Creeping Beauty: Fairy Tales Gone Bad

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If you’re looking for a fairytale reimagining this could be something you’ll really enjoy but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

I loved their back and forth and really thought they were the only ones who would be able to appreciate each other at their bests and handle each other at their worsts. This funny, clever and very enjoyable verse retelling of Rumpelstiltskin takes the story back to its original darkly horrifying roots and adds a smart, likeable heroine who saves the day with a story. The cover is pretty, and maybe and very young adult may enjoy this as a starter fantasy/retelling but this one isn't for me.It was horrible and yet, many today I think focus too much on the outside and superficiality that I could totally see people today wanting this Sapphire. Bitsy, our “sleeping beauty”, is constantly referred to as plain or even unattractive in comparison to everyone in the kingdom.

People like Peregrine made me wonder what was going on with the story, then I accepted the lead role, only to be thrown off a cliff in a flip-flop. I think because of the style of writing and tone some may not enjoy this one but for me it was certainly entertaining and one I did enjoy, especially with the elements of other fairy tales. I feel fantasy books work much better in third person as you get so much more information about the characters. I thought that in the new world that it was a lot of information dumped on you right away and could have been spaced out. The verse novel format (meaning fewer words on each page) and the many illustrations throughout combine to make it an appealing read.Bitsy wants to help the people in this world and also to escape and go home and it seems the only way to do either is to defeat The Veist. It was anticlimactic, wiped away all character development for her, and was not what I wanted or what we DESERVED! Thank you to the publisher, and Netgalley for sending me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. The plot did not stand out to me, I loved the idea of Sleeping Beauty being taken to a world so unlike her own.

Attention should certainly be drawn to the coloured end papers, and how they summarise aspects of the narrative). My background is in both class teaching and university teacher education, and throughout my career I have encouraged those I teach (from year one to postgraduate students) to be voracious and curious readers. It started off unassuming and then became a bit bizarre once Bitsy pricked her finger and entered a foreign land. Other frustrations grew when other characters that I considered important were missing additions and were never revisited. When you aren't familiar with the author or their worlds, sometimes it's the cover that catches your eyes (vain thing that you are 😘) and gives you pause to consider.

It is then up to the author to get you to fully commit hours of your life on their story, all the while everyone is hoping for the grand payout -- an excellent story and a happy reader. I had hopes for this because I love books with fairy tale elements, but I just cannot recommend this. His second book, Overheard in a Tower Block, was shortlisted for the 2018 CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award and is longlisted for the 2019 UKLA Book Awards.

His picture books include If All the World Were… illustrated by Allison Colpoys and the popular Luna Loves series illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. In July 2014, the book was optioned in a pre-emptive deal by Paramount Pictures, with Allison Shearmur (THE HUNGER GAMES, CINDERELLA) producing.The story has mysticism, magic, unkindness but also love, estranged families, mistrust and also hope. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. The winged creature curses Princess Rose so that she will die after having pricked her finger, and it is Eshe’s role to soften the curse so that the princess sleeps rather than dies. The pacing, pretty fast, I will say, but I think it may have been more me rushing through it to get to the end rather than because I wanted to see where the story would take me. These strangers insist she fight in their wars, and that she might be the one the prophecy tells of.