Spindle's End

I haven't written a book review since middle school. But here we go. Robin McKinley likes to retell fairy tales in her own way. This one was about Sleeping Beauty, based loosely on the fairy tale. It's interesting, because you kind of know where the story is going and how it will end, but a few surprises catch you that much more off guard.

We thought it was interesting that "Sleeping Beauty" aka Rosie was not the sweet innocent girly-girl that Disney's version makes her out to be. All the "gifts" her fairy godparents gave her back-fired; she hated her curly gold hair and chopped it off; she couldn't stand to sew; etc, etc. We really enjoyed this take on the characters, and thought it was funny.

We did not like how the author kept doing flashbacks. It was so confusing to keep the story-line straight and figure out what time was when and who was where. There were flashbacks inside of flashbacks inside of flashbacks! The ending was a little unbelievable too...where suddenly they solve things based not on the characters own power or ideas but that they pulled things literally out of thin air. And these were the non-magical characters! A little strange.

But still, I did enjoy reading it. It was an interesting take on the story and really added to the fairy tale. And Rosie was funny; I like non-girlie main characters. :)