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I received this book as a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion. A big thank you goes here to Bloomsbury Australia.
On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future - and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems.
Paperback: 72 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1408859653
ISBN-13: 978-1408859650
ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘɪɴᴅʟᴇ by Neil Gaiman has a gorgeous cover and has been illustrated by Chris Riddell. The illustrations throughout the book are absolutely stunning.
When I found out that Neil Gaiman has done a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, I got quite excited as I find his other books brilliant. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for this beauty here. The whole story got turned upside down and the twists worked into the plot just didn't do it for me. The story line was relatively dull with only one plot twist that surprised me. The ending of the book was really foreseeable and on top of it all, it has not been a queer retelling as I expected in the first place.
The characters were okay-ish, yet not at all what I thought they would be. Snow White doesn't seem to be caring about a lot but going on adventures. When it comes to the other characters, I only really liked the side characters as they're relatively funny at some points.
All up ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘɪɴᴅʟᴇ has been a bit disappointing. The initial idea of a twisted retelling has been great. The way it has been done? Not so much. There has been a lot of potential in this story but it just hasn't been thought through enough.