A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow is feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty. A Spindle Splintered is a novella and the 1st book in a series called Fractured Fables. This story is not you typical retelling, this book starts off in the real world and calls out how creepy and how the story hurts women, then the main character goes into the fairy tale, which reminded me of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, where some of the events in the story happened but are changed. The story is brutal in it’s knocking of the damsel in distress. The story cleverly ties the story of sleeping beauty to real word event, and telling the heartbreaking truth of where the fairy tale originated from. The story is fast paced for a book that is 128 pages I was able to read it easily in a day. The story is both fun and depressing, the story feels very “me too” conscious and doesn’t shy away from harsh truths but it is also filled with fun girl power moments and sassy pop culture references. The story is very LGBTQIA+ friendly with the main members of the cast all being representatives. The story is clever at times but goes a bit bonkers at certain points. The ending was okay, I wanted better.

The Plot Summary: Zinnia Gray is turning 21 and this is the last she will ever have, she is just like her favorite character Sleeping Beauty on her 21st birthday she will prick her finger and go in a 100 years sleep. On Zinnia’s 21 her best friend Charm sets up a sleeping beauty themed birthday with a spindle, when Zinnia pricks her finger she is transported in to the story of sleeping beauty. Zinnia takes it on herself not to make Sleeping Beauty a victim and stops her from pricking her finger. They go to the spell caster and find out maybe it wasn’t a curse at all but a blessing.

What I Liked: The pop culture references were great I could of had a lot more. I think the story does a great job at analyzing Sleeping Beauty and what the story means and where the origin does come from. The girl power moment was crazy but I loved it so much. I love the character of Charm Zinnia’s best friend, she has great lines and love most of what happened with her character. I liked how the story was told. I liked the LGTBQIA+ characters being represented.

What I Disliked: I thought Zinnia and Charm were a couple so I was upset when one of them start going after someone else, then I thought maybe a throuple situation was going on, but I guess Zinnia and Charm weren’t together just very close friends, there relationship could have been way better established. The ending was trying to do it was all a dream, and it’s real. It should’ve picked one.

Recommendation: I think women are going to get a lot more out of this than I did. I thought this novella had some real shining moments, that girl power scene was so awesome. I will recommend you checking it out if you love fairy tale retelling, if you love LGTBQIA+ main characters, and if you love feminist stories. I rated A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow 3 stars. This book was such a toss up whether 3 or 4 I felt it was slightly a 3 over a 4.