“‘Once upon a time,’ he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.”
― Kate DiCamillo
I’m a big fan of fairy tales 🙂. They illustrate the power and importance of storytelling so well. And one of the reasons for their enduring appeal is the way they’re constantly being updated. No matter your age or reading preferences, there’s a fairy tale retelling out there somewhere that delivers.
My Five Fairy Tales series has been a brilliant excuse for me to discover retellings written for a YA audience. After previous posts about Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin, today I’ve chosen Sleeping Beauty. (I might have been influenced a little bit by Averine and Kellan in Lost in Magic!)
Most of the traditional fairy tales have more than one origin story, and Sleeping Beauty is no exception. The Brothers Grimm published their version—Little Briar Rose—in the early nineteenth century. However, the earliest story dates back all the way back to the fourteenth century and features a princess named Zellandine alongside a man named Troylus. It’s part of a much longer piece but includes several familiar elements, including an enchanted sleep triggered by a piece of flax from a spinning wheel.
Apparently, Zellandine was cursed when one of the goddesses invited to the celebration of her birth was given inferior cutlery! Another fascinating detail is that Sir Lancelot, a famous knight from the Arthurian legend, is described as being descended from Zellandine and Troylus.
Sleeping Beauty can be reimagined in a lot of different ways, and I was spoilt for choice when I researched books for today’s post.
I hope there’s a book on my shortlist that you find interesting, and thank you very much for visiting my blog today 💕.
Some inheritances are deadlier than others.
There is so much going on with this book! The beautiful cover, two Sleeping Beauties (twins Aura and Luna), their intriguing backstory, the magic they wield, and the fact that Prince Phillip’s brother (Luna’s love interest) was killed by Aura before the story even begins.
Aura and Luna, the twins, are almost eighteen. They inherited a curse from the dark faery who exploited their mother’s desperate desire to have a child. In the first couple of chapters, Aura is presented as an evil serial killer who will stop at nothing to ruin her sister’s life. Luna, on the other hand, only wants one person dead. (Aura, in case that’s not obvious.) Prince Phillip is searching for his missing brother and is seemingly oblivious to exactly how dangerous Aura’s magic can be. I’m looking forward to finding out the truth behind those opening scenes!
Here's a short extract from the beginning of the book:
One by one, people began disappearing from the palace and from our lives. It wasn’t until I watched her kill the woman who had raised us without a flicker of hesitation, that I realized it had been Aura making them disappear. It was always her. She’d been killing for years, slaughtering anyone who got in her way.
The mattress dipped under her weight. My blood began to boil. It took everything in me not to backhand her off the bed.
“Do you miss him?”
My eyes snapped open, fixating on her radiant smile, her sunshine hair. She spoke of him as casually as she would the weather. Aura laughed as if she knew what I’d been thinking.
“Sleep walk with me.” Rising from the bed, she took a few steps and glanced over her shoulder, waiting for me to join her. “I think I’ll let him join us today,” she offered.
Sci-fi Sleeping Beauty.
I love the idea of a fairy tale set in space. After all, science fiction and magic aren’t that dissimilar to each other when the technology is really advanced. In this story, sixteen-year-old Rosalind (Rose) gets stuck in stasis for sixty-two years before her reanimation sequence is accidentally triggered by a boy called Brendan. He panics, thinking he’s killed her, and tries resuscitation (which is a neat way to incorporate the infamous kiss).
Millions died in the Dark Times while Rose was asleep, including her parents. She’s alone in this new and unfamiliar world. The people who assumed control of her parents’ business, UniCorp, aren’t necessarily delighted at the prospect of handing it back. And there’s something sinister lurking in the wings, something that’s more like a computer than a human being, and Rose’s reappearance has gotten its attention in the worst of ways.
Here's a short extract from the beginning of the book:
“She has no family.” That was the older male.
“She has UniCorp, and that means me,” said the younger one. “Imagine waking up to discover she’s the sole surviving heiress to an interplanetary empire!”
“We aren’t an empire,” was the older man’s gruff reply. “Honestly, Reggie, I think you have delusions of grandeur.”
“Well, who do you think should be responsible, then? You?” There was no response, so the younger man continued. “This is mostly your fault, anyway. This would be so much easier if you’d left well enough alone. If you’d let me sign her over to the social services anonymously, it wouldn’t even be in question. It’s not as if anyone would believe her story.” He sighed. “I don’t know why we even had to tell the board, or the state. We could have given her a new identity. I doubt her memory’s very strong.”
“Because that wouldn’t be right,” said the older man, with a bite to his words that kept even the imperious one from arguing.
True love but with free will and absolutely no damsels in distress.
I was drawn to this one because although the beginning is quite similar to the original Sleeping Beauty, the main characters are not. They might be living in a fairy tale, but that doesn’t mean they’re beholden to the stereotypes.
Prince Leopold (Leo) has volunteered to rescue the princess from her cursed slumber not for glory or riches but to protect his brothers and his kingdom. He makes it clear that he sees the princess as a person and absolutely not as a prize. His guide in this endeavour, Talia, doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind and obviously knows what she’s doing when it comes to surviving the dangers of the evil forest.
The stakes are high from the outset. Many others have tried and failed to rescue Briar-Rose, and the majority were lost to the forest in the process. Almost one hundred years have passed since the start of the curse, which means the evil fairy is about to escape. That’s not good for Leo’s neighbouring kingdom and all of the people he cares about. I’m already rooting for him, and I’ve only read the first couple of chapters!
Here's an extract from the beginning of the book:
Dawn crackled along the horizon, like ribbons of liquid fire. Morning dew coated the ground. Leo tried to enjoy it, but he couldn’t shake the growing feeling of dread as the blackness of the forest grew larger. He doubted he would see much sunlight in there. What if this was the last true sunrise he ever knew?
“Nervous?” asked the old man.
“I’m about to enter a deadly forest by myself that has an impressively high mortality rate. Wouldn’t you be?”
The old man hooted. “Honest and amusing. You’ll do well.”
“I fail to see how either of those things will help me in there.”
“I don’t know, humour wards off insanity, or so I hear.”
“You’re really selling this experience for me.”
What happens after Sleeping Beauty opens her eyes?
Princess Aurora has woken from the curse, but that’s far from the end of her story. Her kingdom is broken, everyone she knows is dead, and the random prince who kissed her awake is definitely not her true love.
The opening chapters of this book focus on Aurora’s disorientation as she tries to understand what happened while she was asleep. The prince, Rodric, seems to be one in a long line of royal gate crashers who have tried to wake her over the years. She’s greeted by an overwhelming crowd of people that includes Rodric’s parents, the king and queen, who announce she will now marry their son. The queen in particular is unlikeable and more than a little overbearing.
And the weight of expectation is significant. The end of the curse is supposed to return magic to the kingdom. Rodric is supposed to be Aurora’s true love. Everyone is supposed to live happily ever after. But something tells me it’s not going to be so simple, and I’m looking forward to finding out how Aurora regains her autonomy.
Here’s an extract from the beginning of the book:
A heavy wooden door waited at the end of the staircase, blocking out all sound from beyond. Aurora stared at it. She had not walked through it in years, not since her father decided that even the rest of the castle was unsafe for her. It was longer than years now. Lifetimes. The door had marked the way out, the way to freedom, for her whole quiet little life. What was it now?
Rodric’s hand hovered over the brass knocker. The moment lingered, and then he nodded, once, and pushed. The door slid open, just an inch, wobbling as though uncertain whether to swing forward or slam shut.
“Well?” A sharp voice cut through the gap. “Is she awake?”
Sleeping Beauty’s lesser-known younger sister.
I’m so glad I downloaded the sample chapters of this book because it’s an original take and looks like a lot of fun 😊. Imagine a scenario where Sleeping Beauty’s parents were so upset by the spinning wheel curse that they asked one of the good fairies to do something to protect their second daughter, Annie, from ever suffering the same fate. Then imagine that the fairy’s solution was to make Annie completely and utterly impervious to magic.
On the face of it, not a bad solution, right? Except that magical gifts are the norm in the kingdom of Treecrest, at least if you’re a member of the aristocracy. Whenever the lords and ladies get within a few feet of Annie, their unmagical selves reappear, and suffice to say, none of them think this is a good thing. Even Annie’s parents would rather stay young and beautiful than get too close to their daughter.
When the curse is inevitably activated, Annie is the only one in the castle not affected. She sets off to find her sister’s true love, teaming up with a handsome prince in disguise while encountering lots of familiar characters from other fairy tales. Annie seems like a great protagonist, and I think she’s going to be more than equal to the challenge!
Here's an extract from the beginning of the book:
Annie joined another pair of guards and stayed with them while they finished inspecting the tower and the rooms below it. She knew she should go see her sister, who was probably still unwrapping presents, but she wanted to avoid having to listen to her go on and on about Prince Digby, the man Gwendolyn would probably marry.
Her parents both said that Gwendolyn and Digby were suited for each other. The magic of his own fairy godmothers had made him as handsome as Gwendolyn was beautiful. But Annie was convinced that by concentrating on his appearance, the fairies had forgotten a few very important qualities: Digby had as much intelligence as a block of stone and an equal amount of compassion for others. Annie didn’t like him, and he didn’t like Annie.
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