If I have one complaint about A Spindle Splintered it’s simply that I wish I could have read even more of it.
Unlike the original tale, the women of A Spindle Splintered have plenty of agency and fight to make choices for themselves, even when it seems as though they’ll only ever be able to select between a bunch of bad options. There are LGBT characters and new perspectives on familiar narrative choices, and just all sorts of pleasant surprises throughout. Harrow’s retelling happily flips many of the conventional tropes of the Sleeping Beauty story on their heads. And as Zinnia fights to help Princess Primrose escape her fate, she hopes she’ll be able to change her own as well. One with a princess, a long-feared curse, and a dangerous spindle of its own.
But when Zinnia jokingly pricks her finger on the spindle, she somehow falls into a different realm. When Zinnia’s best friend Charm sets up a Sleeping Beauty-themed birthday party for her 21st – complete with a spinning wheel, a carpet of roses, and the tallest tower in the land. It’s probably no surprise that Zinnia has developed something of a fixation on the story of Sleeping Beauty, probably because there’s some part of her that wants to believe her own story might work out in a similar way, that somehow a prince or a witch or other magical figure could somehow alter her impending infinite sleep. And as Zinnia turns 21, she’s feeling as though she’s running out of time, like a clock is ticking down to the moment the curse she’s been waiting for all her life will finally kick in.
The condition is fatal and, thus far, no one with Generalized Roseville Malady has lived past their 22 birthday. The result is a delightful fairytale version of Into the Spiderverse, stuffed with nods to various forms of the original story alongside its entertainingly modern twists.Ī Spindle Splintered follows the story of Zinnia Gray, who has a rare genetic disorder caused by an industrial accident before she was born. The book, which moves through multiple realities and “versions” of the famous folktale, reimagines Sleeping Beauty as a story of empowerment and collaboration, giving the women at its center the agency the original so often robs its heroine of. It’s possible that she’s outdone herself with her thoroughly satisfying novella A Spindle Splintered, a story that puts a much-needed feminist spin on the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
Harrow’s other books – the equally fabulous Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Once and Future Witches – then you already know she’s an author that’s uniquely talented at spinning a story that deftly manages to cross both worlds and times.
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