Monday, June 6, 2022

A Spindle Splintered (Fractured Fables #1) by Alix E. Harrow (author), Amy Landon (narrator)

Macmillan Audio, ISBN 9781250824486, October 2021

It's Zinnia Gray's 21st birthday, and she does not expect to have a 22nd. Due to an industrial accident when she was a young child, she has a rare genetic disease, and no one with this disease has lived past 21. She's become quiet and not outgoing, but she does have one good friend, Charmaine--or Charm.

Charm has planned a perfect birthday party for Zinnia, built around the story of Sleeping Beauty, in the tower of an abandoned prison. Zinnia is not too sure about the perfectness of this, especially when she sees the spinning wheel, and its spindle. Nevertheless, Charm persuades her to prick her finger on the spindle--and finds herself falling through the multiverse, seeing a long line of "Sleeping Beauties." She calls out to them, and one calls back.

Zinnia finds herself pulled into the fairytale world of Perceforest, and the bedchamber of Princess Primrose.

Primrose is under pressure to marry Prince Charming; if she doesn't, the curse is going to send her into a deep sleep, perhaps forever. But Primrose does not like Prince Charming, nor does anyone considering him as a person, rather than as a suitable husband for the Princess. Zinnia doesn't like him, either, doesn't like the idea of being trapped here, and isn't inclined to play by the rules.

As unprepared as she is for the whole experience, she's most surprised of all to find that she still has a cellphone connection to Charm. What are the rules of this multiverse?

Soon the three young women are pooling their ideas and resources, looking for a solution to the different traps Primrose and Zinnia are in, and in Zinnia's case, those other Sleeping Beauties she saw as she fell through the multiverse.

It's a very interesting twist on the Sleeping Beauty tale, with fleshed-out characters and some real surprises.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

No comments:

Post a Comment