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A review by madimun
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
3.0
***
"sleeping beauty is the worst fairytale, pretty much anyway you slice it. It's aimless and amoral and chauvinist as shit. Even among the other nerds who majored in folklore, 'sleeping beauty' is nobody's favorite. The romantic girls like 'beauty and the beast'; vanilla girls like 'snow white.' only the dying girls like 'sleeping beauty'."
- A Spindle Splintered, Alix E. Harrow 2021
***
If you're looking for a fast read, this is your book. Because, it's short. Really short.
The tale begins with a dying girl, Zinnia, struggling with her mortality whom also has an unhealthy relationship with fairy tales. When her best friend, Charm (see what they did there?), throws her a 'sleeping beauty' themed 21st birthday, Zin pricks her finger on the spindle and, you guessed it, jumps timelines to another dimension - one that involves a very familiar girl in a very familiar predicament.
The story was not what I expected at all, but in many good ways. I loved Zin's narrative and her quirky one-liners. The friendship she forms with Prim is adorable in all the 'warm butterflies' kind of way.
I wish the story was longer. I wish it had been more fleshed out. I felt that what Alix was doing with parallel universes and stories was refreshing and new. I hope that next time, she does us all a favor and makes a longer book; one full of all the adventure and sarcasm that she already gave us a small taste of.
"sleeping beauty is the worst fairytale, pretty much anyway you slice it. It's aimless and amoral and chauvinist as shit. Even among the other nerds who majored in folklore, 'sleeping beauty' is nobody's favorite. The romantic girls like 'beauty and the beast'; vanilla girls like 'snow white.' only the dying girls like 'sleeping beauty'."
- A Spindle Splintered, Alix E. Harrow 2021
***
If you're looking for a fast read, this is your book. Because, it's short. Really short.
The tale begins with a dying girl, Zinnia, struggling with her mortality whom also has an unhealthy relationship with fairy tales. When her best friend, Charm (see what they did there?), throws her a 'sleeping beauty' themed 21st birthday, Zin pricks her finger on the spindle and, you guessed it, jumps timelines to another dimension - one that involves a very familiar girl in a very familiar predicament.
The story was not what I expected at all, but in many good ways. I loved Zin's narrative and her quirky one-liners. The friendship she forms with Prim is adorable in all the 'warm butterflies' kind of way.
I wish the story was longer. I wish it had been more fleshed out. I felt that what Alix was doing with parallel universes and stories was refreshing and new. I hope that next time, she does us all a favor and makes a longer book; one full of all the adventure and sarcasm that she already gave us a small taste of.