Ah yes, this twist on Sleeping Beauty was the first Twisted Tales book in the series, and an excellent intro to any newcomer I believe.

The book asks “What if Sleeping Beauty hadn’t woken up?”. In fact it pulls Prince Phillip to sleep too once he kisses the princess. For our story starts not as we know it. In fact it seems quite like the beginning of the Maleficent movie (though this came before the movie).

King Stefan and Queen Leah had brought the kingdom to ruin, warring with other states for more precious green land until there were none left, and vines and demons have wandered until it has become a wasteland. Throwing balls every day, neglecting the kingdom in favor of petty little court intrigue and showing off their wealth. They also neglecting their daughter because she wasn’t the boy they had wanted.

All until Maleficent, the “savior of the world” stops their tyranny, and their selling 16 year old Aurora on her birthday to evil fairies, and saves the remaining kingdom by keeping them safe in the castle away from the Outside. There Aurora grows under her Aunt Maleficent’s tutelage, learning math and trying to dream the day away until the Outside become livable again if ever.

Sounds a bit like the movie yes, but things are simply not adding up as Aurora’s memories of this life bump up against reality until she sees a grisly death and begins to piece together the truth. This is not real, it’s all a dream. Maleficent tied her soul to Aurora’s after Prince Philip killed her in dragon form. If she can keep Aurora trapped until the clock strikes twelve on her sixteenth birthday, Maleficent can take over her body and continue her grand revenge. And Maleficent has been manipulating Aurora’s dreamscape patching memories and illusions to keep her there.

It’s a painful realization. Literally as the force of the colliding memories hit like a bull in a china shop, as well as the fact that Aurora has to think more than ever before. Yes, Braswell does her best in what at first seems tongue in cheek reference to how Aurora doesn’t do much. It is acknowledged within the text that she has always done what she was told, been a good girl, never really had to think beyond that. But now there’s decision-making to be done and Aurora must lead the charge to save her kingdom.

From there, Braswell delves into a very intense yet interesting aspect to Aurora that I have never seen done before. That this lack of thinking or taking action has taken a toll on her self esteem. She believes herself to be bossed around because others think her incapable. She also thinks herself incapable, she’s aware that she has no real talent or skill besides the gifts the fairies gave her, she doubts that she could run a kingdom or even make a good escape against greater powers. It all makes her want to retreat into herself, and sleep forever… I’m sure you can guess at the greater mental health implications there. Braswell does this well adding an unseen depth to the blonde haired, fair voiced princess transforming her into someone that is seen as an ornament to a girl discovering herself and what she’s truly capable.

But don’t worry she has friends on her side. As I said before, when he kissed Aurora, Prince Philip fell into Aurora’s dreamscape and so is able to provide some help and insight to what has happened in the real world. Braswell does her best to continue Phillip’s characterization, being a brave, noble prince as well as offering a youthful boyishness and sunny optimism with endless love to the princess he fell in love with at first sight. Another trope that Braswell plays with as Aurora has no memory of their first meeting and finds such an idea hard to believe.

Especially as she struggles with her insecurities over who she is, what with everyone lying to her most of her life. She doesn’t know who she is or will be, much less being the girl that Phillip fell for within minutes of meeting. She offers a sweet growing romance between them, where they get annoyed with each other yet also support each other through really dark moments in the forest.

Plus Phillip has his own, not demons per say, but his own sadness in his traditional strait laced life as a prince with quite a bit of parental neglect as kids were seen more as pawns/future rulers than as children. But his father, King Hubert also has a bombastic role here that is very entertaining.

Flora, Fauna and Merryweather also make helpful appearances in the real world and in the dreamscape, with Braswell creatively assigning each fairy to represent a part of Aurora’s inner voices.
As for the big bad fairy herself, Braswell keeps her deliciously regal yet evil, while hinting at a streak of humanity that makes her continued decision to choose evil more heinous. Believe me, her road to evil is full of blood and hellfire, there are no resurrections here. And yes, the spindle plays a vital part in her defeat and Aurora’s victory.

Additionally, I enjoyed how Braswell created a medieval world full of demons and hellfire in fitting with Aurora’s time period in the 14th century as well as some ye olde innuendo with swords and dairymaids not that Aurora understood, but I enjoyed nonetheless. Additionally I enjoyed how she created a dreamworld where time is long yet fast and just adds to tone disorientation the characters feel.

I don’t have many complaints, it was a solid book introducing the concept of the series as well as creating interesting characterization for the Disney princess with the least lines. The only nitpicks I have are that it dragged a bit in the end and sometimes included more modern slang like “totally” once or twice that took me out of the book.

Overall, 4 enchanted spindles.