A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #1), by Alix E. Harrow

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this modern spin of “Sleeping Beauty” we meet Zinnia “Zin” Gray who is suffering from a rare condition which usually leads to death before the 22nd birthday – and Zin has just turned 21…

Since Zin is obsessed with the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” her best friend, Charm, throws her a themed birthday party during which Zin pricks herself with a spindle. As this is a modern spin, she doesn’t quite fall asleep but rather through the “multiverse” and in a trance-like state meets lots of other “Sleeping Beauties” until she steps out into one world in which she goes on an adventure with the resident “Beauty”, Princess Primrose, to, ideally, lift both their “curses”.

Fortunately, this was a quick, short and amusing read because there’s simply not enough substance to either the story told here or the characters to sustain a longer novel.

The one-hundred pages of this novella pretty much flew past and I was willing to overlook some questionable explanations about Zin’s condition, the mystery of full cell phone coverage in “Princess Primrose of Perceforest”’s fairy tale land and quite few other (minor) issues that I simply chose to ignore because I had a blast reading this fast-paced adventure.

If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and/or are looking for a quick filler, maybe some literary fast food, you likely won’t be disappointed.
Just don’t expect something like “Uprooted” or “Spinning Silver” both of which “play” in an entirely different league and are hereby highly recommended!

Should Harrow decide to publish more “Fractured Fables” I’m going to read those as well – despite some reservations about a price tag of about ten Euros (roughly 12 US-Dollars) for such a slim book…

Four out of five stars.




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