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Jul 21, 2008

Renee rated it:

Spindle's End (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty) is odd in a lot of respects, and therefore a lot of people aren't going to like it. To outline these:

1. Most of the book is narration. There is very little in the way of dialogue, even when it comes to things that most other authors would have left for characters to say.

2. It is hard to say who the main character really is. The person who you would assume to be the central character at the beginning is very peripheral by th More...

8 comments like (14 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2009

Moira rated it:

This was a really adorable book, altho I think you have to be in the right mood for it. When I started reading it I bogged down a little in an atmosphere which I found sort of Fucking Twee, and then I went back to it later and found it much easier to get into. I really liked the characterizations of Rosie and Peony, especially how they were both good characters without being wimpy or Mary Sues; and I really liked their friendship -- it's a v Chloe-liked-Olivia kind of book. It was interestin More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

May 03, 2008

Cat rated it:

I have read a few other reviews of this book, and the general consensus appears to be that the book has a lot of good ideas but that the long-winded, dull writing style drags the book down.

I slightly disagree. Possibly there are good ideas somewhere in this book, however, the terrible writing style hides them from view completely.

The story drags on and on and on. Every single time something new is mentioned, it goes on for pages. Character X says something. We are then to More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2009

Melody rated it:

Hypnotic, tangled and often impenetrable narrative. The briar roses that grow up around the sleepers in this oddly compelling retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend are a good metaphor for how McKinley's words coil around each other in paths untraceable by me. There are lovely, memorable passages which exist almost independent of the story, one of which I think I'll keep forever.

"What you describe is how it happens to everyone: magic does slide through you, and disappear, an More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 12, 2008

Gloryseeker33 rated it:

I have read a number of books by this author and really liked all of them, but this one is a standout for me. It is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, but goes far beyond the limitations of the original tale. The author manages to create a delightful, suspend-disbelief magical kingdom and populates the story with fully rounded characters who are both entertaining and engage the reader's sympathies, along with a plot line that departs from fairy tale formula just enough to keep us guessi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Jared rated it:

Spindle's End is a re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. I love many of McKinley's other "re-telling" stories, like Beauty and The Outlaws of Sherwood. The first three-quarters of this book are no exception.

The characters are engaging. The description of life in the little community where Rose (Sleeping Beauty) grows up is so idyllic that you want the book to keep going just so you can read about the town.

Unfortunately, the last quarter almost does the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Melissa rated it:

Robin McKinley's young reader retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, Spindle's End, smells good. It's made up of those yellowing pages that you run your fingers down and feel the soft fibers of, and as you thumb through the pages it fans your face with the invigorating smell of book. And that's probably the best part of it.

I read Spindle's End because I read McKinley's Beauty in seventh grade and can vaguely remember loving it. I didn't love Spindle's End. I did grow to love som More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2007

Ali rated it:

I grew up reading Robin Mckinley, and periodically like to revisit her works. While Beauty was the first book I read by her (and the first book I reread until the spine wore out), and her Damar books hold a special fascination for me, there is something about Spindle's End that keeps me coming back.

Maybe that's because Mckinley is more open with the workings of magic in this world; in other books magic is a furtive, secretive thing, like a wild animal. We get more of fairies and magi More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2008

Myridian rated it:

This is another retelling of the sleeping beauty tale. Frankly, I prefer Tepper's novel Beauty which starts out as a retelling of sleeping beauty and turns into an amalgamation of fairly tales. The characters were compelling, but I just didn't find the plot as involved as I had hoped. I think that the main reason why I'm not rating this book more highly is that I really didn't feel like the ending lived up to it's promise. The story was ripping right along, and then the end just seemed to dr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2007

Jackie "the Librarian" rated it:

A fun, greatly expanded retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with Briar Rose going against stereotype by being a strapping young woman with a love for animals and the outdoors, and no regard for her beautiful blonde hair.
I really enjoyed the story until the confrontation with the evil fairy Pernicia. Then Robin pulls her familiar trick of a foggy vague battle and some unexplained magic to get us through to the end. Bad Robin!
Oh, well, most readers will forgive her. I, though, choose to do More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Krissa added it

What can I say. I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings, which is why I hesitate to recommend this to too many people. It reimagines Sleeping Beauty, which is a pretty bare bones fairy tale, filling it out lushly into this somewhat terrifying seige story, with a lot of thinly sketched out magic.

I mean, basically, if you like retellings, you'll probably like it. And if you don't, you'll think it terrible and be pleased with yourself that you don't like anything as commonplace as fairy More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

I read Beauty (retelling of Beauty and the Beast) by this author when I was at BYU and really enjoyed it. My friends Robin & Camille lent me this book and The Hero and the Crown (which I will read next).

This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It was great! It had a lot of depth and characters in it, plus some fun and sad/happy twists.

I love juvenile literature because it avoids the raunchy stuff that most adult literature has. This was not an "easy" read tho More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

Lately, I've been in a funk. Work's kinda been not so fun and it's been so cold and dreary outside, I haven't been outdoors as much as I might like.

To counteract this funk, I've been reading a lot of easy books, children's books, trashy books, anything that doesn't take too much brain power.

A retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, Spindle's End was a great book for this objective. Not only was it not particularly deep and layered with meaning, but it was really wel More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2012

Robyn rated it:

Okay, just not my kind of book. Disclaimer: I am NOT a big fantasy person, so that may be part of it (I read this for book group). I thought the writing style was annoying - full of run-on sentences (some of them lasted an entire page-length) and constant obnoxious parenthetical commentary, some of which were almost a page long (by the time you got to the end, you forgot that it was even a parenthetical comment). This style made for lots of confusion in the story, which was annoying.
More...

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Nov 13, 2011

Becca rated it:

Spindle's End is about a girl name Rosie who is actually a princess that was kip napped when she was just a baby. On her "name day" she was put under a curse that on her 21st birthday she would prick her finger on a spindle and go into a sleep forever. Rosie doesn't know her real identity as a princess. Her "parent" or care taker is named Katriona. She decides not to tell Rosie of her identity to protect Rosie. Only when Rosie is 20 does she find out about her true identity. More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Beth rated it:

I've been aware of McKinley's work for years now, but this is the first time that I've read one of her books. As far as I know, she writes entirely in the fantasy (heavily inflected by traditional fairy tales) genre. As one might guess, this is a reworking of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. An incredibly detailed and creatively wrought version -- sometimes to the detriment of the story. In other words, the details can really get in the way of narrative momentum, particularly at the beginning More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Emily rated it:

Spindle's End is one of those delightful fairy tale expansions, and an excellent addition to McKinley's bookshelf.

SPOILER!!!

At the time of its printing, much was made of the fact that the final, IMPORTANT kiss came not only *from* a woman, but *to* a woman as well. Although the kiss is non-romantic, but practical (more like the fairy tale equivalent of the kiss of life), concerned parents need not worry overmuch. However, in the wake of the social changes happening in the w More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Emma rated it:

This book has one of those rare first chapters that completely pulled me in, even though it's all about describing the nameless country where the story takes place and its affliction with magic, and no main characters are introduced. I settled down for a fun, whimsical read. Alas, it was not to be.

Spindle's End is a "Sleeping Beauty" retelling, starring Rosie, an unlikely, energetic heroine who can talk to animals. I picked the book up due to fond memories of McKinley's YA More...

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May 12, 2010

Paula rated it:

This is the third book I have read by Robin McKinley (‘Sunshine’ is my favourite).

Spindle’s End tells the story of Rosie, born a princess and brought up as the niece and cousin of two fairies in a small town, Rosie does not know she is princess, the reason? A curse was placed on her when she was 3 months old by Pernicia, a fairy who wants on revenge on the royal family.

Katriona a 15 year old girl from the town of Gig is chosen to attend the princess’s name~day where the More...

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Mar 12, 2010

Phoenixfalls rated it:

This is one of McKinley's strongest works to date, and it makes me laugh to think that she essentially wrote it on a dare. From what she's said on her website, she had no love for the sleeping beauty myth -- after all, the princess spends it completely useless and out of the action, exactly opposite McKinley's usual heroines. The story she crafted in response to the fairy tale beautifully recasts the outside of the tale (the curse, the fairy godmothers, the spelled sleep, and rose hedge) with a More...

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Dec 29, 2009

Supernatural rated it:

I was lucky to get the chance to read this book, developed from one of my favorite fairy tale stories--Sleeping Beauty. McKinley moves this tale from a simple triumphal march from baby to princess into a dense tale of the royal politics and motherhood and growing into your own abilities and strengths. While parts of the story seemed more sketched in, the familial elements were clearly and beautifully drawn.

This is a thick brew, with magic as the flour that brings the entire mix toget More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2009

Shauna rated it:

There was much I liked about this book, and much I was frustrated with. First I felt it was too long. This is a bad sign. If the book is irresistible, I don't mind if it goes on and on. But this one was tricky, full of rouge magic that changed things willy nilly and was hard to control, characters that likewise changed prominence back and forth throughout the story, endless animal names without helpful reference points (how I am supposed to remember which was a dog, fox, cat, horse, owl, wha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2009

Laura rated it:

Although the book gets off to a slow start with what seems to be a lot of exposition on how magic works in this kingdom, the book is worth reading. We know the basic premise for the Sleeping Beauty tale. It's interesting to see how Robin McKinley plays it out. I was generally satisfied with the happy endings.

One thing that bothered me was the appearance of Narl at Woodwold. I suppose since it was the least thing that Rosie expected, I should have seen it coming. Then she makes a big More...

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Jun 18, 2009

Adrienne rated it:

Spindle’s End isn’t the first book by Robin McKinley that I’ve read. I also read The Hero and the Crown and Beauty and I enjoyed both of them. Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and Spindle’s End, as you may have guessed, is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I enjoy reading different versions of myths and fairy tales, and this was definitely interesting. However, the main character - “Rosie” in this case, not Briar Rose, like in the Disney version - was kind of annoying to me. I don’t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2009

Stacey rated it:

I read this a few weeks ago. I really liked it. I was suprized at how it came out at the end. I loved the way they use magic as an atmospheric irritation that people face in a practical way. I liked how she had all people produce magic as children that needs to be monitored until it ends and how it's illegal to eat or be around fish.
Katronia a teenage fairy from the country goes to the great city to witness the name-day ceremony for the only child of the queen and king.
I liked ho More...

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Mar 26, 2011

Kylaia (Formerly known as Klymene) rated it:

Meep!*scream* I squealed so at the end! It was amazing. This book was AMAZING. It was perfect beginning middle and end. McKinley writes it so very differently than the normal tellings of the Sleeping beauty tale, yet she doesn't change much of the basic story line, rather, she writes between the lines.
The end reminded me of a Rapunzel Retelling I read once, called Golden, by Dokey? The end was so very perfect for this story and such a surprise. But I won't give it away.
I suppose I s More...

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Jan 19, 2009

Meghan rated it:

This was definitely not Robin McKinley's best work. I found myself kind of forcing myself to finish it.
There was hardly any dialogue, which didn't particularly bother me. There were parts that just didn't seem to fit in with the story. About a third of the book is from one characters point of view and the rest of it was from another. This was a little strange, because every once in a while it would switch back to the other character for a few paragraphs before going back to the other. Som More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Brittany rated it:

Sometimes the stars align just right and you get thrown together with the perfect book to help you cope with your week. This was one of those cases. Difficult days at work and sundry stresses meant I was looking for something warm, comforting, and escapist. Spindle's End is all of those things. It's quintessential Robin McKinley, and I can't believe I hadn't read it. I always assumed I had. Nominally, it is a retelling of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty," though there actually isn't mu More...

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Feb 02, 2011

JJ rated it:

I'm a huge fan of McKinley and I love her fairytale retellings, so I was excited when I managed to score this copy of Spindle's End from Borders for a very reasonable price.

As far as retellings go, McKinley is the master of making magic seem REAL. I mean this in that the world in which Katriona and Rosie have weight and history, so the events of Sleeping Beauty have both context and consequence. As with anything else McKinley has written, I loved this, and I love the spell her words More...

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Oct 24, 2010

kvon rated it:

Reread after reading Pegasus...this is the McKinley that's been fuzziest in my mind, one of the few I haven't reread before. I remembered it was about Sleeping Beauty, and had an odd POV, but otherwise I didn't remember much. Certainly not the ending, with the showdown against the bad fairy. This time, the theme that struck me was relationships and love--that of two girls who grow up as best friends despite their differences, the love of a mother, that of an adopted family, the animals, and t More...

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