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I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This starts with the basic Sleeping Beauty formula--a curse that can only be broken by true love's kiss, a beautiful girl, and powerful magic--and turns it on its head, adding dark, queer, complex elements to give depth to the story.
Of course, it's not a totally faithful retelling, which is for the better; instead we get a more fleshed-out origin story for Alyce (aka, Disney's Maleficent) that paints her as a well-intentioned, misunderstood Dark Grace who uses her magic to create potions that cause unfortunate effects (think hair falling out, skills being sapped, etc.) to its victims. When she meets Aurora is when the story starts to take off at a fast clip.
There are some plotholes that I take issue with (I won't share them here, as it would give away too much of the plot), but otherwise I was completely engaged throughout the story. I hope there's a sequel!
This starts with the basic Sleeping Beauty formula--a curse that can only be broken by true love's kiss, a beautiful girl, and powerful magic--and turns it on its head, adding dark, queer, complex elements to give depth to the story.
Of course, it's not a totally faithful retelling, which is for the better; instead we get a more fleshed-out origin story for Alyce (aka, Disney's Maleficent) that paints her as a well-intentioned, misunderstood Dark Grace who uses her magic to create potions that cause unfortunate effects (think hair falling out, skills being sapped, etc.) to its victims. When she meets Aurora is when the story starts to take off at a fast clip.
There are some plotholes that I take issue with (I won't share them here, as it would give away too much of the plot), but otherwise I was completely engaged throughout the story. I hope there's a sequel!