Fractured Fables
by Alix E. Harrow
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted September 29, 2021
Edits and Addendum on August 26, 2022
1. A Spindle Splintered / 2. A Mirror Mended
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I received an advance copy of this title from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. A Spindle Splintered will be released next week, October 5. I was going to use that title for this page, but before I finished reading I learned that Alix E. Harrow's reworking of the Sleeping Beauty story is just the first of a series titled Fractured Fables, the second title of which will be published next June. It's just a novella, a quick and enjoyable read, but I'm not sure if the next one will be as short. Anyone from my generation, or even younger, may remember the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment on The Bullwinkle Show. Those were a satirical look at stories we already knew so well. Harrow's take might not be considered satirical, but it is definitely irreverent. Zinnia Gray, the first person narrator, starts by declaring, "Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, any way you slice it."
Sleeping Beauty holds a particular fascination for Zinnia, since she is under the curse of an incurable disease, named Generalized Roseville Malady, after an environmental disaster in her home town that resulted in genetic birth defects. Her parents have been stoically supportive and hopeful of an eventual cure, but no one suffering from GRM has reached the age of twenty-two. Zinnia starts her story on her twenty-first birthday, the evening of which she spends with her best friend, Charmaine Baldwin, at their castle tower (actually a guard tower at a nearby decommissioned state penitentiary). Charm surprises her with a gift obtained from an antique store, a spinning wheel. Zinnia is at first appalled at Charm's poor taste, but eventually succumbs to taunts to prick her finger on the spindle. Before she can do that, she sees visions of other girls in the same predicament, one of whom is a very beautiful blonde, dressed as if a true princess, including tiara, and obviously in a genuine stone castle tower. Even though Zinnia cannot hear her, she knows the word on the other girl's lips is "Help." Reaching out for the spindle, Zinnia next finds herself in a bed in that castle, in a room with that beautiful blonde, whose name she learns is Primrose.
There is a reason fairy tales remain popular. They speak to issues that still resonate today, while at the same time they are being viewed and reworked from a modern perspective. Most people know the Disney versions, and may know they are generally based on stories by the Brothers Grimm, but even the Grimms were working from older works, many of which probably began as oral tales handed down through the ages before Charles Perrault wrote his stories over a century before the Grimms. One of the earliest versions of Sleeping Beauty, under the title Perceforest, and dating from at least the 14th Century, tells of the lovers Troylus and Zellandine. Zinnia cautions the reader not to google Zellandine, but I ignored that. One major difference in that story is that Troylus awakens his princess not just with a chaste kiss, if you catch my drift. Primrose lives in the kingdom of Perceforest, and has lived under the spectre of her curse for as long as she can remember. A major difference between Primrose and the Grimm's Briar Rose, or Disney's Aurora, is a determination to beat that fate. She can't help it that she falls under a spell at night, compelled to go to the tower, but during the day she schemes for ways to fight back. She is indifferent to the prince to whom she is betrothed, and Zinnia thinks she knows the major reason for that.
It doesn't take long for Zinnia to realize Primrose is not the shy and subservient girl from the stories. She is resentful of her lot in life, not wanting her fate to be tied to the whims of her father the king, or her intended husband the prince. She is also not physically weak, knowledgeable in the use of sword and knife, and an accomplished equestrian. With Zinnia's help, Primrose decides to venture into the forest in search of the witch who cursed her. There they find Zellandine, whose story is quite different than what they had assumed, and who gives them much needed information. They return to the castle with the intention of defying the curse and the king's wishes. I enjoyed this, while at the same time I foresaw several of the plot points well in advance. An interesting view on women taking charge of their lives and defying custom, most especially denying the patriarchy, which is the primary fault of most fairy tales. I don't want to reveal Zinnia's fate, but it is one thing that was not as expected. However, it should come as no surprise that Primrose eventually meets her Charming. Or I should say, her Charmaine. Recommended.
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Posted August 26, 2022:
I recall reading something from the author saying this second book in the Fractured Fables series is also the conclusion, so it's a duology. I can't find that reference now, but the story does have a satisfactory (if not definitive) end. Zinnia Gray still suffers from GRM, yet she has had a bit of a reprieve, a vague extension of her expected lifespan. She has been using her time trying to help other "sleeping beauties" escape their fates, and if she hasn't lost count her last adventure was the 49th. There is at least one more to go. Primrose has made a life with Charmaine, and Zinnia lives with them when she is not traveling through the fairy tale multiverse. Whether intended or not, I think the title of this second story has a dual meaning, but I didn't realize that until near the end.
On her most recent venture Zinnia had a romantic liason with a prince who had been rejected by that world's Sleeping Beauty. It was nice while it lasted, but she was also anxious to exit that world. While in the restroom she sees another woman in the mirror. That woman reaches out her hand, Zinnia does as well, but instead of her hand resting on the mirror she falls into it instead. When she comes back to consciousness she is in what she thinks is a secret laboratory, bound by metal shackles. She is pretty sure she knows who the woman is, even though it doesn't make sense. She is not in a Sleeping Beauty world, instead it's that of Snow White. She later starts calling the woman Eva, short for Evil Queen. After several escapes, recaptures, and encounters with various Snow Whites, Zinnia eventually makes it to a remote cottage in the woods, where she again encounters Zellandine. Both of them are confused by that since they are not in the right story. Zellandine concludes that Zinnia's travels and her actions in various worlds could possibly be breaking down the barriers between the multiverses. That includes incursions of fairy tale elements into her own "real" world, witnessed by Charmaine, Primrose, and Zinnia's family.
Her intervention seems to have morphed the Snow White story into something completely unlike anything the Grimms imagined. She even starts feeling sympathy for Eva, if not actual love. Eva's mirror is shattered, Zinnia falling into one shard of it, and she finds herself back in her own world, in the back yard of Charmaine and Primrose's house. The last time she had been there she panicked when Charm wanted to tell her something, expecting it to be a request for her to move out. Instead of hearing what Charm had to say she pricked her finger on the spindle again and traveled to Sleeping Beauty land. Now she's back and the importance of what Charm had to say is something she had not expected. She decides to stay…after one more trip to check in on Eva that is. She almost decides to stay with Eva, although Eva doesn't ask her to. Instead, she goes back to her own world where she will attempt to deal with a new challenge.
Any time a writer reworks older stories it is with the intention of viewing them from a modern perspective, or completely altering them, reversing the actions and motives of the characters. Fairy tales only have the meanings we bring to them; everybody is free to interpret them any way they choose. Little girls have traditionally wanted to be princesses, to live happily ever after. Zinnia says something that I haven't been able to confirm through googling. Supposedly the "happily ever after" phrase originated in another, to live happy in the ever after, meaning the afterlife. The notion that anyone could expect to live happily forever in this life is preposterous, no matter how good a person they find to spend it with. We are each individuals, we each need unique things to make us happy, and we can't be guaranteed to never have conflicts with our loved ones. The best we can do is to be sensitive to the other's needs, and to mend whatever might be broken in the relationship. To not run away. That applies if the relationship is as a couple, or just as friends. Zinnia may always daydream about a life with Eva, but instead she chooses to stay, perhaps to be a fairy godmother instead of a sleeping beauty. These are both novellas, quick reads, and a lot more serious than you might expect. Nothing earth-shaking, just entertaining while also being thought-provoking. Recommended.
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