A mirror mended

Alix E. Harrow

Book - 2022

"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 you've gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues. Just when Zinnia's beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there's more than one person trapped in a story they didn't choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her s...tory ends and she's desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it's too late for everyone. Will Zinnia accept the Queen's poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path?"--

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SCIENCE FICTION/Harrow Alix
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1st Floor SCIENCE FICTION/Harrow Alix Due Jan 30, 2025
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Subjects
Genres
Fantasy fiction
Fairy tales
Satirical literature
Adaptations
Published
New York : Tordotcom, a Tom Doherty Associates Book 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Alix E. Harrow (author)
Other Authors
Michael (Illustrator) Rogers (illustrator)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Series numeration from www.goodreads.com.
Physical Description
130 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781250766649
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

This story has a hero and a villain, but not all chose the roles they were given to play. Zinnia Gray is no longer the dying girl that she was in A Spindle Splintered (2021), but she knows her time is coming. For the past five years, she has been outrunning her story, not wanting the ending she perceives. She's been helping princesses in other fairytale worlds find their happily ever afters to the detriment of creating her own. When Zinnia is pulled into a fairy tale world unlike any other, she encounters an evil queen who doesn't want her ending either. As circumstances draw them together, Zinnia discovers that the evil queen may not be so evil, and that you don't need to know the ending to decide what happens next. Though the writing in this second in the Fractured Fables novella series is less subtle than in Harrow's previous works, the themes of agency and writing your own story--no matter its beginning--are ones that will resonate with readers.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Zinnia Gray isn't the damsel in distress anymore in Harrow's fast-paced and snarky sequel to A Spindle Splintered. Zinnia has spent the five years between volumes jumping through different "Sleeping Beauty" tales to free the eponymous princesses from their destinies. But at the end of her most recent rescue, Zinnia's pulled through the narrative multiverse and into a different tale: "Snow White." Zinnia knows how the story should go, but the evil queen has other ideas. She wants out, and she thinks Zinnia can help her. While Zinnia's trapped with the evil queen in a dark and dangerous world, a startling consequence of her story-hopping comes to light, making it more important than ever that she find a way back home. The barrage of pop culture references is just as relentless here as in book one, which may overwhelm some readers, but all will be pleased to see Zinnia grow into herself, and the unapologetic focus on queer relationships delights. Series fans and lovers of fractured fairy tales will find plenty to hold their attention. (Jun.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

In her second "Fractured Fables" installment (after A Spindle Splintered), Harrow drops her protagonist, Zinnia Gray, into someone else's fairy tale. Zinnia has been traveling through space and time, helping other Sleeping Beauties progress in their stories, but she's getting a little tired of it all. When she looks into a mirror and sees another woman looking back at her, Zinnia is dropped into the world of Snow White and finds herself helping the Evil Queen (Eva) avoid her traditional end. The two women form a strong bond as they navigate the challenges of being trapped by their roles in the narrative, dealing with a Snow White who's up to some extremely unsavory business, and trying to find their places in the fairy tale multiverse. Amy Landon narrates, doing a terrific job with characterizing the wide variety of characters. VERDICT Fans of fairy tale retellings who are familiar with the premises established in the first book will most enjoy this quick, fun listen. An essential purchase for collections where the previous installment circulates well.--Stephanie Klose

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A woman who specializes in helping fairy-tale princesses is kidnapped by a villain who wants her own happy ending. Zinnia Gray has a very special skill: She can travel through portals to different versions of "Sleeping Beauty." A former Sleeping Beauty herself, Zinnia uses this ability to help other princesses reach their own happily-ever-afters. But one day she looks into a mirror and sees not her own reflection, but an evil queen on the other side. The queen reaches out of the mirror and pulls Zinnia through. Suddenly, Zinnia isn't in the Sleeping Beauty--verse anymore; she's in the world of "Snow White," and the infamous evil queen wants her help escaping the grisly end promised to all fairy-tale villains. This short novel, the sequel to Harrow's A Spindle Splintered (2021), makes efficient use of its limited word count, wasting no time before immersing the reader in Zinnia's many fairy-tale worlds. Zinnia and the evil queen have wonderful chemistry, and Harrow guides both characters through compelling arcs as they consider what it means to be the protagonist of your own story. Zinnia's snappy, pop-culture-- heavy dialogue can sometimes come across a bit smarmy, but it suits the genre well. A lively, engaging fairy-tale retelling perfect for devouring in a single sitting. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.