The short length, brisk pace, and pop-culture references definitely make this young-adult friendly, though anyone who enjoys a sarcastic first-person narrator can take this for a spin.

But not so-despite pleas from Charm over many texts which are inexplicably still received-because Zin has just found a purpose beyond waiting for her last breath: “I’ve fallen out of my own story and into one that might have a happy ending.” Zin’s arrival in Prim’s world prevented Prim from pricking herself on her spinning wheel, and if her curse can be altered, what about Zin’s? The one-dimensional world of Prim’s Disney-like universe sets the tone for a rather one-dimensional quest to alter fate, but themes of female friendship, female strength, and female independence leave good feels behind, not to mention some laugh-out-loud bits. Given that Zin has found herself in a strange place lacking modern medicine, you’d think she’d be quick to get home. That is, until she pricks her finger on the needle of the party-decor spinning wheel and is thrown into a parallel reality with a more standard-model Sleeping Beauty named Primrose. Zin has just turned 21, and not even a Sleeping Beauty–themed party thrown by her best friend, Charm, can distract her from impending eternal sleep. She has a disease called Generalized Roseville Malady and no one with it has lived to see the age of 22. A dying girl who refused to die.' But Zin’s curse is a bit more permanent. “It was my own shitty story made mythic and grand and beautiful. She’s not actually Sleeping Beauty, but she considers herself a kindred spirit of sorts. Harrow’s version of the sleeping princess is from Ohio.

A modern Sleeping Beauty determined to rewrite her story finds purpose in her life’s curse.

Download a spindle splintered