Audiobook Review – A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables, Book 1) by Alix E. Harrow (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tales Retold
Length: 126 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: October 5, 2021
ASIN: B08PSFF6PM
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Fractured Fables
Source: Borrowed on Audiobook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“It’s Zinnia Gray’s twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it’s the last birthday she’ll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no-one has lived past twenty-one.
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia’s last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in the Fractured Fables novella series I borrowed a copy of this on audiobook from the library.
Thoughts: I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. I enjoyed this. It is a well done extension of The Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that ties in with parallel realities. I engaged with the characters right away and enjoyed the simple but engaging storyline.
The book follows Zinnia who has a rare medical condition that means she will die in her early 20’s. In an effort to make her 21st birthday super special her best friend, Charm, reenacts a scene from Sleeping Beauty, Zinnia’s favorite fairy tale. Unfortuantely, things don’t go as planned and Zinnia is whisked off to another realm, where a princess named Primrose is dodging her own forever sleep.
This was one of those pleasant fairy tale extensions that was just a nice, simple read. While there isn’t anything super special about this I enjoyed the characters, how humorous and heart-felt it was, and the interesting discussions around classic fairy tales.
Zinnia is a fairly likable character who’s been doomed to die young as long as she can remember. She jumps at the idea of helping Primrose eliminate her curse. There are a lot of parallels drawn between long-term illness and curses.
The book also discusses old fairy tales (like the origin fairy tales) their violence towards women and how helpless women are in a lot of them. I love how this story flipped a lot of those old tales and curses on their head and focused on how women can help other women instead.
There is a parallel universe aspect to the whole thing that felt a bit forced, but worked fine for describing why Zinnia got whisked to another world. This also provided a decent plot device for why Zinnia can journey to other worlds in future books in this series.
My Summary (4/5): Overall, while this isn’t anything groundbreaking or amazing, I enjoyed it. It’s a nice contemporary fantasy that explores and expands on the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. There are fun characters, some intriguing parallel world elements, and just a nice, relatively simple, fairy tale extension story. It was well written and fun to read. I would recommend if you enjoy modern sorts of fairy tale retellings and want a short read or listen.
