A Spindle Splintered

Harrow has not disappointed with one of her books yet, and this does not disappoint. It is a fun multiverse Sleeping Beauty retelling that is packed full of delightful SFF and cultural references. I read it in a single sitting and would be happy to read more.

I love everything that Alix Harrow touches and this is no exception. A spiderverse of sleeping beauties?! Yes, amazing. It zips along like water flowing out of a faucet, it's touching and sad and smart and funny and sexy and queer and wonderful.

5/5

Sleeping Beauty comes crashing into the multiverse by way of Alix E. Harrow, author of The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Destined to not survive her twenty-first birthday due to a rare genetic disorder, Zinnia Gray has always felt a strong affinity to sleeping beauty, someone who shares in her fate. Then miraculously her birthday arrives and nothing of note occurs, that is until her best friend decides to throw a birthday party worthy of sleeping beauty herself. All Zinnia does is prick her finger on the spindle of the spinning wheel and she’s transported far from her hometown to a strange world, one not so different from her own. Though the world may be lacking in some respects there in it also lies a girl desperate enough to escape her fate. Together Zinnia and Beauty rally other sleeping beauties from across the worlds to try to change their circumstances, taking their destinies into their own hands.

Well Alix E. Harrow certainly never misses the mark when it comes to crafting a fascinating story I would sell my soul to read immediately. This time it's a short sleeping beauty retelling that spans a little over a hundred pages, but crosses multiple worlds. I would say this is in the vein of Into the Spider-Verse since it deals with multiple dimensions and characters of similar titles joining hands. Just as her first two novels completely mesmerized me, this one was no different. Turns out even when Harrow writes a shorter novel I am still bound to enjoy it as much as the others, to the point where my only complaint is that I wish it was longer. Sleeping beauty was never one of my favorite fairy tales for the reasons Zinnia so aptly points out at the beginning of the novel. However, I am happy to say I have changed my tune now that Harrow has sunk her teeth into a reimagining of the story. This crossed a search for agency with the original tale so brilliantly I cannot stop thinking about it. There is just something about finding unity among those to which you share similar situations with that Harrow has exemplified in her writing time and time again. Though Zinnia and Beauty are from different worlds and backgrounds, there is a sense of solidarity that binds them and the other sleeping beauties together as they go forward on their quest. It really was one of the more compelling parts of the text. Not that the entire novel did not sway my emotions and make me have deep feelings at any other point than that. A Spindle Splintered is Alix. E Harrow’s love letter to the transcendence of sisterhood and the common struggles that bind all women. Ties that can bring us together oftentimes in strange ways, but are in no means any less powerful.

Trigger warnings: blood, genetic disorder, terminal illness, rape (mentioned)

Alix Harrow has quickly become my favorite author. This was a magical fantasy that I found myself taking copious notes on. Very powerful and beautifully written.

Writing: 4 / 5 Characters: 4.5 / 5 Plot: 4.5 / 5

I had such fun reading this book — clever and funny with plenty of gender benders, surprise twists, and sass. Short, too, at only 128 pages.

Zinnia Gray of Ohio is the Dying Girl. Afflicted with GRM -- a malady that always kills before its victims reach 22 — she has become obsessed with all things Sleeping Beauty (a girl with very similar problems). What follows is a funny and piercingly acute adventure through alternative narratives where an array of women try to alter the “crap” storylines they were given.

It’s a brilliant modernization, magnification, and multiplication of Sleeping Beauty stories, all come together with the spare prose and humorous asides that I love in Harrow’s writing. Some of the references to academic takes on folklore and feminism crack me up while simultaneously getting to the point of what is truly important. A favorite line referencing a female character ready for battle: “I know they promoted a reductive vision of women’s agency that privileged traditionally male-coded forms of power, but let’s not pretend girls with swords don’t get shit done.”

Great characters that I liked a lot, no BS, plenty of adventure, some cool self-reflection and growth (always enjoyable), and plenty of gender norm challenges that are playful rather than strident.

Harrow is right up there in my must-reads list.

A couple of other fun lines:
“My only friend in this entire backwards-ass pre-Enlightenment world is about to be married off to a sentient cleft chin.”

“We might not be able to fix our bullshit stories, but surely we can be less lonely inside them at the end.”