Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - A Spindle Splintered

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

22 reviews

faduma's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bzzlarabzz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A Spindle Splintered is a very English-major-y book. It's a fun, brief, feminist, LGBTQ-friendly, multi-verse type of update to the Sleeping Beauty story. It's also surprisingly hopeful despite highlighting the most grim and gruesome elements of fairy tales. Maybe we haven't advanced socially as far as we should have in centuries of time, but we're working on it.

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amgbac09's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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shantastic_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The book begins with an indictment: "Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it." It then blazes ahead into a feminist retelling that is f*cking fresh and fierce, with LGBTQ+ representation and badass characters. What a rollicking ride!

I consider Alix Harrow to be a top tier writer, as The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Once and Future Witches are two of my all time favorite books. This novella is not as rich as her epic and immersive novels of course, but her witty prose charms as always and conjures fantastic imagery for a fun interlude you can read in one sitting.

One of the unique aspects of the book is its wild illustrations. They are sillouettes by Arthur Rackham originally printed in a 1920 edition of The Sleeping Beauty... but they are fractured and reimagined to reflect how Harrow is turning this ancient fairy tale on its head. (Or rather, beheading its misogynistic themes and reinventing it altogether.) Handling the hardcover book with its slight size but gorgeously macabre aesthetic is delightful.

A Mirror Mended, the next book in Harrow's Fractured Fables series, is due out June 14, 2022, and I'm looking forward to seeing how our heroine Zinnia disrupts the tale of Snow White.

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emdop's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this! It was a cool spin (pun intended) on the classic fairytale. And I liked that it has rep in it!
Heads up that there is an HP reference and I am still REELING at the stark opinion on P&P adaptations - mini series is superior, FIGHT ME.

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