A Mirror Mended

January 1, 2022

Having awakened sleeping beauties, burned injurious spindles, and consorted with raucous good fairies and importuning royals, professional fairy-tale fixer Zinnia Gray wishes these characters would mend their own problems, already. Then she sees an unfamiliar face, gorgeous and cruel, in her mirror: Snow White's Evil Queen wants her own improved ending. From the Hugo Award-winning author of the "Fractured Fables" series; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 17, 2022
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.

May 15, 2022
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.

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May 13, 2022
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.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2022

Sleeping Beauty is dragged through the multiverse to the lair of Snow White's evil queen in this genderqueer fairy tale mashup that continues the (mis)adventures of Zinnia Gray (last seen in A Spindle Splintered), as she continues rescuing other Sleeping Beauties from death and fates worse. Searching for another to rescue while avoiding her own inevitable fate yet again finds Zinnia falling through the mirror into a tale not her own. She thinks she's there to rescue Snow White but discovers that it's the evil queen stepmother looking for power, agency, and a way out of her own inevitable destiny. The fine line between villainy and heroism blurs to nothingness as Zinnia learns that even a villain can be a hero and that love can conquer both tyranny and fate if you are willing to write your own story. VERDICT Readers who love stories that twists narratives into knots will fall for Harrow's fractured fairy tale where evil discovers the benefits that come of doing good.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.