{A Twist in the Tail} Reviewing A SPINDLE SPLINTERED by Alix E. Harrow

Love fairy tales and mythology?
Fans of mermaids, dragons, unicorns, and other mythical creatures?
Enjoy when a beloved classic tale is retold?
A Twist in the Tail Thursdays features all this and more!

O P E N I N G   H O O K:

   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.

(Page 1, US hardcover edition)

“I'm just a dying girl, and the last rule for dying girls, the one we never say out loud, is try not to die.”

~A SPINDLE SPLINTERED

Nothing gets me more excited than a new twist on a classic tale. When I heard that Alix E. Harrow, author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY, had inked a deal to publisher some feminist fairy tale inspired novellas with Tordotcom, I was instantly intrigued. Tordotcom always publishes amazing novellas (I especially love Seanan McGuire's award-winning Wayward Children series). When Harrow debuted with ...JANUARY at the Book Expo, I was instantly intrigued by the beautiful cover and the comp to McGuire's aforementioned Wayward Children, a series I adored. When I read it, however, I was let down because it wasn't the portal fantasy I'd been anticipating based on the comps. I still really enjoyed Harrow's writing style, however, and found many quotable lines throughout the novel. I was eager to try her works again, and by adding fairy tales into the mix, I knew this would be the series for me.

I wasn't, however, expecting how different and unique the read would be! I couldn't put this one down -- and thankfully, since it's a novella, it can easily be read in one sitting. I have read so many books inspired by fairy tales over the years that they've all started to run together. When one can introduce new concepts and surprise me, it really makes me sit up and take notice. 

What is Sleeping Beauty if not the tale of a dying girl? Cursed to die at birth, she is saved when the curse is twisted into a hundred year sleep. (In some versions, at least. Other versions of the tale are much darker and incredibly traumatic.) Our main character, Zinnia Gray, is also dying. The town of Roseville's tap water became contaminated when she was young, leading to children who developed the incurable Roseville Malady. Zinnia is about to turn twenty-one, the oldest of the survivors, and not sure how much time she has left. When she attends a birthday part jokingly set up in an old tower and inspired by her childhood favorite fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, she has no clue she's about to become one of many Sleeping Beauties across time. In MCU speak, this is the fairy tale multi-verse. All the Beauties have floral-inspired names, of course, as does Zinnia herself. Some are ill and dying. Others are cursed and dying. They are all in need of help. As Zinnia feels herself falling through this portal between worlds, she is stopped when one of the Beauties, Primrose, calls out for help. Will falling into another world be Zinnia's salvation, or will it herald her doom?

I was not expecting this sort of multi-verse of Sleeping Beauties and the way different worlds could shape stories so differently. I loved exploring this, and Harrow's creativity knew no bounds. There is also something really, really cool about the "villain" who cursed Primrose in her world, and I don't want to spoil it here, but the implications of how her actions ripple through time will leave fairy tale lovers breathless with wonder and delight.

Something else I really enjoyed while reading was all of the fantastic interior artwork by Arthur Rackham. He did the artwork for the original publication of The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, which published in 1920. It was such a wondrous treat, and really brought me back to my childhood, where I'd look forward to seeing new illustrations every so often as I read. This is something I've seen in other Tordotcom novellas and loved as well. The fact that they used such famous images and introduced a lot of new readers to them is so incredibly clever. I love it!

Overall, A SPINDLE SPLINTERED is absolutely worth the read. It subverts the fairy tales you think you know and pokes holes into them to see how they hold up when altered and modernized. Harrow adds a feminist twist to the tale that is absolutely thought-provoking. Even though the book is short, only a novella in length, it's absolutely worth the hardcover price. Tordotcom usually doesn't re-release titles in paperback later, just fyi, and I don't think the illustrations come through the same way digitally as they do tactilely when you're holding the physical book and immersed that way. I started listening to this one on my way to work as an audiobook, switched to the ebook on my lunch break, saw the illustrations, and switched to my hardcover copy when I got home that day and never looked back. This is definitely one to hold in your hands!

The next book in the line, A MIRROR MENDED, just came out a couple of weeks ago and is next up on the docket for me. I'm hoping it has every bit of the whimsy, charm, and thought-provoking content as its predecessor.

~*~

C O N T E N T R A T I N G S

Content Ratings: highlight between ( ) for details

Romance: PG ( Kissing; sex is mentioned but not on the page )

Language: PG13+ ( Cursing, inc. f-bombs. Innuendo. )
Violence: PG ( No gore, but imprisonment and a coup. )

Other:  PG ( MC is suffering from a rare disorder caused by contaminated tap water that affected the town's children. A lot of internal looking at death and the time one has left. )

~*~

C O V E R   D E S I G N:

This cover instantly captivates me! 

That tower that is itself a spindle. That hand touching its tip and the single drop of blood falling. That girl falling down, down, down. The sleeping girl at the forefront. The thorns. 

Every time I look at this cover, something new captures my attention!

  ~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title: A SPINDLE SPLINTERED

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Release Date: October 5, 2021

Publisher: Tordotcom
Received: Purchased

SUMMARY:

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.

 ~*~