A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, #1)

by Alix E. Harrow

USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered brings her patented charm to a new version of a classic story. Featuring Arthur Rackham's original illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty, fractured and reimagined.

"A vivid, subversive and feminist reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, where implacable destiny is no match for courage, sisterhood, stubbornness and a good working knowledge of fairy tales." -Katherine Arden

It's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one.

Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.

• ISBN10: 1250765358
• ISBN13: 9781250765352
• Publish Date: 5 October 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kim Deister]

This is a fairytale retelling that gets it right! It was a unique blend of Sleeping Beauty and the multiverse, woven together to make a fabulous and inspiring story.

It is a feminist take on the story, creating an interesting twist to a story that, at it’s core, is rife with problems. The entire premise of the Sleeping Beauty story is that a woman can only be saved from the curse of sleep by the kiss, one given without consent, by a man. And that’s just in the Disneyfied version. In the OG versions, Aurora is repeatedly assaulted by the king, giving birth to two children while in her enchanted sleep. But in A Spindle Splintered, the female characters have autonomy and agency over themselves. Even the curse itself has new meaning within the story, which I won’t share for fear of spoilers.

I loved how the threads of Sleeping Beauty played out in this new way, the way the women of this book refused to settle in the ways they were “supposed” to, instead standing up, banding together, and fighting for themselves and others in their position.

And even though the ending wasn’t what my sappy heart had hoped for, it was what was needed for this version. It was the right ending for this story, because life isn’t a fairytale. In many ways, this book is both an homage and a critique of the fairytales I, too, love. Truly amazing!

[Quirky Cat]

A Spindle Splintered is the latest novella to come from the mind of Alix E. Harrow, the author that brought us The Ten Thousand Doors of January. It's also the first part in the Fractured Fables series.

Zinnia Gray has always felt a special connection with the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Zinnia has known from a young age that she would never make it past twenty-one. Her illness felt reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty, and her young mind latched onto that connection.

Now, Zinnie faces her twenty-first birthday, and she intends to make it special. Granted, there is no way that she could have planned for what actually happened. For now, Zinnia finds herself in another world – facing the Sleeping Beauty herself.

"Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it."

Yes! I love everything about A Spindle Splintered. The plot, the characters, the sass, and the open discussion about the story of Sleeping Beauty. We can all agree that the original story is pretty messed up, right?

A Spindle Splintered takes all the different variations of Sleeping Beauty and mashes them into one story. It's an incredibly creative take on the matter, one that gave so much ownership to the leading lady. Ownership that they desperately needed, if we're being honest here.

I know; I'm probably being a little bit biased here. From the moment I saw 'Fractured Fables,' I knew I would love this series to death. So far, I have not been disappointed. I love that Harrow started with Sleeping Beauty. For those that are curious, it looks like she's going to work on Snow White (A Mirror Mended)– and once again, I am all sorts of here for that.

If you like it when authors take your favorite fairy tales and mix them up into something new and different, then you're going to enjoy A Spindle Splintered. If you feel that these stories are better left alone, maybe consider picking up something else to read?

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

Here’s the thing: Alix E. Harrow is a brilliant writer. She could write a book about the color taupe and I would stand in line to read it. She’s that good. So when I heard about A Spindle Splintered, I grabbed it as quickly as possible. I didn’t know too much about it, but I knew I needed to read it.

I was a little surprised at how short it was. I expected it to be longer based on Harrow’s last few books (which I highly suggest reading, by the way). I am always a littles hesitant about shorter books, wondering whether they can tell complete tales as well as a longer novel can. That’s a silly hang-up on my part since I’ve read many shorter novels that have been absolutely amazing, but we all have our failings.

The author embraces the shorter format, eschewing long character introductions in favor of quick ones with the development continuing at a rapid pace throughout the rest of the story. While there is no doubt that the characters are fully rounded (especially Charm), I do wish that there had been time to really get into the nitty gritty of what made them tick. For example, Zinnia has spent her entire life in a tug of war between trying to do the things that every kid and teen does and the awareness that she is living on borrowed time. I would have loved to see more of that struggle and view how that has shaped her every action. There is a bit of explanation about her relationship with her parents which I found very interesting but I would have loved to see more.

I loved that there wasn’t a ton of lead up to the main event. Instead, we are pretty much tossed right in, which added to the tone of unbelievability meets why the crap not? that pervaded the story. The side characters were great, especially the witch that cursed the Sleeping Beauty that Zinnia meets. That whole confrontation did not go at all the way I expected and I was completely on board with that.

There wasn’t a lot of time spent on the world building because there didn’t need to be. It was every fairy tale you’ve ever read, every fantasy trope played out in exaggerated detail. It worked very well for the plot as everyone knows the original story of Sleeping Beauty (or at the very least, the Disney version) and this was a new take on the tale. There didn’t need to be a ton of explanation. That being said, Alix E. Harrow made sure to provide extra details where it was needed, without slowing the pace of the book, again showing off her writing chops.

There are Arthur Rackham illustrations throughout, which provided an enchanting touch, if a wee bit twisted. In fact, the entire book points out the less-than-savory parts of fairy tales and fables, and finds ways to compare them to the less-than-wonderful things in real life. It was very well done.

My big quibble with A Spindle Splintered is that I really didn’t like the length. I wanted more. More detail, more expansion, more from the final confrontation. Not because the book was bad, but because Alix E. Harrow is such a good writer. I wanted to live in her story for much longer than I was able to.

At the end of the day, I really did enjoy A Spindle Splintered, but not nearly as much as I loved The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January. In this case, definitely blame the reader and not the book.