Spindle

A Thousand Nights #2

by E.K. Johnston

"The world is made safe by a woman . . . but it is a very big world.

It has been generations since the Storyteller Queen saved her country from fire and blood - but now the kingdom of Kharuf is threatened by a demon gathering power. When a princess is born, the demon is ready with her final blow: a curse that will cost that princess her very soul, or force her to destroy her own people to save her life.

The threads of magic are tightly spun, binding princess and exiled spinners into a desperate quest to break the curse. But the web of power is dangerously tangled - and they may not see the true pattern until it is unspooled.

Kingdom of Sleep, by the critically acclaimed E. K. Johnston, is a spellbinding retelling of an enchanting fairy tale with the power of story at its heart."

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult Fantasy

355 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2016

About the author

E.K. Johnston had several jobs and one vocation before she became a published writer. If she’s learned anything, it’s that things turn out weird sometimes, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Well, that and how to muscle through awkward fanfic because it’s about a pairing she likes.

You can follow Kate on Twitter (@ek_johnston) to learn more about Alderaanian political theory than you really need to know, or on Tumblr (ekjohnston) if you're just here for pretty pictures.

Reviews

[Nastassja · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are corners in the world that are too dark to see, and there are edges that are sharper than they appear, ready to snag the unwary. There are those who do not fear the things they should, and there are those who would bargain with the devil herself for the sake of their greed.The world is made safe by a woman, yes, but it is a very big world.

First of all, one and the main reason everyone should try E.K. Johnston's books - the writing. It is so very beautiful, so fairy-tale like; every word is filled with magic. The richness of it creates unforgettable images in readers' head, the feeling of the world inside the book; so vivid, so beautiful.

Spindle is a companion novel to A Thousand Nights. The story takes place in the same world in the future, with different set of characters, but it is important to read A Thousand Nights first, because Spindle is a continuation of book's one story and the characters from the previous part are mentioned here. In addition, I would highly recommend to read a short story The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers, it tells a story about the MCs from book one and their lives years after the events of A Thousand Nights.

E.K. Jonhston is she's very good at showing love, friendship, family and all other important topics that play a significant role in everyone's lives, but always she chooses to develop one of these topics more deeper than the others. In the case of A Thousand Nights it was sisterly love that helped the heroine to fight. In Spindle it's friendship. And when I say the author explores this theme, I mean that she's making such an incredible job of showing us true friendship through trust, loyalty, deceit, sacrifice and suffering in such way that no one can stay unmoved.

In spite of Spindle being a great continuation of the previous story, my main problem with it lies in it being a little bit underdeveloped in the end. The final pages felt rushed, and the way the story ended felt unfulfilling to me. But, again, some people find this book better than the first one, so it's definitely a matter of taste.

The story takes place some years after the events of book one. And this one is a retelling of The Sleeping Beauty with an interesting view on the original story. There's a curse a demon had cast on the Kingdom of Kharuf. It is up to four brave young Spinners to break it and free the princess. It is the hardest quest our young heroes ever had. On their way they will be tried, they will lost and they will find, and, most importantly, their friendship will strengthen like never before. It is not a story of a single hero saving everyone. It is a story of four young people who aren't heroes at all.

Saoud, who wanted to belong. Arwa, who wanted her mother. Tariq, who wanted to do his work. And me…who wanted more than I could name.

Don't expect epic battles. Don't expect dashing heroes and bland villains. Heroes are not what they seem in this story and villains are too cunning to be easily slayed. Expect to be surprised. And expect magic. What is a fairy-tale without magic, right?

[Natalie Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The spinners were cursed, the land of Kharuf was cursed, and Little Rose could break it in a heartbeat—if only, if only they would let her have a spindle."

I only gave out a handful of 5-stars last year and one of them went to this book's predecessor A Thousand Nights. It was lush and creative and feminist, and I loved everything about it.

Spindle is, well, meh.

The writing seems less somehow, the characters not as interesting. It's ironic when you remember the protagonist in A Thousand Nights didn't even have a name.

The sequel—or spin-off since it occurs hundreds of years after the events of the previous book—is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a few nods to Rapunzel. If the Little Rose spins or otherwise makes things, she'll open her mind to possession and the demon will use her to destroy her kingdom. Piskeys created by the Storyteller Queen (our A Thousand Nights heroine) counteract it with the spell we all know: a deep sleep to stall the demon. Little Rose is then locked in a tower until our protagonist, Yashaa, the son of a spinner, rescues her.

The retelling aspect itself is creative. Johnston is a terrific world-builder and does a great job of eliminating the original tale's sexism. Little Rose loves her kingdom and her people, and is willing to do anything to set it right.

"In the stories, the bold rescuer is always gallant," she said. "He swoops in and sets it all to right."

"I am not your rescuer, princess," I said the word without meaning to, but she didn't flare up at me again. "If anything, you are going to rescue us."

"I know that, Yashaa," she said. "It's only that for so long, all I had were my dreams."

But it drags in places since most of the narrative takes place on the road. I've never been fond of travel storylines, which I partially why I put down The Lord of the Rings five years ago and never picked it back up. Some decisions the characters made felt abrupt, like the author didn't quite know how to direct them towards a certain plot point. They were supposed to journey to the Maker King's country and then suddenly decide to hunt down Little Rose to ask her about the curse. After Little Rose joins them, they decide to find the piskeys and ask them how to break the curse.

If it's that easy, why has no one attempted it before? Their mental map is all over the place.

And the finger-prick moment doesn't happen until the very end. It's a shame because the thorny forest, Beauty's enchanted sleep, and the search for a cure are all important and familiar elements from the original fairy tale. Instead they're summarized in one short chapter, the last one, in Rose's POV.

It's the ending that really makes up for everything. It's beautiful and poignant and admittedly sudden, but cleverly so. There's no epilogue. We're left to decide on our own what will become of Little Rose and Yashaa's relationship, whether they'll stay together or become friends.

There is a certain value in uncertainty and Johnston weaves it like a master.

[Lauren (Shakespeare & Whisky)]

I'm putting this aside for now. Maybe I'll read the rest at a later date but I doubt it. It just hasn't held my interest.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't think I have the words to convey how wonderful this book is. It simply deserves to be read and enjoyed.

Yashaa's life changed the night the curse was laid upon the Little Rose. It might have been the princess who was cursed but it was Yashaa, his mother and their community of spinners who left their home in the castle and were forced into exile. Now Yashaa is grown and his mother is dying. He has little choice when she requests him to take his friends and attempt to make a better life away from their camp. She would never expect him to try and find the cursed princess and could never dream how Yashaa's life threads, and those of his friends, will become tangled with the princess's.

This book is the second book in the A Thousand Nights series. It is more of a companion novel, set many, many years after the events of A Thousand Nights. It was lovely to, from the distance of time, see how Lo-Melkhiin and the Storyteller Queen's tale continued and sparked the creation of a new story. Spindle is part adventure quest, part love story. You can see the threads of the fairytale wrapped up and expanded in the delicious details of this world and its vibrant characters. If the characters in A Thousand Nights remained anonymous, those in Spindle become as dear and familiar to you as old friends.

I think I loved Spindle more than A Thousand Nights. Kind of unbelievable, I know. A Thousand Nights was an unknown; a shocking, beautiful surprise. I started Spindle knowing what kind of story to expect and yet I was still blown away and delighted.

Something I love about E.K. Johnston's books are her strong female characters. And yes, Spindle tells the story of a princess's strength and determination, but it is also about the strength of family - because it is only by protecting those you love that strength finds its purpose. Spindle is narrated by Yashaa. I loved seeing the story though his eyes. His love for his makeshift family, his willingness to sacrifice himself to protect them, his humility, his ability to laugh at himself and his desire to dream make him a wonderful character. The camaraderie of his little band is so delightful - young, but resilient Arwa, dreamer Tariq and reliable and protective Saoud.

It's actually quite lovely to disappear into such a well-crafted fantasy again. And there is no compare for E.K Johnston's evocative writing and incredible story building.

The love story was just as enjoyable as the adventure. I was gleefully rubbing my hands together as I read Yashaa's initial distaste and condescension for the Little Rose. Because this is a fairytale after all and I know how fairytales end! And yet I never could have guessed how this story would unfold. I think this might be my favourite love story. One where a lad rescues his princess and yet never dreams of considering himself worthy of loving her until she shows him how.

Strength, love, determination, sacrifice. If you love fairytales, love stories, fantasy books or just excellently executed novels then Spindle is so very worth reading.

The publishers provided a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Find more reviews on my blog Madison's Library.

[Alissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Magic is about balance more than anything, and always has been since the Storyteller Queen made it in the desert,”

3.5 stars rounded down because I can’t help comparing this book to its predecessor (5 full stars for a story that took me by storm). This is a lovely fairytale where weaving is the main theme – and since I use enough sewing vocabulary in my reviews, I can add that the author waves her subtly magical world with solid skill.

Several protagonists are spinners in a land plagued by a spinning curse, which of course brings to mind Sleeping Beauty. Fortunately there are similarities but it’s not the same tale, and I appreciated a lot that all sides of the argument have a voice and a viewpoint.

The storytelling is delightful and the revelations are doled out at the right pace so I enjoyed the novel, there was a lot to keep me turning the pages, but I had a hard time getting invested in the characters and that’s the opposite of my experience with “A Thousand Nights” (little plot, memorable protagonists); a pity, because the cast is varied and all, I read about their anxiety, their growing exasperation throughout the journey, the subtle pull of the curse on spinners, but I couldn’t feel it. I didn’t connect with them.

The tale is very linear, yet compelling. This book stands alone and it's not too spoilery about the first of the series, but I would recommend the publishing order. I appreciated that the author didn't spend too many pages on events that belong to the original Sleeping Beauty tale and instead crafted something new out of a known theme.

The ending came as I expected, but with a nice twist that was both welcome and bittersweet.


My kind do not spend their days at craft or art. Our deepest desire is not for the making of a thing, nor for the thing itself. Rather, we thrive on the skills of those who make. We steal that time and that power, and we turn it to our own souls, and that is how we grow.

[Puck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose and the power of friendship is strong, but sadly Kingdom of Sleep wasn’t as good and enchanting as the first book.

This story is a retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” with a few elements of “Rapunzel” thrown into the mix, and takes place in a Middle Eastern setting. The young princess Zahrah, called the Little Rose, gets cursed by a demon on her fifth birthday. Whenever she spins or creates something – a tapestry, a meal, or even a hair braid – she will slowly open her mind to be possessed by the demon, who will then use the princess to destroy her kingdom.
No matter the counterspell – the princess will fall into a deep sleep to stall the demon’s possession – her parents lock Zahrah up in a tower to protect her. There she remains, until the day four young spinners break her out in the hope to break her curse.

This book is a companion novel to A Thousand Nights, and one reason to read both of these books is because of the writing. Johnston’s prose is enchanting and vivid and so magical: you really feel like you’re reading an old fairytale.
Another quality that makes these Middle Eastern fairytales so wonderful to read, is that the author is also an archaeologist who spend many summers doing research in the desert of Jordan, and she has studied Arabic and biblical Hebrew. This experience and knowledge translates beautifully into the vibrant world-building of the desert kingdom and of the culture of the people living there.

Another great element that Johnston’s books share is showing us the power of friendship, family, and love. In the first book the love between two sisters plays a major role, and in this book it is the friendship between the four spinners that saves the day. Saoud, Tariq, Arwa and Yashaa are all strong and brave in their own way, and it’s incredibly moving to see how their true friendship is able to battle deceit, suffering, and sacrifice.

“Saoud, are you coming with us for our sakes, or because you want to see your father again?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“Of course,” I told him. “Only, we might miss him in the capital. Or on the road. Or maybe my mother lied, and he has other business altogether.”
“Then I will go with you,” he said solemnly, “wherever you end up.”

However, despite these great qualities I found “Kingdom of Sleep” lacking a good plot. The largest part of this book the four spinners and Zahrah spend running through the desert, but apart from meeting a few spirits, not much happens during those travels. We get brief updates from the demon chasing them – just like in the first book, demons play a big role - but that’s the only thing that brings suspense.
The fairytale-elements from the original “Sleeping Beauty” aren’t present either, which is a shame because those could’ve added more excitement to the story. But there is no thorny forest, no big fight to defeat the evil fairy, and despite the title the enchanted sleep only takes place in the last few chapters.

Another thing this story misses is a hidden message. In the first book the actions of the nameless heroine showed how it are the ordinary women that hold the real power, not the high-ranked men. Such a message isn’t present in this book; although the epilogue makes up for this by giving us a beautiful, bittersweet ending to the story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. You don’t know how things will be between the Little Rose and her prince, but you know that they will be okay.

So although I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first one, Johnston again succeeded in writing a magical fairytale with brave heroes that definitely will keep you spellbound. What a wonderful book.



Read here my review of the first book in A Thousand Nights duology: #1 A Thousand Nights

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written. A continuation of "A Thousand Nights", though this story takes place many years later among the descendants of the Storyteller Queen's sister. This is the first retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story that I enjoyed, probably because I actually liked the princess in this story, Zahrah.
Though I did not love this story as much as the first in this series, I still enjoyed it, and the author's lovely characters.

[Ronak Gajjar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ughhhhhh!

Concept: 2.0/5.0
Execution: 2.0/5.0
Characters Bespoken: 2.5 /5.0
Cover: 3.0/5.0
Overall: 2.0/5.0

[Rusty's Ghost Engine (also known as.......... Jinky Spring) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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When I first finished this I didn’t know quite what to think as I absolutely adored the first book in this world the author wrote, A Thousand Nights and was really looking forward to seeing another story in this world. This book is set a long time after the events of A Thousand Nights with new characters and it is told in a way that is a little different from ATN as for starters nearly every present character is named whereas everyone who has read ATN knows that this was not the style in that book. I will also say I found the writing style in the first book a lot more immersive and beautiful than in this book which was still written in a lovely way, but it was a little disappointment to me to see this difference as the first books was a new favourite particularly for its mysterious air to the story and the stunning writing.

I will try not to go on too much about ATN or compare them too much but sometimes that isn’t possible and I can see many others on Goodreads did the same thing. Let me start with the things I liked which were the new setting, the interesting characters and how the plot was unpredictable for me. The author did a really good job of developing the relationships with the characters as their adventure and stories unfolded and I really liked seeing the dynamics changing between the characters when they were faced with different situations. This for me was one of the best things about this book where the characters, despite being written in a different way to the first novel, were easy to connect to, easy to envision and had personalities and qualities that made them fun to read about. I can’t say I have a favourite character as I liked them all for different reasons but I know this author certainly has talent and can totally understand why other reviewers have been calling her the Storyteller Queen too.

The world building for this book was also exquisite like in the first book and as much as I did like exploring the different settings here, I must say I did miss the wonderfully described desert setting from ATN as I connected more with that setting and thought it was really well brought to life, but that’s just my preference. You don’t have to read ATN to understand this book and even though there are some spoilers for the first book these stories can more or less be read as standalones. So why did I rate ATN so highly and this has been deducted a star? It’s a number of things really one being the ending which was intended to be magical and it was in a way but at the same time was quite unsatisfying for this style of writing and in comparison to the first book. I won’t give it away but I was disappointed the two main characters didn’t get the outcome I thought they deserved and I was left wanting to know what would happen to the Little Rose years down the line… It was obviously intended to be mysterious and touching but I found this a little on the frustrating side.

Also I will say that there wasn’t the same magical quality to this story than there was to the first which completely blew me away to say the least. Thinking about it, the way this book was told and the outcome, despite them both being by the same author and both being fairy tale retellings, made this book really different from everything in ATN and that in this case didn’t prove to be the best action in my opinion. I can see I’m not the only one who thought this and I can also see some people have said they cannot believe this is by the same author of ATN which so many people loved more than this second instalment. This wan’t a bad book at all, it had plenty of good likeable qualities but after the splendour of ATN I have to sadly admit this was mildly disappointing as I was hoping to find another favourite. I really wish the author would write more books of this type BUT to have more books set in this world would be beyond amazing…. I won’t get my hopes up, I’ll try not to 😛

Who I’d recommend this for

I would still like to recommend this to everyone who likes fantasy and if you liked the first book I still think you should read this despite the fact that these books are told in very different ways from one another. This book has plenty of redeeming qualities that make for a fun, quick read that can be enjoyed in a different way to ATN. My recommendation, impossible as it may seem, is to try not to compare the two books too much, try to go into this book like a completely new story and anticipate uniqueness from the former book as this is a companion, not exactly a sequel to A Thousand Nights 🙂

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnston has such a clear and lovely storyteller's voice, which she uses to great effect in this book. On the surface the tale is simple, but it has a depth that makes it very satisfying to read. I didn't love it quite as much as A Thousand Nights, but it was still quite a lovely book and very much worth spending time with.

E.K. Johnston remains a must-read author for me.

[Gabrielle]

I
NEED
THIS.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it fair that so many suffer for the sake of one girl, princess or not?

E. K. Johnston follows up A Thousand Nights, with a beautifully woven tale inspired by "Sleeping Beauty" which left me completely spellbound. The kingdom of Kharuf has become trapped under the evil curse of a demon queen. Their princess, Little Rose, sits locked in a tower, awaiting her 18th birthday, pledged to marry a foreign prince. But it is not Little Rose's story that is the primary beginning of where Johnston begins her tale. Rather, it is the devastating story of the "spinners", those who once wove their majestic creations for the royal family, now cast out from the kingdom, barely able to support their families and dying of a strange sickness, hoping that their princess will be able to break the curse.

Yashaa, Tariq, Arwa are three such children, now adolescents that have witnessed the suffering of their parents, and with their friend, Saoud, set out to return to the kingdom and plead with the monarchy on behalf of their craft. They have no idea that magic- both good and evil are about to play a part in their destiny. Or that they are no match for a very willful princess.

MY THOUGHTS:
1) Recently, I've been struggling to make time in my schedule to just sit down and read for pleasure, but I felt that all my worries fell away and I plunged headfirst into this book. Like, A Thousand Nights, the story's pace is slow, but the characters kept me deeply engaged. E.K. Johnston is great at making characters connect with her readers. I felt the emotions of the spinners, the anger, the hurt, the helplessness and even I was a little angry at "Little Rose." But even when I settled into a particular line of thinking, Johnston would re-adjust my thinking. Such as, when Yashaa is letting " Little Rose" know that he feels his princess has not fully understood the suffering of her people, in turn, the princess responds

Do no forget, I have had nothing to do for most of my life except sit idle in a tower where I can see my kingdom and not help it. My suffering is different from yours, and maybe it is less, but it is mine, and I will not listen to you belittle it.

2) The plot strength was focused on the story line of confronting this demon queen and end the curse. Sure there was a bit of romance, but it wasn't insta-love and it wasn't eye-rolling, gag me with a spoon, not another YA romance train ride. Instead it was beautiful, sweet, and appropriately unraveled at the right time.

3) Epilogue was a little tidy and cute, but I am a softy and E.K. Johnson appears to like to finish on a sentimental note.

Check this book out when it hits the shelves on December 6th, 2016!


Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book

[Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. E.K. Johnston's pitch-perfect writing style is slightly muted by a meandering plot with no direction, but in general, the book still succeeds.

So, to start with the good: Johnston's prose is gorgeous, as always. She is really so talented and I'm willing to forgo pretty much any flaw because her writing clicks with me so much.

Zahrah's character is a strength of this novel. She is well-written and developed. I loved seeing a strong Sleeping Beauty with agency. Unfortunately, she only narrates one chapter. She also doesn't make most of the decisions of the plot.

One of my favorite things about A Thousand Nights was the strong heroine and her decisiveness. This book does not have that. Yashaa, the protagonist, makes decisions that seem abrupt and changes his mind on the best course of action at the drop of a hat. The plot was too meandering.

The romance is sweet and likable. There's no instalove here; Yashaa and Zahrah's dynamic is far more interesting than that of Sleeping Beauty and the Prince. I'm not lying down praising it, but it wasn't bad at all.

I still enjoyed this novel. But definitely start with A Thousand Nights.

[Andreea Zelenyak · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was boring, it almost put me to sleep!
The first chapters were good, the 'One thousand and one nights' and 'Sleeping Beauty' mix promised so much, the first book in the series was amazing, so many positive reviews...what the hell went wrong?!
Very disappointed!!

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up-really about 2.5 stars as the general idea of a quest and facing demons was fine. I just couldn't connect to the characters and felt the set up of the story, the curse and the friendships, was way too cursory.

[Ashley Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I guess I give this 2.5 stars? I just am feeling so mixed about this and can't quite land on a final rating, but I'll leave it at that for now.

This was everything “A Thousand Nights” wasn’t… in both a good way and a bad way (mostly bad though). I didn't have a lot of deep thoughts about this book, because I didn't care about it very much. But here's what I did think:

-We know everyone’s names in this story: on the one hand this makes "Spindle" lack the intrigue the first one had in its anonymity. On the other hand, this makes me care more about the characters emotionally.
-There was much more dialogue here than there was in "A Thousand Nights." Again, made me care more and also kept me turning the pages faster.
-The setting took place all over the mountains - as opposed to the previous book which only took place in 2 locations.
-The correlation between this book and Sleeping Beauty is much more obvious in this one than the correlation between the previous book and the 1001 nights tale. This is good if you're reading something because you love the source material and enjoy remakes, but in my opinion it makes the story less original.

My favorite thing about this book was the consistency of strong female characters. And not just in this book! This was the third book of E.K. Johnston's that I have read, and in every case her female characters are strong, fully developed, complex, and well-written.

I think that the first book took me by surprise so much because it was so intricate and beautiful and done in a way that I was not expecting and had never seen before, and so now this books pales in comparison for that reason. I will say that it took me less time to read this book. However, even when I was 75% through the book not much still had happened. And then the super flat and fast ending was very unsatisfying.

Overall the language itself was a different writing style - less poetic but more accessible - and the story was predictable. I was so unexpectedly enamored by the first book, that "Spindle" was a let down and did not live up to its predecessor.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the first in this series. . Good sleeping beauty retelling.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second adaptation by E.K. Johnston was strong, unique, and captivating. While not as strong as “A Thousand Nights,” the characters were well-developed and the story original. The main weakness consisted of an extremely rushed ending and a laborious middle. The story would have been stunning if more time and attention were paid to the events following the climax instead of spending so much time filling the lull in the middle. Overall well worth a read, there were nevertheless a few cracks in an otherwise brilliant tale.

[Učitaj se! | Martina Štivičić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mnogo je vremena prošlo otkako je Kraljica Pripovjedačica istjerala demona iz svog muža, kralja, i vratila prosperitet svojoj zemlji. Demone je zatočila duboko u planinama i stvorila čudesna stvorenja da ih zauvijek čuvaju ondje.

Ali, vrijeme nikada ne prestaje teći, a zatočenim demonima vrijeme je bilo sve što im je još preostalo. Vrijeme, i strpljenje.

Dugo nakon što je svijet napustila Kraljica Pripovjedačica, jedna je demonica konačno dovoljno ojačala da baci oko na još jednu buduću nadu kraljevstva: princezu Malu Ružu. Bacivši kletvu na princezu, bacila je i nju i njen narod u dubok ponor očaja i patnje. Ipak, i u najdubljim je ponorima moguće pronaći bar tračak nade, a i najčvršće ispredenu nit moguće je na neki način slomiti...

Nastavak magične priče E.K. Johnston 'Tisuću noći' jednako je magičan, vješto ispripovijedan i čaroban kao i njegov prethodnik. Ako ste već čitali 'Tisuću noći', onda znate točno kakvu vještinu pripovijedanja posjeduje njegova autorica, i kakvu predivnu priču svojim riječima može istkati. Ako pak još niste imali prilike pročitati nešto od E.K. Johnston, 'Vreteno' je savršeno mjesto da se s njom upoznate.

Iako su dio istog serijala, 'Tisuću noći' i 'Vreteno' nisu čvrsto povezani pričom, odnosno nema izravne uzročno-posljedične veze između ova dva romana, stoga ih bez problema možete čitati odvojeno, bilo kojim redoslijedom koji vam odgovara. Radnja 'Vretena' odvija se generacijama nakon dođaja iz 'Tisuću noći' i tvori zasebnu magičnu priču, ali koju je jednak užitak čitati kao i 'Tisuću noći'.

Priča koju ovdje susrećemo neodoljivo podsjeća na bajku o 'Trnoružici', te se može reći da je njen svojevrstan re-telling. Od kletve bačene na malu princezu, opasnosti od uboda na vreteno, dobre vile koja kletvu pokuša ublažiti svojim posebnim darom i sudbine kraljevstva koja je usko povezana sa sudbinom njegove princeze, priča o Trnoružici i priča o Maloj Ruži dva su naličja iste osnovne priče, ispričane na različite načine i s različitim sudbinama namijenjenim glavnim junakinjama priče.

Bajkovitost, magija, srčani likovi i nadasve predivan način na koji je sama priča ispričana aduti su kojima se ovaj roman ističe i zbog kojih ga je predivno čitati. Ima tu i pustolovine, hrabrosti, žrtvovanja i borbe, kao i prijateljstva i ljubavi - sve uklopljeno u okvire priče na jedinstven i sasvim poseban način.

Ovo nije brza avantura, već polako ispripovijedana pripovijest o sudbini jednog kraljevstva i njegove princeze, začinjena pravom mjerom čarolije, romantike i napetih trenutaka. Baš kao da vam netko ovu priču usmeno pripovijeda, neki će njeni dijelovi zvučati sporo, neki više, a neki manje uzbudljivo, ali niti na jednom dijelu priče nećete poželjeti prestati slušati.

[Stephanie (Reading is Better With Cupcakes) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In case you were not already aware, Spindle is the second book in a series. The first book is entitled A Thousand Nights.

Spindle is meant to be a retelling of the ever popular Sleeping Beauty tale. There is a girl, there is a curse, and there is a demon. If she spins bad things are supposed to happen. Etc.

And for the most part I would say that Spindle follows this idea fairly well. However, unlike most books it is not told from the point of view of the cursed princess. Instead it is told from the point of a view of a boy whose whole life and everything he knows has been affected by the curse.

And the curse is ravaging the whole kingdom, especially the spinners. They get sick if they spin, so they can't make the thread that makes the cloth that makes the clothes.

After finishing up the first book, I was ready to dive into more of this world and to see where the author was going to take us next. To be honest, I was kind of surprised in the differences between these books.

The main difference that I noticed in this book compared to the last is that it is written differently. Where in book 1 we had no names to characters, pretty much all of the characters in book 2 have them. I think this is in part why I feel the unique voice that I had come to think of this series to have is gone for me. It feels less like a storyteller is telling it now versus someone of the story is telling it.

Also, this book is set quite a bit after book 1 took place. Different characters, different location, different different different. It will kind of refer back to what happened in book 1 at times and there is the spinning aspect that is really holding it together. Because, yes, just like in the first book, spinning is a HUGE part of the story. I guess you could probably have figured that out though just by knowing that it is based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale though.

All in all though, I really felt pulled in when reading this story. And while I wasn't expecting the change in writing style, I am okay with it. It still worked.

Oh...and this book really was starting to make me want to pick up spinning!

This review is based on an ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Find more of my reviews here:
http://readingwithcupcakes.blogspot.com/

[Jemailyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5☆

What it is to want that which you cannot have.

In the kingdom of Kharuf, there lived a princess who was cursed by a demon. The demon was kin to the demon that corrupted Lo-Melkhiin in book one: A Thousand Nights. The spinners in the land of Kharuf were sick because of the curse, and Yashaa and his gang were tasked to find a way to break the curse in order to save their land and avenge their families. Along the way, they "kidnapped" the princess, who willingly went with them just to escape from the prison tower she was at, and to help find the piskeys who gave her the gift to break the curse.

To be honest, I couldn't really figure out the purpose of their journey at first. The story was just about their travels through the mountains and deserts, and it just went on and on and on. I almost DNF this one. The story only made sense in the end, like literally. SPOILER: The spindle was the answer to break the curse. It turns out, the princess needed to be pricked by the spindle to break the curse.🙄 And so I made this deduction; the story was a Sleeping Beauty with a touch of Tangled reimagining, and told in reverse (yea, go figure bec. it also confused me... a lot).

Anyway, overall, I would say it was almost okay. This was the same feeling I had with A Thousand Nights: the story seemed to work and yet it didn't.

Happy New Year to all! 🎉🎉🎉

[Alexa (Alexa Loves Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm settling on a 3.5 stars for this novel, simply because I have mixed feelings on it. I did wind up actually invested in the outcome of this story and interested in the characters, and I thought the nods to the Sleeping Beauty fairytale were lovely. However, I was thrown off a wee bit by the pacing and the way the plot unfolds. Still, worth a read if you're interested at all in the premise or if you enjoyed the previous novel in this companion novel series.

[Tami]

WOA ES GIBT EINEN ZWEITEN BAND?!

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this is the kind of YA books thrown at my feet from this day forward, then I’d truly be a very happy reader. I think I’ve read enough of modern teenage dramas and romantic hullabaloos in my lifetime, and so it’s nice to read something that doesn’t include teen angst or pining over. Or maybe I enjoy books like this more because I’m currently a little obsessed with retellings; also, it did help that the author is gifted with words, and is able to tell a story in a manner so engaging and heartfelt.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really three and a half stars. I found the first half of the novel a bit slow. Yashaa's anger was a bit tedious. He seemed flat as a character. When he and his friends left the Crossroads and were travelling together I never felt as if I really got to know Yashaa, Saoud, Tariq, and Arwa any better. But then they kidnapped the Little Rose. And the story changed. It became something else, something bittersweet and lovely. The blossoming love story between Yashaa and Zahrah gave the story it's heart as Yashaa's bitterness turned to love and pride. I really enjoyed "A Thousand Nights" and when I reached the second half of this novel I enjoyed it just as much. So three stars for the first half and four for the second half.

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I bought this book I was really excited about it. I love sleeping beauty as a story, but there aren’t that many great retellings. Mostly because no one wants a main character who’s asleep for most of the story. The blurb also sounded very intriguing, so I really couldn’t wait to find out how this author had tackled the issue.

Now I’ve finished the book I feel quite unsatisfied though. And it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this book didn’t work for me properly. I think the biggest issue is that I had trouble connecting with the main characters in this story. I’m not entirely sure if that’s because they didn’t feel real enough or if they were so different from me and from the kind of characters I like. But, I simply couldn’t really care about them.

It also didn’t help that I’m still not entirely sure what the plot was about. In a way it’s of course about breaking the curse, but for some reason I never felt like much was happening on that part. The characters were mostly busy with surviving and then on the side they were looking into this curse, but they needed a character, swooping in at the last pages, with new information to solve the issue. And it’s not like the emotional development of the characters is that huge. If it was there, I had trouble seeing it.

But it’s not like I didn’t enjoy reading the story at all. I loved the beautiful writing, the flowery and vivid descriptions, the way the world was never fully explained and stayed a mystery, but worked nonetheless. I really enjoyed the flow of the sentences and the choice of words and the difference in speech patterns for characters and situations.

If I hadn’t been such an emotion-oriented reader, I might have enjoyed the story maybe more (although, it wasn’t very action packed either). Or maybe I simply read it at the wrong moment, totally possible too.

[Emmeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly more like a 2.6.

So I loved the book up until the half way point, when it occurred to me that barely any character development had happened?? And these people barely had characters anyway??

A small list of dislikes:
- um the characters were very bland.
- The climax was a little bland too. (this might just be me not paying attention though!)
- I got rather bored at three quarters in, because nothing happened for agessss
- I was forever unsure of what the characters motivation in the first place was. They didn't have a proper purpose for leaving their home in the first place.

Some things I liked:
- world building!! I thought it was very well done.
- writing style!! I actually enjoyed the fact that it was in first person, which never happens for me!
- the fairytale/Arabian Nights atmosphere throughout the book.

So basically this book bored me, and I could find no personalities within the characters, but the world building was great!!

(Also I haven't read the first book in the series and started it without realising there was a first one, whoopsies!! It didn't really make a difference though :))

[Dark Faerie Tales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Middle eastern take on Cinderella with a hint of Rapunzel, but ultimately the slow pacing kept me from enjoying this novel as much as the first, A Thousand Nights.

Opening Sentence: We know exactly how we came to these cold, hard mountains, and we remember everything that we have lost since we arrived here.

The Review:

Spindle by E.K. Johnston is a companion novel to A Thousand Nights and both novels are based off of famous stories, 1001 Nights and Cinderella. If you haven’t checked out these books yet, they are middle-eastern inspired twists to the original work with some added paranormal elements. (I know 1001 Nights is already middle-eastern but Cinderella is not.) I really enjoyed the different settings and culture that was portrayed. I loved A Thousand Nights but I just found Spindle to be an okay read. The story was really slow, the ending rushed and I just had a hard time seeing spinning as an addiction.

Spindle is set many years past the events of A Thousand Nights. The first book is referenced quite a few times as Spindle deals with some of the descendants of A Thousand Nights. Overall, I don’t feel like you have to have read A Thousand Nights but I do feel like you would get the references better if you did. (Plus, I loved the spin of A Thousand Nights. So definitely check it out!)

Spindle is told through the story of a young man named Yaasha from the country of Kharuf. He was a young boy when the Little Rose was cursed by a demon. He wasn’t even present at the event so he has to rely on stories from others to tell his story. At five years old, Little Rose was bestowed gifts and a curse because a demon decided that it wanted Little Rose as the perfect host when her body was ready to receive its essence. Like the original story, Little Rose is given a way out but it isn’t pleasant and, of course, involves a spindle. The demon makes sure that any spinners in the country will get deathly ill because it has to make sure that Little Rose can’t touch a spindle.

Yaasha’s story is about his mother, whom used to work as the top spinner at the court, and all the other spinners are effectively banished from the country and have to leave but they aren’t accepted in, Qamth, the country they seek safely in. His mother wants Yaasha to go on a quest to find the King of the country where they are seeking asylum and see if he can talk him into accepting all the foreign spinners. Yaasha decides to not go that route, he decides his best step is to find Little Rose and see if they can end the curse through her so that his mother can become a great spinner again and survive the wasting disease that is killing all the spinners from their home country.

There are portions of this story that I had some really issues with especially the spinning issue. Yaasha hated spinning but in the way he tells the story it is almost an addiction for some of the side characters. Their fingers are constantly moving like they are spinning but they can’t because they will get sick. In their home country, spinning makes them sick but it temporarily relieves their insanity too. Spinning is needed for employment but also for clothing that the country is running out of. Another issue I had was that this story just felt slow. Most of the story was told on the road during a journey that the characters didn’t really have any grasp of because they had a hard time deciding where to go and what to do.

Little Rose is an enigma all her own. I loved her attitude and her spunk. She loves her country and she hates what the demon has forced down upon everyone but to give up would leave herself vulnerable to the demon so she makes sure that doesn’t happen. Little Rose is forced to not learn anything because learning or “making” as the book keeps calling it will open Little Rose for the demon to use as it wishes. Learning things will help make Little Rose the proper host for the demon because the demon doesn’t want to fall into the same trap as the last powerful demon did in A Thousand Nights.

I’m very conflicted over the ending because in one sense I found the ending perfect (and beautiful) but I was also severely disappointed in it. I guess I was just hoping for something else but you can’t really change the ending of Cinderella, just some of the events surrounding it. The ending was rushed. All the major crazy events I was looking forward to happened in the last ten pages and was basically summed up through Roses’ point of view.

Overall, Spindle is a wonderfully creative book but fell a little flat of A Thousand Nights. I enjoyed the spin that E.K. Johnston wove with this tale. I had a few issues with why it seemed like spinning was an addiction (my guess is the demon messed with people’s heads that way) and really slow going. Reading the story, I had no idea where she was going with the ending and then having it wrap up so quickly didn’t help. If you are looking for something diverse and different in an old-fashioned fairy tale, I would still tell you to try this series because you may enjoy it better than I did. So please, give it a try!

Notable Scene:

“I should know so many things,” she said. “I should be able to bake bread, even though my kitchens will always have a bread mistress. I should know how to weave a tapestry and write a trade agreement. I should know, but I can’t. I was born and bred to do these things, and my heart cries out for them, and I can’t. I cannot make anything. Every stitch, every note, every letter, and every dance step would prepare me for the demon’s curse, and spinning would seal it. And I cannot take the piskey’s gift. I would sleep forever, but the demon would be free–the curse would remain unbroken–and then my kingdom, my people, would be queenless and cursed, both.”

FTC Advisory: Disney-Hyperion provided me with a copy of Spindle. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[Brittani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want E. K. Johnston to keep writing in this universe forever. Rewrite every fairytale, please.

So, I definitely preferred A Thousand Nights to this one - that's just more focused on like, My Shit than this one is - but I still really, really enjoyed this. This was such an intricately and beautifully woven (get it?!) story, every word felt like it was in the right place and it was lovely. And if the whole characters who have no names thing bothered you in the first book, good news! In this one the characters have names!

[Nataša · Rating 3 out of 5]

A o tom to sa prečo len teraz dozvedám? :O Aj keď nie som mega fanúšik dajte mi to a hneď!!! Znie to dobre a navyše tá obálka...Nech už je decembeeer!!!

Po dočítaní:
Ehm... Nuda, veľmi veľká, ale ku koncu prekvapilo.. Nečakajte nič epické, jedná sa o príbeh, kde hrá hlavnú úlohu priateľstvo a lojalita.