Zinnia’s straightforwardness speaks to my soul. Romantic girls like Beauty and the Beast basic girls like Cinderella goth girls like Snow White. It’s the fairy tale that feminist scholars cite when they want to talk about women’s passivity in historical narratives.Įven among the other nerds who majored in folklore, Sleeping Beauty is nobody’s favorite. It’s aimless and amoral and chauvinist as shit. Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it.

The whole novella is told in the first person from Zinnia’s perspective and her voice hooked me right from the beginning. Not only does A Spindle Splintered reimagine the character of Sleeping Beauty as a contemporary girl, it reminds us there are many versions of the tale that have been passed down through the centuries. That’s right! It’s a Sleeping Beauty MULTIVERSE!!! No wonder why I lost my shit when I heard about this book months ago! But also, I’m so glad I couldn’t remember the premise (thanks, pandemic brain!), because it felt like such a revelation, watching it all play out. One of them, Primrose, stops at Zinnia’s cry for help, kicking off a big adventure to see if they can save themselves from their fates. But instead of falling into a cursed sleep, Zinnia falls through worlds and sees a thousand Sleeping Beauties reaching out to touch the spindle. What’s a drunk Sleeping Beauty fan/birthday girl to do at the end of a party like that? Prick her finger on the spindle, of course. Now that she’s turning 21, Zinnia’s best friend, Charmaine, is throwing her the ultimate final birthday party with a Sleeping Beauty theme that even includes a spinning wheel. That’s why she’s always identified with Sleeping Beauty and her curse, finding comfort in the fairy tale since childhood. Zinnia Gray has a rare disease and no one diagnosed with it has ever made it to the age of 22. One of them ends up in a romantic relationship with a side character that is queer and adorable.

This book does not have a central romance between the two main characters.

My only gripe is that I wish this were a full-length novel and not a novella, because I wanted to see so much more of the characters and their journey.

In case I’ve persuaded you to hop right down to the purchase links below, here are the two things you need to know before you buy:

And while I know you’re here to hear all about it, this is one of those few times when I want you to trust me and read this book without knowing anything else because that was a big part of the magic for me. I tore through the whole novella in one night and was blown away. When I read A Spindle Splintered, I had completely forgotten what it was about.

A spindle splintered by alix e harrow