book cover of A Spindle Splintered
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A Spindle Splintered

(2021)
(The first book in the Fractured Fables series)
A novel by

 
 
Awards
2022 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella (nominee)
2022 Hugo Award for Best Novella (nominee)
2022 Locus Award for Best Novella (nominee)

USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered brings her patented charm to a new version of a classic story. Featuring Arthur Rackham's original illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty, fractured and reimagined.

“A vivid, subversive and feminist reimagining of
Sleeping Beauty, where implacable destiny is no match for courage, sisterhood, stubbornness and a good working knowledge of fairy tales.” —Katherine Arden

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.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genre: Fantasy

Praise for this book

"A vivid,subversive, and feminist reimagining of Sleeping Beauty." - Katherine Arden

"In this enchanting and devastatingly poignant novella the constructs of the fairytales we know and love are broken wide open, exposing their raw and often tragic origins. A wonderfully imaginative, and Queer as hell, tale for those who who wish to be the authors of their own stories." - Kalynn Bayron

"Like Into the Spider-Verse for Disney princesses, A Spindle Splintered is a delightful mash-up featuring Alix E. Harrow's trademark beautiful prose and whip-smart characters. Both emotionally touching and side-splittingly funny, Harrow weaves a gripping narrative that bridges the gap between fairy tale tropes and the sci-fi multiverse. Like the best fairy tales, it's as unique as it is memorable." - Mike Chen

"A Spindle Splintered is a princess story gone rogue. At times sweet and funny, at others bitingly acerbic, this whirlwind tour of fairyland jabs at the old happily-ever-afters -- and asks whether we might want more than a prince and a palace." - Kerstin Hall

"Alix Harrow takes traditonal fairy tales, turns them inside out, then upside down, and uses them to kick ass. Brava!" - Ellen Klages

"What I love about Alix Harrow's work is that her stories are clearly written by someone who loves and knows stories, featuring characters who also love and know stories. This is a self-aware, empowered riff on Sleeping Beauty that manages to be thrilling, funny, smart, and sweet." - Sarah Pinsker


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