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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
*groan* this book took FOREVER to get through! Though the first chapter was good, I felt like the book never got to the point! Maybe that was the point, :D but I found it hard to follow and irritating.
On the other hand though, it was a very interesting twist to the Sleeping Beauty story. Very creative, if a bit strange.
On the other hand though, it was a very interesting twist to the Sleeping Beauty story. Very creative, if a bit strange.
Her writing style is more markedly peculiar in this book. The dialogue is especially sporadic. It's like being on a yo-yo. A character says something, and another character while considering how to respond goes off into a long explanatory thought tangent of memories for several paragraphs or pages, then suddenly the second character finally responds to the first character's question, but by that time I've forgotten what the original question was, so I have to go back and piece together the dialogue again. Like a yo-yo, I follow the string down a random story tangent, then I'm yanked back to the original dialogue.
However, the characters are wonderful, and the story is brilliant, of course. If you can follow it.
However, the characters are wonderful, and the story is brilliant, of course. If you can follow it.
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
You know the story. It's a classic tale. An angry fairy lays a curse on a newborn princess that she will prick her finger on a spindle and die. This is that story.
Katriona is a small town fairy representing her community at the christening of the new princess. When Pernicia makes her threat, Katriona offers comfort to the terrified infant and finds herself named the Princess' guardian, charged with protecting her.
Katriona offers the baby her own gift of communication with animals. This is only reinforced with animals of all kind help her feed the child on the dangerous trip home. She goes straight to the Aunt her raised her - a powerful fairy in her own right. There they name the child Rosie and raise her as a niece.
This is a beautiful and exciting reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. I love the way Robin McKinley explores fairy tales and recreates them.
Katriona is a small town fairy representing her community at the christening of the new princess. When Pernicia makes her threat, Katriona offers comfort to the terrified infant and finds herself named the Princess' guardian, charged with protecting her.
Katriona offers the baby her own gift of communication with animals. This is only reinforced with animals of all kind help her feed the child on the dangerous trip home. She goes straight to the Aunt her raised her - a powerful fairy in her own right. There they name the child Rosie and raise her as a niece.
This is a beautiful and exciting reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. I love the way Robin McKinley explores fairy tales and recreates them.
lighthearted
Sleeping Beauty, the Lost Years.
In her creative reimagining of how the story might have gone, McKinley provides backstory and context to a familiar tale. In a magical kingdom, an evil fairy has sworn revenge on the queen (not king, notably) who once defeated her. When the next female heir is born, Pernicia (what a fantastic evil fairy name!) curses the baby: spindles, enchanted sleep of death, yada yada.
Now here's where it gets interesting. Katriona, an obscure young village fairy attending the christening, spontaneously runs up to comfort the crying baby princess...and is given the responsibility for raising the child as her own to keep her safe, "as safe as ordinariness can make her". The next 3/4 of the book recounts the princess's life as an ordinary child in an ordinary small town.
While the Disney films take a similar approach, Spindles' End dives deeper into what a princess raised in such circumstances would have been like. Briar Rose ("Rosie" as she is quickly named) has few princess-y virtues: she impatiently cuts off her fairy godmother enchanted hair; refuses to wear dresses; or to learn to embroider, dance or sing; and grows into a tall, athletic but not particularly graceful young woman . Her one noticeable fairy quality is her ability to talk to animals, a gift not from her christening, but imbibed from the milk of various animals who suckled her during the dangerous journey home with Katriona. This makes her an ideal blacksmith and veterinarian's assistant, patiently (and hilariously) listening to the complaints and carping of various local horses and the gossip of village cats and dogs. It will also prove to be a useful source of information...and power.
There is much to love about this book: the richness of a world so imbued with magic that fairies are seen more as IT consultants than as figures of wonder. The animals have species-appropriate personalities and speech patterns, and their contentious sparring with Rosie is a welcome contrast to the fatuous princess adoration in your typical Disney movie. The human characters are distinctive and personable: kind and courageous Katriona, whose growth in self confidence mirrors Rosie's; Katriona's wise and supportive fairy Aunt, Rosie's mentor Narl, the flinty village blacksmith who may be more than he seems. The male/female dynamics are quietly feminist; queens are preferred for their superior judgement, and even though the royal couple have produced 3 sons after Rosie's disappearance, there is no question of one of them supplanting her in the succession. Unlike the flighty and befuddled fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent, Aunt and Katriona are highly skilled and powerful guardians, and when Katriona eventually marries it is clear that this will be a union of equals. Finally there is Peony, another adopted village girl, who is so lovely, graceful, charming and perfect that Rosie hates her on sight...until they become best friends. That this novel celebrates and revels in several different expressions of femininity is one of its many strengths.
Of course the ending will involve a final knockdown, drag out with Pernicia, evil magic defeated by good, and heroic animals to the rescue, but Rosie remains true to herself and her destiny until the very happy end.
In her creative reimagining of how the story might have gone, McKinley provides backstory and context to a familiar tale. In a magical kingdom, an evil fairy has sworn revenge on the queen (not king, notably) who once defeated her. When the next female heir is born, Pernicia (what a fantastic evil fairy name!) curses the baby: spindles, enchanted sleep of death, yada yada.
Now here's where it gets interesting. Katriona, an obscure young village fairy attending the christening, spontaneously runs up to comfort the crying baby princess...and is given the responsibility for raising the child as her own to keep her safe, "as safe as ordinariness can make her". The next 3/4 of the book recounts the princess's life as an ordinary child in an ordinary small town.
While the Disney films take a similar approach, Spindles' End dives deeper into what a princess raised in such circumstances would have been like. Briar Rose ("Rosie" as she is quickly named) has few princess-y virtues: she impatiently cuts off her fairy godmother enchanted hair; refuses to wear dresses; or to learn to embroider, dance or sing; and grows into a tall, athletic but not particularly graceful young woman . Her one noticeable fairy quality is her ability to talk to animals, a gift not from her christening, but imbibed from the milk of various animals who suckled her during the dangerous journey home with Katriona. This makes her an ideal blacksmith and veterinarian's assistant, patiently (and hilariously) listening to the complaints and carping of various local horses and the gossip of village cats and dogs. It will also prove to be a useful source of information...and power.
There is much to love about this book: the richness of a world so imbued with magic that fairies are seen more as IT consultants than as figures of wonder. The animals have species-appropriate personalities and speech patterns, and their contentious sparring with Rosie is a welcome contrast to the fatuous princess adoration in your typical Disney movie. The human characters are distinctive and personable: kind and courageous Katriona, whose growth in self confidence mirrors Rosie's; Katriona's wise and supportive fairy Aunt, Rosie's mentor Narl, the flinty village blacksmith who may be more than he seems. The male/female dynamics are quietly feminist; queens are preferred for their superior judgement, and even though the royal couple have produced 3 sons after Rosie's disappearance, there is no question of one of them supplanting her in the succession. Unlike the flighty and befuddled fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent, Aunt and Katriona are highly skilled and powerful guardians, and when Katriona eventually marries it is clear that this will be a union of equals. Finally there is Peony, another adopted village girl, who is so lovely, graceful, charming and perfect that Rosie hates her on sight...until they become best friends. That this novel celebrates and revels in several different expressions of femininity is one of its many strengths.
Of course the ending will involve a final knockdown, drag out with Pernicia, evil magic defeated by good, and heroic animals to the rescue, but Rosie remains true to herself and her destiny until the very happy end.
LOVE her. And her books. She's an absolute genius, literally. AMAZING retelling of a classic tale that will keep you reading and wishing it had never ended!
I now realize that I love fairytale retellings more than almost anything else, and this one was really fun. Lots of funny little lines and the description was beautiful.