Friday, January 22, 2016

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Chris Riddell

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4 Stars
 
“There are choices. There are always choices.”

It seems every time I delve into the world of a retelling I begin by pointing out how much I didn’t care for the original. I guess it should come as no surprise that Snow White and Sleeping Beauty weren’t my idea of a great time when I was a kid either. In fact, the entire world of Disney princesses kinda creeps me out – unless it’s these kind of princesses . . . .

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But I digress.

Due to the above, I didn’t have high expectations upon starting The Sleeper and the Spindle and was pleasantly surprised with the end result of this mashup. The story is about a young queen (Snow White) who is given word by three of her loyal followers (dwarfs) about a sleeping sickness that fell over a neighboring kingdom decades before, but has begun to spread. Unlike all the pansy-ass Disney broads, this queen decides to take care of the problem herself. You know why????? Because . . . .

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While I generally fall into the “idiot overzealous fangirl” side of the spectrum when it comes to Gaiman, this one wasn’t quite as good as Snow, Glass, Apples so it hovered around the 3.5 mark. I’m rounding up, however, because there was a little more to the story than met the eye that left Mitchell and I looking something like this . . . .



And also because it was oh so very pretty to look at . . .

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I mean REALLY pretty . . . .

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My friend Sam disagrees with me about per near errrrrything, but somehow I still like him anyway. (In this case it’s probably because he’s so much smarter than I am and I have to acknowledge he probably read this correctly and I just got mesmerized with the pretty pictures and the fact that the female lead wasn't some douchey damsel in distress). If you want to see what the “meh” crowd thought about The Sleeper and the Spindle, go check out his review.

This selection was chosen for my library’s Winter Reading Challenge. Many thanks to Tadiana for the recommendation. Three more books and the limited edition coffee mug will be MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!

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