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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
3.75 stars. Could've been a solid 4.5 or 5 stars, but the climax was problematic.
It was a little hard to chew through because i wanted it to hurry up and get to the part with the end and all. Also i was a little disappointed because i expected a Disney-fide princess, so silly of me!!
Utterly wonderful. Dense and intricate writing style.
I wish I could give this one 4.5 stars. I really really liked it. But I wasn't addicted to it. I think to give a book five stars it has to be either one that you can't put down, or one that changes your worldview somehow. In any case, this one did neither of those, but it was a great, well-written and entertaining book.
Having reread this book countless times since I was a teenager, I would place it up there amongst my all-time favourite novels.
What I loved the most about this book was the world building. It was exciting and just... cool. A friend finds the beginning slow, but I think I enjoyed that the most, with the explanation and description of magic! Very fun.
Sometimes the sentences get very long and 'embedded'. So that I lose track of what it was talking about at the start. Sometimes it's not so much the length (as below) but also just really bad syntax.
She found it had to believe that the king and queen hadn't asked particularly that the weather today be fine; even her aunt had been known to make a tiny break in the clouds for a wedding-party to make a dash from the church to the pub where the food was without ruining the bride's finery (village bridal dresses could afford to be as grand as they often were because fairies saw that the weather didn't ruin them from one generation to the next), and her aunt in general didn't believe in messing with the weather.
The climax was a bit weird. I know it was supposed to be all jumbly and dreamy, but it was so overloaded on dreaminess that I couldn't really understand what the point was in some of the things they did. It was overall too long and convoluted for it to be really really a climax. Actually the whole thing was kind of long winded. Despite this, I still managed to enjoy it. What does that say?
Some of the characters felt a bit wooden and shallow, but overall I enjoyed them. The ending was alright. It was rushed and too quick, as though making up for having taken too long everywhere else.
what on earth was that castle? was it just Pernicia's castle? but why so out of the blue? they should have at least mentioned something about her castle beforehand. It was also kind of lame about each of the animals attacking in their own special ways. I mean seriously, licking and jumping at faceless people to death? You've got to be kidding me. And isn't Narl like at least 20 years older than Rosie?
Sometimes the sentences get very long and 'embedded'. So that I lose track of what it was talking about at the start. Sometimes it's not so much the length (as below) but also just really bad syntax.
She found it had to believe that the king and queen hadn't asked particularly that the weather today be fine; even her aunt had been known to make a tiny break in the clouds for a wedding-party to make a dash from the church to the pub where the food was without ruining the bride's finery (village bridal dresses could afford to be as grand as they often were because fairies saw that the weather didn't ruin them from one generation to the next), and her aunt in general didn't believe in messing with the weather.
The climax was a bit weird. I know it was supposed to be all jumbly and dreamy, but it was so overloaded on dreaminess that I couldn't really understand what the point was in some of the things they did. It was overall too long and convoluted for it to be really really a climax. Actually the whole thing was kind of long winded. Despite this, I still managed to enjoy it. What does that say?
Some of the characters felt a bit wooden and shallow, but overall I enjoyed them. The ending was alright. It was rushed and too quick, as though making up for having taken too long everywhere else.
Retelling of Sleeping beauty which starts with a witch stealing the baby princess and trekking across the country with her for weeks, with the help of local foxes and other animals. HOW AMAZING!!! The love interest is totally unexpected too, and it’s all just a complete party of cool female characters, even the pretty pink ones. The princess is a tomboy who communes with wildlife and hangs out with the blacksmith. Perfect.
3.5 stars
After feeling whelmed and underwhelmed by Beauty and Rose Daughter, I wasn’t really that excited to read Spindle’s End. Still, Meg had sent it as a present and she knows what’s up, so I took a brief McKinley break and dived in with an open mind. Spindle’s End is so much better, guys.
Unlike the Beauty and the Beast retellings, Spindle’s End is quite funny and also makes a lot of changes to the basic tale. McKinley’s writing in this book is simply lovely, lush and clever. I particularly enjoyed Katriona’s commentary on some of the traditional fairy tale elements, such as the wishes the fairy godmothers gave to the baby princess. She wonders practical things like why they wouldn’t give the princess an inability to be cursed instead of fat curls.
Rosie differs from the passive Sleeping Beauty of legend. She’s bombastic, strange, and stubborn, more comfortable around animals than humans. She doesn’t know she’s a princess, and she’d never ever want to be one. McKinley makes some truly epic changes to the end of the tale, and her version of Sleeping Beauty is truly original: View Spoiler ».
I feel a good bit of affection for these characters, but I didn’t ever get to an emotional place in Spindle’s End. Rosie and Katriona are the only characters who make it to fully fleshed out, and the romances are rushed. I want to strongly ship Rosie and her guy, but my mind could not turn off and ignore the age difference (or his ponytail).
If you’re into awesome fairy tale retellings (and how could you not be), you definitely need to read Spindle’s End if you already haven’t. Just prepare for it to be a super slow (but very good) read.
After feeling whelmed and underwhelmed by Beauty and Rose Daughter, I wasn’t really that excited to read Spindle’s End. Still, Meg had sent it as a present and she knows what’s up, so I took a brief McKinley break and dived in with an open mind. Spindle’s End is so much better, guys.
Unlike the Beauty and the Beast retellings, Spindle’s End is quite funny and also makes a lot of changes to the basic tale. McKinley’s writing in this book is simply lovely, lush and clever. I particularly enjoyed Katriona’s commentary on some of the traditional fairy tale elements, such as the wishes the fairy godmothers gave to the baby princess. She wonders practical things like why they wouldn’t give the princess an inability to be cursed instead of fat curls.
Rosie differs from the passive Sleeping Beauty of legend. She’s bombastic, strange, and stubborn, more comfortable around animals than humans. She doesn’t know she’s a princess, and she’d never ever want to be one. McKinley makes some truly epic changes to the end of the tale, and her version of Sleeping Beauty is truly original: View Spoiler ».
I feel a good bit of affection for these characters, but I didn’t ever get to an emotional place in Spindle’s End. Rosie and Katriona are the only characters who make it to fully fleshed out, and the romances are rushed. I want to strongly ship Rosie and her guy, but my mind could not turn off and ignore the age difference (or his ponytail).
If you’re into awesome fairy tale retellings (and how could you not be), you definitely need to read Spindle’s End if you already haven’t. Just prepare for it to be a super slow (but very good) read.
This is another of McKinley's less successful novels. Here some lenience on the part of her editors has allowed her to go off on tangents far more than is good for her or her readers. It could have been a delightful story with a bit of a firmer hand...
Hypnotic, tangled and often impenetrable narrative. The briar roses that grow up around the sleepers in this oddly compelling retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend are a good metaphor for how McKinley's words coil around each other in paths untraceable by me. There are lovely, memorable passages which exist almost independent of the story, one of which I think I'll keep forever.
"What you describe is how it happens to everyone: magic does slide through you, and disappear, and come back later looking like something else. And I'm sorry to tell you this, but where your magic lives will always be a great dark space with scraps you fumble for. You must learn to sniff them out in the dark."
At the end I'm left with the feeling of having read a lovely fairy tale, most of which was far beyond my ken.
"What you describe is how it happens to everyone: magic does slide through you, and disappear, and come back later looking like something else. And I'm sorry to tell you this, but where your magic lives will always be a great dark space with scraps you fumble for. You must learn to sniff them out in the dark."
At the end I'm left with the feeling of having read a lovely fairy tale, most of which was far beyond my ken.