#A SPINDLE SPLINTERED BY ALIX E. HARROW

[betterbooksandthings]

"Do you want to read something bite-sized and impossible to put down? If so, may I offer you a list of 11 Queer books under 250 pages to solve your plight? It is wonderful to be able to pick a book up and finish it in a sitting or two. These books do just that and they are queer. What more can you ask for?

With Pride month in full swing, many readers opt to celebrate by adding more queer books to their reading lives. However, June is a busy month full of work, travel, Pride celebrations, and summertime ennui. Sometimes you want something small that you can take on a trip, or something short to read in your downtime. In case you have a busy month or need a short book as a break, this list of queer books under 250 pages is here to help you out. Ideally, it will let you accomplish your queer reading goals and still make it to all the events on your calendar."

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's Fantasy TBR - Part 3

[lakecountylibrary]

It's my favorite time of year! Time to make my annual blog post about the best queer books I read in the last 12 months!

I've been doing this since 2017 so here, go back and see some trends: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Now, you may look at the covers of this year's batch and think... Four out of five of those are... kind of intense looking. Are you okay. And the answer is no, but are any of us? These books will help! Probably!

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (lesbian, gay, bisexual, poly characters)

Ok so this book comes with like. All of the trigger warnings. Government sanctioned homophobia, racism, eugenics, graphic depictions of violence... read this one when you're feeling strong. It's a fantasy novel about characters who fight against those things in a world colonized by a profit-driven (and often, too familiar) empire. Brilliantly written, but steel your heart.

Twelve Percent Dread by @emilyscartoons (nonbinary characters)

Let's lighten up a bit, shall we? This one's a graphic novel that, as promised on the back cover, is fast paced and action-packed. Follow the adventures of Katie and Nas as they navigate jobs, adulthood, and the whims of one eccentric tech CEO who's going to change the world, one way or another.

The World We Make by @nkjemisin (ace, gay, lesbian, trans characters)

This one's a sequel, so sorry (not sorry) you're going to have to read The City We Became first. You'll love it, and you'll love this sequel. It's about New York manifested in human avatars, and it's about home and the power of being where you belong. The characters deal with some very real, familiar problems - and then they STOMP ON THEM WITH AWESOME GIANT CITY POWERS. Very satisfying read, highly recommend.

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (wlw characters & general gender shenanigans)

This one's the third in the series, also not sorry about this one, start with Gideon the Ninth. It's sci fi! It's necromancy! God is there and he's depressed. It's really hard to describe.

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow (bisexual, lesbian characters)

A novella for when you are short on time or attention span and want a Sleeping Beauty remix told by an author who knows her folklore. Definitely have the second novella in the series, A Mirror Mended, on hand for when you finish - you'll want more.

See more of Robin's recs

[very-serious-book-reviews]

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Did I like it: hell yeah

Look. This isn’t high fantasy, it’s not taking itself too seriously or anything like that. It’s short, it’s goofy, there’s pop culture references, and a character is named Harold evidently solely for a meme. And I freaking loved it.

I listened to it and the sequel both in a single shift at work and ended up laughing at my desk several times about it.

If you’re looking for a short fun fantasy read, highly recommend.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023. THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow. Up next! Back on my Driscoll-adjacent reading vibes, to fuel the Driscoll-centric revising vibes (pictured in the background).

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[jenyifer]

Alright! This is my first sapphic short story I’ve read.

8/10

The sell: Dying Girl who has a masters degree in fairy tales gets side stepped into a fairy tale of sleeping beauty right at the end of her life and tries to save herself and the princess.

The story is in first person pov. I think anyone who enjoyed reading fairy tales and mythology will enjoy this story. I… I found it very…. Idk nice? To read about a dying girls, I knew two women who were dying girls and eventually dead girls. I felt like MC was extremely believable. The cons is that it is very swallow story but it has to be to be a short story even so it did make me think so job achieved

Now spoilers for those who have read this

I hated the ending. MC gets a second chance at life and she decides to die again say proper goodbyes to her family watch them relax into acceptance and then watch her girlfriend get with another sleeping beauty. Help them fall in love. Then she leaves for alt realities for long as possible to help other princesses. She becomes like a good fairy I suppose. But one that has an expiry date. She leaves her family and friends behind like she’s dead. Idk….. one of my dying girls got an extra 4 months of life. She had bone cancer and she was in a car accident where she broke some ribs. Since they had to perform surgery on her they were able to scrape out some of the cancer to give her a bit more time. My friend didn’t stick around she went out there and lived her life to the fullest traveling etc. makes more sense I guess? Idk… ending just kind of upset me… did she have a happy ending? We don’t know but it’s an ending she chose so… winning more than other dying girls I suppose.

[desdasiwrites]

"I'm at least three-fourths straight, but her lashes are very long, and very golden, and I'm not made of stone."

– Alix E. Harrow, A Spindle Splintered

[nevinslibrary]

Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

Ah, more fractured fairytales, and the start of Harrow’s series that’s called Fractured Fairytales. In this case it’s about Zinnia Gray. She’s about to turn 21, which is as old as she’s going to get since because of an illness she got. No one else with that illness has lived past 21.

Of course, that would be a boring book (and sorta short). Zinnia’s best friend Charm wants to make Zinnia’s last birthday an awesome one, with a Sleeping Beauty theme. Except, when Zinnia actually pricks her finger, well, suddenly she’s adventuring through the multiverse, alongside another ‘Sleeping Beauty’ named Primrose.

Like a proper fractured fairytale, this takes these fairytales and tilts them on their head, or their side, or sorta upside down and inside out. The characters were really fun, and unique, and it was a fast read too. And, it is the first book too, with the second out as well.

You may like this book If you Liked: The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin, Malice by Heather Walter, or Lava Red Feather Blue by Molly Ringle

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

[myhikari21things]

Read of A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow (2021) (119pgs)

[libraryleopard]

Adult science fiction/fantasy novella (would probably have good crossover with a YA audience, though)

Retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” following Zinnia Gray, a folklore-obsessed young woman with a rare disease that will kill her by her 22nd birthday

On her 21st birthday, she pricks her finger on a spindle at a Sleeping Beauty-themed party and finds herself transported to a fairytale world where she must help a storybook princess with her curse

Fairytale multiverse!

Tongue-in-cheek story of subversion, but also a deeply angry exploration of female agency and defying fate

Lesbian side characters

[betterbooksandthings]

“We all want to luxuriate in a vacation. But there is always the looming question: which book should I read while I’m gone? A vacation book recommendation can be all yours if you just take this quiz and design your perfect vacation.

With this vacation book recommendation quiz, I’ve attempted to gather a wide selection of potential vacation reads. Sometimes I want to spend a lot of time with a tome of a fantasy book. In other vacation settings, I want to read some romance genre variants to fill my soul with kindness. Perhaps I want a science fiction or fantasy novella to read in my limited spare time. There are even moments when I want to read a few essays about books to appreciate genre fiction all over again.

I tried to do a bit of all that in a singular quiz, so your mileage may vary. If nothing else, I hope you leave with a vacation book recommendation that fills some time on your next trip — with a nice place to stay, something fun to do, and a great book to read while we’re at it. Sit back, relax, design a vacation, and get a vacation book recommendation.“

[thepunktheory]

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (Fractured Fables #2)

Hey guys!I’m back today with the second Fractured Fables book by Alix E. Harrow. I quite enjoyed the first one, so let’s hope this one’s good as well! A Mirror Mended on Goodreads The Plot (according to Goodreads): Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once…

[harleychick91]

I swear I post more than just books but still…. These two short stories (Novellas/Novelettes) are safe and gay and I love them so much! Read both in a day.

I found the books/audiobooks on The Libby app and on Amazon. You can find them other places I’m sure.

Book Summaries:

Follow professional fairy tale fixer, Zinnia Gray, as she helps women get the endings they deserve! First, Sleeping Beauty in A Spindle Splintered, featuring Arthur Rackham's original illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty, fractured and reimagined. And then, Snow White's Evil Queen in A Mirror Mended!

In A Spindle Splintered, it's Zinnia Gray's twenty-first birthday. When she was young, an industrial accident left her with a rare condition and no one who has it has lived to twenty-two.

Her best friend is intent on making Zin's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, she finds herself cast into another world, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.

Then, in A Mirror Mended, Zinnia discovers there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she's desperate for a rewrite. Will Zinnia accept the queen's poisonous request for a rewrite and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them? Or will she try another path?

I loved the books so much my writer’s brain couldn’t say goodbye so I wrote a short fic set after A Mirror Mended. You can find it on AO3. Linked below. Read after book 2.

Another Kiss. Another Life.

Rated T

Years after Zinnia returned to her world, the GRM has taken its toll on her body. Remembering her queen’s words, Zinnia takes a bite of the red apple in hopes of a second chance with the woman she loves.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Book Haul: May Edition! My indie bookstore purchases started to show up this month, and it was my birthday, and I asked for books!! My ~Driscoll Vibes~ TBR has been replenished for sure (and just in time, too).