A Spindle Splintered

Alix E. Harrow

USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered brings her patented charm to a new version of a classic story.

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.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(3.5 / 5) Two women are stuck in circumstances beyond their control . They are cursed in different ways which either leads to them dying or living a life out of their control.

We follow Zinnia who has a rare genetic disorder where her system shuts down and she dies around age 21. It goes in to her life, her parents and focusing so much on the disease instead of living. Then she takes a chance and doors open for her, lights are turned on for her and she finds herself. It was amazing to see her change in thoughts and attitude.

Zinnia has a deep love for the story of Sleeping Beauty due the the similarities in their fate. Zinnia accidentally travels to a fairy tale world and finds another woman in similar circumstances. This woman is desperate to avoid her designated fate as well. Together, they find more to join in changing their outcomes and embark on a journey.

The book is about dying, but more about living. It’s about love, second chances and finding what you want in life. I have a decorative block saying “Live, don’t survive.” There is so much about life that we just endure or survive, and this was a great reminder to find the joy. I loved that the focus of the book was about living.

Initially, the humor in the book struck me as hilarious. Eventually, it lost it’s spark and wasn’t as funny anymore. Maybe it was overdone? Or maybe it was just very out of place in the fairy tale world? Either way, it started to fall flat. This book is only about 130 pages, so it is considered a novella, but it surprised me how quickly I lost interest. Overall, I loved the message but never felt connected enough to the characters.

Content Summary: F words: 15, very small LGBTQ f/f relationship, medical talk about dying and disease.

Thank you to Tor Books for the gifted novella copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases October 5, 2021.

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