A review by gabrielle07mcm
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

3.0

I'm a huge fan of Holocaust historical fiction. It's my favourite historical fiction genre to read about. When Goodreads recommended this book to me, I decided to buy it second hand on Amazon. This novel was one that I was expecting to love, but it fell somewhat short of that expectation.

The novel switches between past and present in varying chapters, giving you background as to why this fairytale applies so much to the story. This was slightly off-putting for me, as it just seemed to be constantly retelling and retelling the fairy tale of Briar Rose, or Sleeping Beauty. I was tempted to put the book down and DNF it, but I decided to keep going. I'm glad I did.

This review up until 3/4 through was going to be given a 2 star. However, once we went into 3/4 and heard the priest telling the story, I found the book was difficult to put down. I wanted to know what went on, what happened and more. Due to this change of narrative and, what seemed to me, better writing from Yolen, I pushed it up to 3 star.

I do recommend this book to learn more about the lesser-known camps and the horrors that went on there.