. Harrow is brilliant. "Multiverse as an endless book with endless pages where each page is a different reality. If you were to retrace the letters on one of these pages enough times the paper might grow thin, the ink might bleed through. In this metaphor I am the ink."

The audiobook is narrated by Amy Landon. Her voice is so beautiful and goes so well with this melancholic story. Audiobook is 3h and 48 min. This novella could be read/listened to as a standalone but I recommend you to red the first novella of the series A Spindle Splintered to acquaint yourself with Zinnia Gray. She is a fun character.


"She is still lain awake at night, feeling the bounds of her narrative like hot wires pressing into her skin, counting each breath and wondering how many are left wishing uselessly, stupidly she's been born into a better once upon a time. But that's not how it works. You have to make the best of whatever story you are born into. If your story happens to suck ass well maybe you can do some good before you go."

"Perhaps the girl could tell her own story."

A Spindle Splintered, the first in Alix E. Harrow's Fractured Fables series, was a delicious twist on the fairy tale canon, and I'm delighted to find this Snow White-centric sequel is just as clever, just as witty, and just as richly complex as the first. As told by the modern Sleeping Beauty Zinnia, the story's voice is punchy, wry, snarky, and vulnerable, and endlessly enjoyable.

A Mirror Mended makes room for villains this time, exploring the evil queen/stepmother trope and what it means to be a villain, with an emphasis on narrative agency that manages to turn an English lit seminar on folklore into a funny, touching, pop-cultural-reference-heavy tale.

Amy Landon is back for this second audiobook, and as with her work on the first, I find her reading to be fine but not exceptional. I like her choices for characterization, particularly the wicked queen who puts the hot in haughty (I'm so sorry) (but she does), but her narration is a little too slow and precise for my taste, overall.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!