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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Good YA text. Integrates Holocaust history with fairy tale.
I was actually pretty underwhelmed for a while with this story of a girl searching for the reason behind her grandmother's obsession with her own version of the Briar Rose fairy tale. This involves piecing together her grandmother's Holocaust story. The novel is really slow at first, and somehow cheesy, and the dialogue is crappy so everything seems forced. However, a new character toward the end suddenly brings in his own really powerful (and juicy) story and explains the grandmother's, and the whole thing ties together very well.
Even thought this book is in fact fiction, it has real events and it's got a fairy tale twist.
"The bright tale of Sleeping Beauty, the dark tale of The Holocaust - twined together in a story you will never forget" (so it says on the book).
It's pretty much left me speechless, in a good way. I'm more trying to piece together Gemma's version of "Sleeping Beauty" that she told Sylvia, Shana and Becca (Becca being the only one to really believe her in the end) with the story you eventually find out.
It was a great book, fiction or not. It felt like it could be real...I mean with all the real places and talks of real camps and the nazis. This story just happened to surround the camp Chelmno or as some people called it, mostly germans..i believe, Kumlhof. It was a camp of extremination.
In the end it is Becca who finds all this out because she promised Gemma. Promised Gemma that she would find out. Gemma left a box of clues - old photographs, papers, newspaper clippings.
Read for yourself to find out the story.
"The bright tale of Sleeping Beauty, the dark tale of The Holocaust - twined together in a story you will never forget" (so it says on the book).
It's pretty much left me speechless, in a good way. I'm more trying to piece together Gemma's version of "Sleeping Beauty" that she told Sylvia, Shana and Becca (Becca being the only one to really believe her in the end) with the story you eventually find out.
It was a great book, fiction or not. It felt like it could be real...I mean with all the real places and talks of real camps and the nazis. This story just happened to surround the camp Chelmno or as some people called it, mostly germans..i believe, Kumlhof. It was a camp of extremination.
In the end it is Becca who finds all this out because she promised Gemma. Promised Gemma that she would find out. Gemma left a box of clues - old photographs, papers, newspaper clippings.
Read for yourself to find out the story.
I just finished reading Briar Rose by Jane Yolen last night and wow, what a ride! 🏰✨ This retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale weaves in themes of memory, trauma, and the impact of history in such a beautifully poignant way. The way Yolen blends the fairy tale with the haunting realities of the Holocaust is both powerful and moving.
The story follows Rebecca, a young woman trying to uncover the truth about her grandmother, who told the tale of Briar Rose as a way to shield her from the horrors of her past. As Rebecca digs deeper, she discovers a connection between the fairy tale and her grandmother’s experiences during World War II. The dual narrative, shifting between Rebecca’s journey and the dark fairy tale, creates this captivating tension that kept me flipping the pages.
The characters are so well-crafted, especially the juxtaposition of the magical world of Briar Rose and the stark reality of the Holocaust. It’s a perfect mix of enchanting and heartbreaking, and Yolen’s lyrical prose makes the emotional weight of the story hit hard. If you’re a fan of fairy tales with a twist, this one’s definitely for you!
If I had to nitpick, I wished some parts had been explored a bit more, especially the backstory of some secondary characters, but overall, it’s a must-read that stays with you long after you close the book.
The story follows Rebecca, a young woman trying to uncover the truth about her grandmother, who told the tale of Briar Rose as a way to shield her from the horrors of her past. As Rebecca digs deeper, she discovers a connection between the fairy tale and her grandmother’s experiences during World War II. The dual narrative, shifting between Rebecca’s journey and the dark fairy tale, creates this captivating tension that kept me flipping the pages.
The characters are so well-crafted, especially the juxtaposition of the magical world of Briar Rose and the stark reality of the Holocaust. It’s a perfect mix of enchanting and heartbreaking, and Yolen’s lyrical prose makes the emotional weight of the story hit hard. If you’re a fan of fairy tales with a twist, this one’s definitely for you!
If I had to nitpick, I wished some parts had been explored a bit more, especially the backstory of some secondary characters, but overall, it’s a must-read that stays with you long after you close the book.
This was not what I expected. I really thought it would be a retelling of a fairy tale for a YA audience. I could swear I got it off of one of those lists. I was looking for something quick and fun to read. It was quick, but it wasn't all that fun. I thought the parts about the Holocaust were gritty and honest and I don't know if "enjoyed" is the right word, but I did appreciate reading them. There was a lot that just seemed to easy, however. This girl is searching for answers about her grandmother and she just happens to meet the right person time and again who recognize the grandmother in the photo or themselves in the photo. I know that reading about dead end after dead end isn't dramatic, but it's more real and I thought that's what we were actually going for here. There were some great parts to the book, and a lot of not great parts. I thought the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty connections was solely a plot device and wasn't needed at all. And reading about the Holocaust while living through our current political climate is very interesting.
VERY OPINIONATED REVIEW THAT INCLUDES SPOILERS.
Let’s start with the concept. The idea of telling a fairy tale through the lens of a true, disturbing piece of history is fascinating.
To take an event like the HOLOCAUST, an event smeared with murder, racism, political corruption, ethnic cleansing, white supremacy, ableism, homophobia, genocide, etc etc etc
Most people don’t want to fictionally touch the Holocaust with a ten foot pole, and risk romanticizing/sentimentalizing/disrespecting said event.
HOWEVER.The actual act of telling a fictional story in a dark context? I personally don’t find it offensive - if anything, it can provide learning and enlightenment on a dark subject (particularly children), and can make it digestible to the public. Providing an emotional connection to a dark event, without being overly triggering or graphic.
The author of Briar Rose is actually a children’s author. I have read another one of her novels - it is another fictional story about the Holocaust and involves time travel. It’s actually quite well done.
The author was inspired to write Sleeping Beauty, set during the Holocaust, when she heard that the Chelmno concentration camp was a castle. (Before it was destroyed by Nazis to hide evidence).
The author is also Jewish, which probably matters if the book is going to specifically portray the Jewish experience.
Okay - so we have a Jewish children’s author, inspired by true history, we have a good foundation, right?
WRONG.
I’m gonna throw the author a bone here. The book was written in the early 90s, before we had access to every information ever on the press of a button. So researching was more tedious and restrictive than now.
However.
Historical inaccuracy:
Chelmno was not a castle. The camp consisted of a “manor” and forest clearing. This was not a camp like Auschwitz that had thousands of prisoners in barracks and bunks at any given time. Chelmno was essentially - arrive and die. The forest clearing had mass graves, and the “manor” was where operations happened - undressing, sorting through victims’ items, and then being directed into the vans where they were gassed.
Is this a big deal? I mean, my inclination is that if the inspiration behind the book was a castle concentration camp, then yes, this matters. Plus - it isn’t like prisoners lived within the manor, or lived within the grounds of the manor. They had several prisoners for slave labour and to work as Sonderkommando. Otherwise, they weren’t housing Jews. Chelmno was the very definition of the word extermination camp.
Alright. Let’s get into the plot:
Gemma is a mysterious old woman who has a granddaughter named Rebecca. She tells her the story of Briar Rose as she grows up (German name for Sleeping Beauty). Then as she’s old and dying she says “I am Briar Rose” and as she croaks she says some sort of quest roll initiative line to Rebecca about “go find the kingdom” or some shit like that. So Rebecca very realistically drops absolutely everything in life(??) and journeys to Poland without doing any research on anything ever. Then she is shocked to find out that many Poles are still anti-Semitic to this day. (Which is accurate, so points are given there).
She magically finds some people who happen to know this person who knew this person and are trilingual who fill in the gaps. Rebecca learns that this is Grandma’s story:
Grandma went to Chelmno castle. Grandma was gassed in one of the vans hooked up to the castle. (This is semi true. Jews at Chelmno were gassed via vans attached to the rooms of the manor.)
Dead grandma was thrown in a mass grave, conveniently at the top of a pile of bodies.
Some RANDOM GUYS(??????) are walking through the woods and happen upon (??????) the MASS GRAVES AT CHELMNO and see young Grandma Gemma at the top of the pile.
Even though Grandma Gemma was GASSED AND SHOULD BE DEAD she is gasping for air!
So one of the guys goes down and gives her CPR (aka the sleeping beauty kiss) and she LIVES.
But everybody else in the castle is in a deep sleep forever…and unlike the fairy tale Briar Rose…they won’t wake up from the spell.
The “prince” who gave her the kiss of life is gay (...why?) and in love with one of the men in the group (again...why? what purpose does this serve?). So they don’t end up together. She falls in love and gets pregnant by one of the other random guys (the same one the prince is in love with…why?) from the forest but all of them are captured by Nazis and killed except her and the gay prince.
She goes back to America, tells her boyfriend that her grandma was Sleeping Beauty with a sad ending and her boyfriend says “but we’ll have a happy ending.”
I think the plot is sloppy. When reading the book, there is zero character arc with Rebecca so you don’t have any sort of investment in her learning Grandma’s identity. We don’t know enough about her, or her relationship with Grandma, to know why this is so important to her.
The book cannot decide if Rebecca or Grandma Gemma is the protagonist. Yes - this story could be told where both of them are, but that isn’t how the book reads. Both characters are similar in a way that doesn’t seem intentional, more likely through clumsy writing where there isn’t enough distinction in how the character operates, speaks, thinks, etc. As well, both characters are not flushed out enough to guide the reader's focus, or to have significant emotional attachment to the characters.
Is the conflict in the book Grandma Gemma hiding her identity (including from her family) her entire life? Is this trauma from former persecution of who she was? This is not explored at all.
Is the conflict in the book the survival of Gemma in a castle concentration camp? No, because the story doesn’t actually directly tell the narrative of Gemma’s experience - it’s told through still alive gay Prince to Rebecca in the present.
So the central conflict is Rebecca finding out about Grandma - which to me, seems the least profound arc this book could have had.
Her finding out is also met with little struggle. The only barrier from her achieving this goal is A. When she gets to Poland it’s tricky for maybe a few pages to find people who were there. This is poor storytelling - the standard for novels, plays, etc. Character wants something. Insert struggle to get something. End.
Sleeping Beauty set during the Holocaust. THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. THERE COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH ARTSY FARTSY INTERESTING DARK WONDER. And it was garbage.
What is the message of the book? How did using Sleeping Beauty as an allegory strengthen, reinforce, or reveal that message? (Spoiler: it didn't)
Let’s start with the concept. The idea of telling a fairy tale through the lens of a true, disturbing piece of history is fascinating.
To take an event like the HOLOCAUST, an event smeared with murder, racism, political corruption, ethnic cleansing, white supremacy, ableism, homophobia, genocide, etc etc etc
Most people don’t want to fictionally touch the Holocaust with a ten foot pole, and risk romanticizing/sentimentalizing/disrespecting said event.
HOWEVER.The actual act of telling a fictional story in a dark context? I personally don’t find it offensive - if anything, it can provide learning and enlightenment on a dark subject (particularly children), and can make it digestible to the public. Providing an emotional connection to a dark event, without being overly triggering or graphic.
The author of Briar Rose is actually a children’s author. I have read another one of her novels - it is another fictional story about the Holocaust and involves time travel. It’s actually quite well done.
The author was inspired to write Sleeping Beauty, set during the Holocaust, when she heard that the Chelmno concentration camp was a castle. (Before it was destroyed by Nazis to hide evidence).
The author is also Jewish, which probably matters if the book is going to specifically portray the Jewish experience.
Okay - so we have a Jewish children’s author, inspired by true history, we have a good foundation, right?
WRONG.
I’m gonna throw the author a bone here. The book was written in the early 90s, before we had access to every information ever on the press of a button. So researching was more tedious and restrictive than now.
However.
Historical inaccuracy:
Chelmno was not a castle. The camp consisted of a “manor” and forest clearing. This was not a camp like Auschwitz that had thousands of prisoners in barracks and bunks at any given time. Chelmno was essentially - arrive and die. The forest clearing had mass graves, and the “manor” was where operations happened - undressing, sorting through victims’ items, and then being directed into the vans where they were gassed.
Is this a big deal? I mean, my inclination is that if the inspiration behind the book was a castle concentration camp, then yes, this matters. Plus - it isn’t like prisoners lived within the manor, or lived within the grounds of the manor. They had several prisoners for slave labour and to work as Sonderkommando. Otherwise, they weren’t housing Jews. Chelmno was the very definition of the word extermination camp.
Alright. Let’s get into the plot:
Gemma is a mysterious old woman who has a granddaughter named Rebecca. She tells her the story of Briar Rose as she grows up (German name for Sleeping Beauty). Then as she’s old and dying she says “I am Briar Rose” and as she croaks she says some sort of quest roll initiative line to Rebecca about “go find the kingdom” or some shit like that. So Rebecca very realistically drops absolutely everything in life(??) and journeys to Poland without doing any research on anything ever. Then she is shocked to find out that many Poles are still anti-Semitic to this day. (Which is accurate, so points are given there).
She magically finds some people who happen to know this person who knew this person and are trilingual who fill in the gaps. Rebecca learns that this is Grandma’s story:
Grandma went to Chelmno castle. Grandma was gassed in one of the vans hooked up to the castle. (This is semi true. Jews at Chelmno were gassed via vans attached to the rooms of the manor.)
Dead grandma was thrown in a mass grave, conveniently at the top of a pile of bodies.
Some RANDOM GUYS(??????) are walking through the woods and happen upon (??????) the MASS GRAVES AT CHELMNO and see young Grandma Gemma at the top of the pile.
Even though Grandma Gemma was GASSED AND SHOULD BE DEAD she is gasping for air!
So one of the guys goes down and gives her CPR (aka the sleeping beauty kiss) and she LIVES.
But everybody else in the castle is in a deep sleep forever…and unlike the fairy tale Briar Rose…they won’t wake up from the spell.
The “prince” who gave her the kiss of life is gay (...why?) and in love with one of the men in the group (again...why? what purpose does this serve?). So they don’t end up together. She falls in love and gets pregnant by one of the other random guys (the same one the prince is in love with…why?) from the forest but all of them are captured by Nazis and killed except her and the gay prince.
She goes back to America, tells her boyfriend that her grandma was Sleeping Beauty with a sad ending and her boyfriend says “but we’ll have a happy ending.”
I think the plot is sloppy. When reading the book, there is zero character arc with Rebecca so you don’t have any sort of investment in her learning Grandma’s identity. We don’t know enough about her, or her relationship with Grandma, to know why this is so important to her.
The book cannot decide if Rebecca or Grandma Gemma is the protagonist. Yes - this story could be told where both of them are, but that isn’t how the book reads. Both characters are similar in a way that doesn’t seem intentional, more likely through clumsy writing where there isn’t enough distinction in how the character operates, speaks, thinks, etc. As well, both characters are not flushed out enough to guide the reader's focus, or to have significant emotional attachment to the characters.
Is the conflict in the book Grandma Gemma hiding her identity (including from her family) her entire life? Is this trauma from former persecution of who she was? This is not explored at all.
Is the conflict in the book the survival of Gemma in a castle concentration camp? No, because the story doesn’t actually directly tell the narrative of Gemma’s experience - it’s told through still alive gay Prince to Rebecca in the present.
So the central conflict is Rebecca finding out about Grandma - which to me, seems the least profound arc this book could have had.
Her finding out is also met with little struggle. The only barrier from her achieving this goal is A. When she gets to Poland it’s tricky for maybe a few pages to find people who were there. This is poor storytelling - the standard for novels, plays, etc. Character wants something. Insert struggle to get something. End.
Sleeping Beauty set during the Holocaust. THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. THERE COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH ARTSY FARTSY INTERESTING DARK WONDER. And it was garbage.
What is the message of the book? How did using Sleeping Beauty as an allegory strengthen, reinforce, or reveal that message? (Spoiler: it didn't)
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Good book especially for younger readers to enjoy a look at history through a story from
I thought this was going to be like Robin McKinley's Beauty. It wasn't a fairy tale retelling as much as it was a Holocaust story about Polish Jews and homosexuals who were sent off to extermination camps in Poland. I think I might have liked it a little more had I known what I was about to read, but I was expecting something totally different.
Great book! I love Jane Yolen's writing. This is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty set in both modern times and WWII.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very engaging and an interesting adaptation of sleeping beauty- was missing a little bit of umph