Creeping beauty

In this ambitious "Sleeping Beauty" retelling by Portes (This Is Not a Ghost Story), a princess falls into an enchanted sleep only to wake up in an alternate dimension. White-cued Princess Bitsy, 17, has perfected the art of creeping away from boring formal functions. After meeting her betrothed, whom she describes as a "well-tempered mushroom... a very large, nervous, sweaty one," she escapes into the depths of the castle, where she discovers a spindle. Pricking her finger sends her into a deep slumber--until she awakens stranded in a dangerous new reality in which one's looks determines their status ("Being ugly and poor... go hand in hand," a resident confirms), and the realm's impoverished citizens must mine a substance that enables its imbibers to remain artificially beautiful. Following a series of dreamlike events that force Bitsy to quickly adapt to the cutthroat world, she must challenge the realm's mysterious, tyrannical ruler if she hopes to survive and return home. Portes undermines the overarching theme of a heroine who rescues herself with late revelations and reframes, and interrogations of valuing physical appearance prove intriguing but underexplored. Ages 13--up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Aug.)

A princess pricks her finger on a spindle--and falls through an alternate world in this retelling of "Sleeping Beauty." Elizabeth "Bitsy" Roix is the plain princess of the Roix Kingdom whose fate, whether she wishes it or not, is to be married off to someone her family considers appropriate. That is, until the day she pricks her finger on a spindle, falls deeply asleep, and everything changes. As her parents desperately try to break her curse, Bitsy wakes up in a different world--one of oppression, freedom fighters, and magic--where she attempts to carve a place for herself through a journey of self-empowerment that will have repercussions across worlds. This subversive take on the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" starts off well with a story that aims to empower its princess into breaking her own curse. Bitsy's first-person narration is funny and engaging, sometimes breaking the fourth wall and addressing readers directly. Excerpts from her father's journal complement the narrative and show another side of events. But the more the novel progresses, the more haphazard it becomes. The treatment of certain worldbuilding elements, including social inequalities and prejudices and a romance that grows from a shaky foundation, is superficial and ill-defined and never forms a cohesive whole. Bitsy and her family are cued White. A fairy-tale retelling that aims high--and falls flat. (Fantasy. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.