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Folktales #3
Spindle's End
All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy Pernicia on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep-a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her.
354 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 22, 2000
About the author
Robin McKinley
43 books6,716 followersBorn in her mother's hometown of Warren, Ohio, Robin McKinley grew up an only child with a father in the United States Navy. She moved around frequently as a child and read copiously; she credits this background with the inspiration for her stories.
Her passion for reading was one of the most constant things in her childhood, so she began to remember events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. For example, she read Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book for the first time in California; The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York; The Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan; The Once and Future King for the first time in Maine. She still uses books to keep track of her life.
McKinley attended Gould Academy, a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine, and Dickinson College in 1970-1972. In 1975, she was graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College. In 1978, her first novel, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to, and she began her writing career, at age 26. At the time she was living in Brunswick, Maine. Since then she has lived in Boston, on a horse farm in Eastern Massachusetts, in New York City, in Blue Hill, Maine, and now in Hampshire, England, with her husband Peter Dickinson (also a writer, and with whom she co-wrote Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits in 2001) and two lurchers (crossbred sighthounds).
Over the years she has worked as an editor and transcriber (1972-73), research assistant (1976-77), bookstore clerk (1978), teacher and counselor (1978-79), editorial assistant (1979-81), barn manager (1981-82), free-lance editor (1982-85), and full-time writer. Other than writing and reading books, she divides her time mainly between walking her "hellhounds," gardening, cooking, playing the piano, homeopathy, change ringing, and keeping her blog.
Her passion for reading was one of the most constant things in her childhood, so she began to remember events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. For example, she read Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book for the first time in California; The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York; The Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan; The Once and Future King for the first time in Maine. She still uses books to keep track of her life.
McKinley attended Gould Academy, a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine, and Dickinson College in 1970-1972. In 1975, she was graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College. In 1978, her first novel, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to, and she began her writing career, at age 26. At the time she was living in Brunswick, Maine. Since then she has lived in Boston, on a horse farm in Eastern Massachusetts, in New York City, in Blue Hill, Maine, and now in Hampshire, England, with her husband Peter Dickinson (also a writer, and with whom she co-wrote Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits in 2001) and two lurchers (crossbred sighthounds).
Over the years she has worked as an editor and transcriber (1972-73), research assistant (1976-77), bookstore clerk (1978), teacher and counselor (1978-79), editorial assistant (1979-81), barn manager (1981-82), free-lance editor (1982-85), and full-time writer. Other than writing and reading books, she divides her time mainly between walking her "hellhounds," gardening, cooking, playing the piano, homeopathy, change ringing, and keeping her blog.
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April 8, 2020
Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Spindle’s End is long and leisurely-paced, but I found it an absorbing retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, with fascinating details and appealing animals (Robin McKinley excels at both of those things) and a few major twists to the classic story. I enjoyed it enough to reread it at least two or three times in the last 20 years since it was published in 2000.
Spindle’s End starts out much like the traditional fairy tale: An evil fairy, Pernicia (nice name!) places a fatal curse on the baby princess at her outdoor christening party, where all the kingdom has been invited to watch. But at that party is a young woman with the magical power of speaking to animals, Katriona. The royal magician, desperate for a way to evade the curse, hands over baby Rosie (she’s got about fifteen official names, but Rosie is the one we’ll go with) to Katriona, asking Katriona to keep the princess well hidden until after her 16th birthday.
So totally-unprepared Katriona lugs baby Rosie all the way home to her village in the north part of the kingdom. It’s a walking journey, one that takes several weeks, and Katriona has a hungry nursing infant on her hands. The wild animals of the kingdom pass the word along and start turning up each day to nurse baby Rose. It’s really a delightful and unusual addition to the story.
Rosie grows up with Katriona and her aunt, seemingly an ordinary village girl, and a more plain-spoken, unorthodox princess cannot be imagined. (Another delightful twist is how all of the other fairies’ princess-appropriate gifts are subverted by Rosie’s true nature.) But Rosie, Katriona and Katriona’s aunt can all feel Pernicia’s magic seeking to hunt down Rosie, and it only gets scarier as her sixteenth birthday approaches.
Spindle’s End isn’t for everyone. Robin McKinley loves animals, and they play a major and unquestionably charming role in the story here, but McKinley also loves quirky and folksy details and speaking in digressions and parentheticals, and she takes her sweet time telling this story. There’s one of those weird nightmarish scenes toward the end that McKinley is inexplicably fond of, when the characters get pulled into Pernicia’s kingdom. And I’ll just say that the final twist also will not be to everyone’s taste. I’m not entirely sure it was for me, but as I’ve revisited Spindle’s End a couple of times over the years I find myself more inclined to go along with McKinley’s slow-paced but lovely reimagining of this story.
Give it a shot if you’re fond of fairy tale retellings, but be prepared to immerse yourself in a leisurely-told story with an abundance of additional details and a few odd twists.
Spindle’s End is long and leisurely-paced, but I found it an absorbing retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, with fascinating details and appealing animals (Robin McKinley excels at both of those things) and a few major twists to the classic story. I enjoyed it enough to reread it at least two or three times in the last 20 years since it was published in 2000.
Spindle’s End starts out much like the traditional fairy tale: An evil fairy, Pernicia (nice name!) places a fatal curse on the baby princess at her outdoor christening party, where all the kingdom has been invited to watch. But at that party is a young woman with the magical power of speaking to animals, Katriona. The royal magician, desperate for a way to evade the curse, hands over baby Rosie (she’s got about fifteen official names, but Rosie is the one we’ll go with) to Katriona, asking Katriona to keep the princess well hidden until after her 16th birthday.
So totally-unprepared Katriona lugs baby Rosie all the way home to her village in the north part of the kingdom. It’s a walking journey, one that takes several weeks, and Katriona has a hungry nursing infant on her hands. The wild animals of the kingdom pass the word along and start turning up each day to nurse baby Rose. It’s really a delightful and unusual addition to the story.
Rosie grows up with Katriona and her aunt, seemingly an ordinary village girl, and a more plain-spoken, unorthodox princess cannot be imagined. (Another delightful twist is how all of the other fairies’ princess-appropriate gifts are subverted by Rosie’s true nature.) But Rosie, Katriona and Katriona’s aunt can all feel Pernicia’s magic seeking to hunt down Rosie, and it only gets scarier as her sixteenth birthday approaches.
Spindle’s End isn’t for everyone. Robin McKinley loves animals, and they play a major and unquestionably charming role in the story here, but McKinley also loves quirky and folksy details and speaking in digressions and parentheticals, and she takes her sweet time telling this story. There’s one of those weird nightmarish scenes toward the end that McKinley is inexplicably fond of, when the characters get pulled into Pernicia’s kingdom. And I’ll just say that the final twist also will not be to everyone’s taste. I’m not entirely sure it was for me, but as I’ve revisited Spindle’s End a couple of times over the years I find myself more inclined to go along with McKinley’s slow-paced but lovely reimagining of this story.
Give it a shot if you’re fond of fairy tale retellings, but be prepared to immerse yourself in a leisurely-told story with an abundance of additional details and a few odd twists.
July 21, 2008
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 the end.
3. While based on a fairy tale, the resolution of the novel seems to be anything but formulaic. Even by regular fantasy novel standards, a lot of this comes out of left field.
4. It takes a very long time for things to happen (in the sense of action), and when it does you may miss it if you aren't paying attention.
5. Random facts about places, people, and customs of the fictional kingdom are dropped in sporadically. This adds a great deal of richness to the book, as well as causing a bit of confusion (some tidbits about customs, for instance, are dropped chapters before they are explained).
All of that said, I really liked this book. The narration that makes it so odd is engaging enough to make up for the fact that you can go for pages without a character saying something. The descriptions were some of the best I've read in ages from any genre, and I was so happy that the novel ended in a way you would not guess from the start (one aspect of the ending was a given, but otherwise...completely offside). Overall, I would recommend this to a lot of people...with a big caveat regarding the narration. If you need a lot of things to happen very quickly, and a ton of witty banter from your characters, you may want to skip this one.
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 the end.
3. While based on a fairy tale, the resolution of the novel seems to be anything but formulaic. Even by regular fantasy novel standards, a lot of this comes out of left field.
4. It takes a very long time for things to happen (in the sense of action), and when it does you may miss it if you aren't paying attention.
5. Random facts about places, people, and customs of the fictional kingdom are dropped in sporadically. This adds a great deal of richness to the book, as well as causing a bit of confusion (some tidbits about customs, for instance, are dropped chapters before they are explained).
All of that said, I really liked this book. The narration that makes it so odd is engaging enough to make up for the fact that you can go for pages without a character saying something. The descriptions were some of the best I've read in ages from any genre, and I was so happy that the novel ended in a way you would not guess from the start (one aspect of the ending was a given, but otherwise...completely offside). Overall, I would recommend this to a lot of people...with a big caveat regarding the narration. If you need a lot of things to happen very quickly, and a ton of witty banter from your characters, you may want to skip this one.
June 20, 2022
Este libro es el summum del costumbrismo-cottagecore-de cuentos de hadas.
DIOS COMO LO HE DISFRUTADO.
No es perfecto, a ver, es uno de estos libros que tú ves que no es perfecto (la trama... ¿qué trama? se le va de las manos y el final es... raro) pero para ti sí que lo es. Está escrito para ti, lleva tus nombre escrito en la portada en letras mayúsculas, gigantes y con brillantina.
Pues eso, que lo he disfrutado muchísimo y se ha convertido en uno de mis retellings favoritos.
Cuenta la historia de La bella durmiente, pero desde el punto de vista (en inicio) de un hada y su tía (otra hada, en este reino es algo de lo más común), que por cierto viven en un cottage cerca de un pueblecillo normal y corriente.
Así vamos a ver pasar 20 años en la vida de estas mujeres, vamos a ver crecer a Rosie (la bella durmiente), madurar a Kat (el hada) y especialmente vamos a ver ese mundo mágico en toda su maravillosa amplitud.
Nunca había leído un libro en que la magia estuviera tan presente, fuera tan palpable y me resultara tan original. La novela está llena de guiños, de sus propias leyendas e historias dentro de historias y al mismo tiempo es increíblemente cotidiana.
Es la historia de dos mujeres criando a una niña e intentando que no le pase nada malo con todas sus fuerzas.
También hay varios giros al cuento clásico pero no pierde de vista nunca el cuento clásico, la autora crea algo completamente original y sorprendentemente amplio, eso sí.
Porque está la maldición, los reyes mustios, las hadas, Pernicia (Maléfica), las rosas, el príncipe, el reino dormido y todo lo demás. Pero también es algo totalmente distinto y que nunca había visto antes.
No sé a quién le gustará un libro así, a alguien que disfrute con las historias costumbristas e increíblemente mágicas seguramente.
Uno de mis libros favoritos ya de la vida. Esta autora es ♥︎
DIOS COMO LO HE DISFRUTADO.
No es perfecto, a ver, es uno de estos libros que tú ves que no es perfecto (la trama... ¿qué trama? se le va de las manos y el final es... raro) pero para ti sí que lo es. Está escrito para ti, lleva tus nombre escrito en la portada en letras mayúsculas, gigantes y con brillantina.
Pues eso, que lo he disfrutado muchísimo y se ha convertido en uno de mis retellings favoritos.
Cuenta la historia de La bella durmiente, pero desde el punto de vista (en inicio) de un hada y su tía (otra hada, en este reino es algo de lo más común), que por cierto viven en un cottage cerca de un pueblecillo normal y corriente.
Así vamos a ver pasar 20 años en la vida de estas mujeres, vamos a ver crecer a Rosie (la bella durmiente), madurar a Kat (el hada) y especialmente vamos a ver ese mundo mágico en toda su maravillosa amplitud.
Nunca había leído un libro en que la magia estuviera tan presente, fuera tan palpable y me resultara tan original. La novela está llena de guiños, de sus propias leyendas e historias dentro de historias y al mismo tiempo es increíblemente cotidiana.
Es la historia de dos mujeres criando a una niña e intentando que no le pase nada malo con todas sus fuerzas.
También hay varios giros al cuento clásico pero no pierde de vista nunca el cuento clásico, la autora crea algo completamente original y sorprendentemente amplio, eso sí.
Porque está la maldición, los reyes mustios, las hadas, Pernicia (Maléfica), las rosas, el príncipe, el reino dormido y todo lo demás. Pero también es algo totalmente distinto y que nunca había visto antes.
No sé a quién le gustará un libro así, a alguien que disfrute con las historias costumbristas e increíblemente mágicas seguramente.
Uno de mis libros favoritos ya de la vida. Esta autora es ♥︎
October 16, 2021
This could have been an interesting retelling of Sleeping Beauty. McKinley had some good ideas, but the plot rambled along at such a boring pace that it's hard to remember what they were. Long-winded and useless descriptions of every mundane thing you can imagine were a huge part of what bogged the book down. I think if it had been chopped down to 150 or 200 pages, it would have made a pretty decent story. At 400 plus pages? Not so much.
I also thought that the fact that her love interest was 20 to 30 years older than her (and had watched her grow up from an infant) was kind of creepy.
P.S. Was Narl really the best name she could come up with for the guy? Narl?!
I also thought that the fact that her love interest was 20 to 30 years older than her (and had watched her grow up from an infant) was kind of creepy.
P.S. Was Narl really the best name she could come up with for the guy? Narl?!
October 29, 2009
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 interesting to read how Rosie is defended by the 'ordinary' upbringing she had in the Gig in light of McKinley's later heroine Rae in Sunshine, and that theme of the 'ordinary' girl having strength not despite her rough origins but because of them really goes all the way back to Beauty (my favourite of McKinley's novels and the first book of hers I ever read). I didn't like Narl very much at first and he didn't seem to become a fully realized character almost until the end of the book; Rowland seemed better-written, but he shows up so late and says so little I didn't feel like he had much impact on the story either. But that's perhaps the point: the book isn't about the two love interests, but about the two girls and the question of female identity, how who are you are is shaped by expectations and social roles, and what happens to girls who conform or disobey.
(I doubt McKinley would say this -- or even agree with it -- but Rosie is clearly genderqueer to some extent, not just in her short hair and dislike of dresses and dancing and embroidery and so on, but also in her aggression and power and volubility -- at one point she's affectionately referred to as a "thug"! This genderqueering goes on all the way up to the end with the surprise kiss and the use of the, er, spindle.)
The book is also just as much about Rosie's relation to the living, teeming natural world, and her 'beast-speech' gift is an example of that connection. I loved how here it's not just the great horses or the sighthounds (the queen, whom I don't think is ever named -- boo -- clearly comes from the country in Deerskin, which I found charming) that are characters in their own right but almost every animal -- the foxes, the mice, Sunflower the slobbery dogge, even the spider. Like the description of the great iron gates Narl makes, the flowers and the land and the animals and the vitality of life running through them all -- Thomas's 'force that through the green fuse drives the flower' -- are all intertwined and related to each other, and the book is also a kind of meditation on kinds of power, and the uses of power.
The one thing about the worldbuilding that did put me off to some extent was the magic -- not the endless detailing of the rules in the AU McKinley set up, which felt like it was meant to be charming but was actually tedious in the very beginning (the fish jokes got annoying as the book went on), but more how the big magical moments worked. It felt, like in Deerskin, that there was some kind of very deep almost Jungian symbology going on behind certain events which explained the way things were happening, and I just didn't have the right cipher to crack the code, although possibly this kind of confusion was intentional. This made for scenes which felt almost starkly mythic (Rosie's journey to the castle in the barren lands also reminded me of Rae's long nightmarish walk in Sunshine) in sharp, almost disorienting contrast to the extreme wealth of detail about 'mundane' life. Again, this could be intentional on McKinley's part and reminded me a lot of similar blendings in Peter S. Beagle's books (A Fine and Private Place, The Folk of the Air), except the elements feel better blended in his writing.
***
I also forgot to add I finally read one of the bits that made me want to read this book -- or rather, someone's description of it, long ago -- a half-sentence-long rewriting of the Orpehus myth (which I'm obsessed with!) into a fable of fidelity in a kind of half-glance that is as much of a rewriting of mythical elements as Rosie's kiss or the spindle. It's a great example of how a tiny detail can be just as important as a big supershiny 'singularity' in terms of writing alternative worlds.
(I doubt McKinley would say this -- or even agree with it -- but Rosie is clearly genderqueer to some extent, not just in her short hair and dislike of dresses and dancing and embroidery and so on, but also in her aggression and power and volubility -- at one point she's affectionately referred to as a "thug"! This genderqueering goes on all the way up to the end with the surprise kiss and the use of the, er, spindle.)
The book is also just as much about Rosie's relation to the living, teeming natural world, and her 'beast-speech' gift is an example of that connection. I loved how here it's not just the great horses or the sighthounds (the queen, whom I don't think is ever named -- boo -- clearly comes from the country in Deerskin, which I found charming) that are characters in their own right but almost every animal -- the foxes, the mice, Sunflower the slobbery dogge, even the spider. Like the description of the great iron gates Narl makes, the flowers and the land and the animals and the vitality of life running through them all -- Thomas's 'force that through the green fuse drives the flower' -- are all intertwined and related to each other, and the book is also a kind of meditation on kinds of power, and the uses of power.
The one thing about the worldbuilding that did put me off to some extent was the magic -- not the endless detailing of the rules in the AU McKinley set up, which felt like it was meant to be charming but was actually tedious in the very beginning (the fish jokes got annoying as the book went on), but more how the big magical moments worked. It felt, like in Deerskin, that there was some kind of very deep almost Jungian symbology going on behind certain events which explained the way things were happening, and I just didn't have the right cipher to crack the code, although possibly this kind of confusion was intentional. This made for scenes which felt almost starkly mythic (Rosie's journey to the castle in the barren lands also reminded me of Rae's long nightmarish walk in Sunshine) in sharp, almost disorienting contrast to the extreme wealth of detail about 'mundane' life. Again, this could be intentional on McKinley's part and reminded me a lot of similar blendings in Peter S. Beagle's books (A Fine and Private Place, The Folk of the Air), except the elements feel better blended in his writing.
***
I also forgot to add I finally read one of the bits that made me want to read this book -- or rather, someone's description of it, long ago -- a half-sentence-long rewriting of the Orpehus myth (which I'm obsessed with!) into a fable of fidelity in a kind of half-glance that is as much of a rewriting of mythical elements as Rosie's kiss or the spindle. It's a great example of how a tiny detail can be just as important as a big supershiny 'singularity' in terms of writing alternative worlds.
March 3, 2008
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 some of the characters: the young and heroically responsible Katriona, the quiet and supposedly-mysterious-but-really-rather-transparent and reliable Narl, the beautifully kind and sweet Peony, and the everything-that-she-shouldn't-be Princess, Rosie. The devoted animal friends were rather great too, particularly Fast. Because I cared about some characters, I was, admittedly hooked. But it often felt like it was a chore reading to the book's end, rather than a pleasure.
Part of this had to do with McKinley's treatment of magic. McKinley treats magic as a force flowing through her world, which some can sometimes harness the power of, some can sense the presence of, and some can complain about the dust of. (So many clauses ending in prepositions. Ouch. Too lazy to fix it, though.) So during scenes where there are high levels of magic, characters are shrouded in a confusing fog/magic presence that disorients them and disconnects them from the scene. And so is the reader. Then the fog clears and the characters and reader are forced to look over the wreckage and figure out what happened. I know it's unfair of me to compare every young reader or fantasy book to Harry Potter, but here I go. In the Harry Potter series, crazy magical stuff happens--(Spoilers only for books one through four follow) Voldemort and Harry's wands connect strangely, Harry's touch destroys a powerful wizard, a bird cries and fixes everything--but the reader is able to witness these events and understand them through Rowling's carefully constructed magical world. In McKinley's magical world, Rosie had a whim that the gargoyle spindle end would be important and--wow--it was! No one really explains WHY though. I want my magic to work logically. McKinley's doesn't. She doesn't seem to want it to. But I do.
McKinley, thank goodness, does rehash the Sleeping Beauty story so that it has stronger female characters. Sleeping Beauty and, for that matter, Snow White are pathetic fairy tales as far as women are concerned. Their heroines are so passive and so dependent on their princes that they spend half of the story asleep, helpless, unable to even make cute outfits for mice, grow their hair out, or scrub the floor. McKinley presents a strong female cast. Our heroine rides off to seek out danger and even domestic Peony is a courageous heroic figure.
The plot itself is rather predictable, though often in a pleasant way. It was comfortable knowing more than I should have known, but it also made reading a less suspenseful and emotional experience.
I have either The Hero and the Crown or The Blue Sword resting in my library. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother reading it. Spindle's End just wasn't as good as I had hoped.
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 some of the characters: the young and heroically responsible Katriona, the quiet and supposedly-mysterious-but-really-rather-transparent and reliable Narl, the beautifully kind and sweet Peony, and the everything-that-she-shouldn't-be Princess, Rosie. The devoted animal friends were rather great too, particularly Fast. Because I cared about some characters, I was, admittedly hooked. But it often felt like it was a chore reading to the book's end, rather than a pleasure.
Part of this had to do with McKinley's treatment of magic. McKinley treats magic as a force flowing through her world, which some can sometimes harness the power of, some can sense the presence of, and some can complain about the dust of. (So many clauses ending in prepositions. Ouch. Too lazy to fix it, though.) So during scenes where there are high levels of magic, characters are shrouded in a confusing fog/magic presence that disorients them and disconnects them from the scene. And so is the reader. Then the fog clears and the characters and reader are forced to look over the wreckage and figure out what happened. I know it's unfair of me to compare every young reader or fantasy book to Harry Potter, but here I go. In the Harry Potter series, crazy magical stuff happens--(Spoilers only for books one through four follow) Voldemort and Harry's wands connect strangely, Harry's touch destroys a powerful wizard, a bird cries and fixes everything--but the reader is able to witness these events and understand them through Rowling's carefully constructed magical world. In McKinley's magical world, Rosie had a whim that the gargoyle spindle end would be important and--wow--it was! No one really explains WHY though. I want my magic to work logically. McKinley's doesn't. She doesn't seem to want it to. But I do.
McKinley, thank goodness, does rehash the Sleeping Beauty story so that it has stronger female characters. Sleeping Beauty and, for that matter, Snow White are pathetic fairy tales as far as women are concerned. Their heroines are so passive and so dependent on their princes that they spend half of the story asleep, helpless, unable to even make cute outfits for mice, grow their hair out, or scrub the floor. McKinley presents a strong female cast. Our heroine rides off to seek out danger and even domestic Peony is a courageous heroic figure.
The plot itself is rather predictable, though often in a pleasant way. It was comfortable knowing more than I should have known, but it also made reading a less suspenseful and emotional experience.
I have either The Hero and the Crown or The Blue Sword resting in my library. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother reading it. Spindle's End just wasn't as good as I had hoped.
March 31, 2008
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 book in. The magic in this book shows no particular rhyme or reason, which makes it harder to suspend disbelief. The magic in the last quarter of the book, surrounding the climax, is thick and plentiful. Since the magic seems to follow no rules, the result is rather like I imagine a bad trip on acid would be. It reminds me rather unfavorably of Alice in Wonderland, a book that I have never managed to get through even half of.
Thankfully, the climax of this book is short enough that I could get to the happy ending.
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 book in. The magic in this book shows no particular rhyme or reason, which makes it harder to suspend disbelief. The magic in the last quarter of the book, surrounding the climax, is thick and plentiful. Since the magic seems to follow no rules, the result is rather like I imagine a bad trip on acid would be. It reminds me rather unfavorably of Alice in Wonderland, a book that I have never managed to get through even half of.
Thankfully, the climax of this book is short enough that I could get to the happy ending.
May 17, 2010
I feel bad giving this book so few stars. But I honestly can't say that I enjoyed it. I actually skipped parts, and the darn thing was only 300 or so pages long.
McKinley is a good writer; she produces gorgeous and very funny prose, she's a master worldbuilder, and she creates believable characters and complex plots. I would have happily read the short story version of this novel. But I got bored at about the hundred page mark.
The reason I got bored is that this novel began with Rosie's birth (as it had to) and ended with the events surrounding her twenty-first birthday (as it had to). In the meantime, we had to watch Rosie grow up. And it was BORING.
It was boring, first of all, because of the style. McKinley *tells* the story rather than shows it, especially in the middle, and she is such a lovely writer that it almost works. Except that all of her pretty words actually form a barrier between us and the characters. Rosie and the others are interesting enough that we really could have fallen in love with them and rooted for them at the end. However, we're told what Rosie is like rather than witnessing what she's like, and as a result reading about her is not very compelling. In addition, whenever McKinley tries to create an emotional response with dramatic language, the subtle beauty of the words falls flat because it comes out of nowhere; all of a sudden this character who we don't really know all that well is having a poetical life-changing moment, and I'm left wondering, why? And so what?
Conclusion: Even writers who are super brilliant aren't allowed to break the "show don't tell" rule in long form fiction unless the story demands it. Not the story they think they're telling, the story that they're actually telling.
The other problem was that, oh yeah, NOTHING HAPPENED. It was about the characters and not the plot, and these characters were not dynamic enough to carry the story. Of course good characters don't have to be dynamic. In Coraline, the titular character is not, when you stop to think about it, a super dynamic or complex character, but she's believable and likable and as a result we're rooting for her every moment. The difference is that Coraline is always doing something, always in danger. By giving us a long middle in which there's only occasional danger, McKinley put the onus of interest on her characters, and thus fails.
I also have found that I generally dislike stories with friendly animal helpers. Did she really expect us to remember all of the names of the different animals? But I can accept that this might just be my problem.
I know a lot of people really like Spindle's End, and I do think it had a lot to like (how 'bout that worldbuilding)? I also know that it's often shelved as a children's or YA book (although I got it from the adult's section), so faulting it for a lack of complexity is perhaps not fair. But there are so many children's books that are super enjoyable for adults to read that I'm not going to give this one a pass on that account.
Not writing off McKinley entirely - I liked Beauty when I read it in high school! But I think I'll skip ahead a hundred pages in the next thing I read by her, to make sure that abrupt boredom does not ensue.
McKinley is a good writer; she produces gorgeous and very funny prose, she's a master worldbuilder, and she creates believable characters and complex plots. I would have happily read the short story version of this novel. But I got bored at about the hundred page mark.
The reason I got bored is that this novel began with Rosie's birth (as it had to) and ended with the events surrounding her twenty-first birthday (as it had to). In the meantime, we had to watch Rosie grow up. And it was BORING.
It was boring, first of all, because of the style. McKinley *tells* the story rather than shows it, especially in the middle, and she is such a lovely writer that it almost works. Except that all of her pretty words actually form a barrier between us and the characters. Rosie and the others are interesting enough that we really could have fallen in love with them and rooted for them at the end. However, we're told what Rosie is like rather than witnessing what she's like, and as a result reading about her is not very compelling. In addition, whenever McKinley tries to create an emotional response with dramatic language, the subtle beauty of the words falls flat because it comes out of nowhere; all of a sudden this character who we don't really know all that well is having a poetical life-changing moment, and I'm left wondering, why? And so what?
Conclusion: Even writers who are super brilliant aren't allowed to break the "show don't tell" rule in long form fiction unless the story demands it. Not the story they think they're telling, the story that they're actually telling.
The other problem was that, oh yeah, NOTHING HAPPENED. It was about the characters and not the plot, and these characters were not dynamic enough to carry the story. Of course good characters don't have to be dynamic. In Coraline, the titular character is not, when you stop to think about it, a super dynamic or complex character, but she's believable and likable and as a result we're rooting for her every moment. The difference is that Coraline is always doing something, always in danger. By giving us a long middle in which there's only occasional danger, McKinley put the onus of interest on her characters, and thus fails.
I also have found that I generally dislike stories with friendly animal helpers. Did she really expect us to remember all of the names of the different animals? But I can accept that this might just be my problem.
I know a lot of people really like Spindle's End, and I do think it had a lot to like (how 'bout that worldbuilding)? I also know that it's often shelved as a children's or YA book (although I got it from the adult's section), so faulting it for a lack of complexity is perhaps not fair. But there are so many children's books that are super enjoyable for adults to read that I'm not going to give this one a pass on that account.
Not writing off McKinley entirely - I liked Beauty when I read it in high school! But I think I'll skip ahead a hundred pages in the next thing I read by her, to make sure that abrupt boredom does not ensue.
October 15, 2017
this was really disappointing. especially after such a fine beginning, with the imaginative world-building, the detail on just everything gloriously written, and some promising characters. and she's clearly engaged in taking apart the fairy tale to take a close look, something that always gets my vote.
unfortunately, it doesn't last. too bad. that whole headlong flight of Katriona's with the baby, and how the animals buy in, it's just lovely; i settled in. but Katriona's issues fade into Rosie's issues, and okay Rosie is a headstrong character that damn well ought to work (in this day and age), so i found that promising too. for a while.
but it fell apart. the whole idea of the sentient castle was super-neat. and the merrel was cool, though underdeveloped. ultimately, though, Peony had more gumption, more nuance, and more potential than Rosie: but that's not where the story goes. and i liked the silent fairy smith but really, now, shouldn't Rosie have been rescuing him? what with one thing and another, though, the second half of the book is so draggy it was like plowing through a damnably thick hedge of rose briars to get to the ending. which i had long since figured out anyhow, if suspense was supposed to be a thing. and in the long denouement i realized that way too many of the most potentially interesting characters had just been abandoned along the way.
sometimes one has to wonder about the backstory to these things: did the writer lose interest in her characters and story? could she not figure out where to go with it? did her agent/editors make her finish this against her own instincts? the second half really badly undercuts the glories of the first half, in a way that's clearly not intentional. tsk. the whole thing's really too bad.
and now i feel like reading another McKillip fairy tale, small and perfect and strange (The Changeling Sea was wonderful). though i also have a whole lot more modern fairy tales piled up, by writers i haven't read yet on the subject. so the little survey continues...
unfortunately, it doesn't last. too bad. that whole headlong flight of Katriona's with the baby, and how the animals buy in, it's just lovely; i settled in. but Katriona's issues fade into Rosie's issues, and okay Rosie is a headstrong character that damn well ought to work (in this day and age), so i found that promising too. for a while.
but it fell apart. the whole idea of the sentient castle was super-neat. and the merrel was cool, though underdeveloped. ultimately, though, Peony had more gumption, more nuance, and more potential than Rosie: but that's not where the story goes. and i liked the silent fairy smith but really, now, shouldn't Rosie have been rescuing him? what with one thing and another, though, the second half of the book is so draggy it was like plowing through a damnably thick hedge of rose briars to get to the ending. which i had long since figured out anyhow, if suspense was supposed to be a thing. and in the long denouement i realized that way too many of the most potentially interesting characters had just been abandoned along the way.
sometimes one has to wonder about the backstory to these things: did the writer lose interest in her characters and story? could she not figure out where to go with it? did her agent/editors make her finish this against her own instincts? the second half really badly undercuts the glories of the first half, in a way that's clearly not intentional. tsk. the whole thing's really too bad.
and now i feel like reading another McKillip fairy tale, small and perfect and strange (The Changeling Sea was wonderful). though i also have a whole lot more modern fairy tales piled up, by writers i haven't read yet on the subject. so the little survey continues...
March 20, 2017
Those who have struggled with McKinley's writing style and penchant for tangents in the past will probably not get on with this book, but for the most part, I really enjoyed it. It's slow -- as most of her books are -- and occasionally convoluted -- as most of her books are -- but it felt... homey. Cozy.
Full review (maybe) to come.
Full review (maybe) to come.
March 29, 2007
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 magicians and baby-magic, all the things that make living in Spindle's unnamed kingdom so fascinating to the reader.
Then there are the cozy touches, the details that take magic away from the court magicians and majestic evil fairies, and put it by the hearth, in the home, accessible and familiar.
The only strange note, for me, is Mckinley's practice of pairing her young heroine with a much older man. She marries her early-twenties female protagonists off to men either naturally or supernaturally of far greater age, consistently enough for me to wonder at the underlying reason for this trope. Memo to self: look up difference in ages between Mckinley and her husband.
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 magicians and baby-magic, all the things that make living in Spindle's unnamed kingdom so fascinating to the reader.
Then there are the cozy touches, the details that take magic away from the court magicians and majestic evil fairies, and put it by the hearth, in the home, accessible and familiar.
The only strange note, for me, is Mckinley's practice of pairing her young heroine with a much older man. She marries her early-twenties female protagonists off to men either naturally or supernaturally of far greater age, consistently enough for me to wonder at the underlying reason for this trope. Memo to self: look up difference in ages between Mckinley and her husband.
October 14, 2007
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 dock her a star off my rating for it, and to continue to maintain that The Blue Sword and Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast are Robin's best books.
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 dock her a star off my rating for it, and to continue to maintain that The Blue Sword and Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast are Robin's best books.
June 12, 2008
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 guessing the outcome clear to the end. Her independant spirited Beauty manages to foil all the trappings of fairy tale while still eventually finding her own definition of a happy ending. This is a story that embodies the antidote to the current 'princess' obsession among young girls without being cynical or dark in any way.
From the first page description of a land so full of magic that teakettles need to be routinely 'de-magicked' by local fairies to keep them from pouring out pansies or toads, the readers interest is caught and held to the end of the book.
From the first page description of a land so full of magic that teakettles need to be routinely 'de-magicked' by local fairies to keep them from pouring out pansies or toads, the readers interest is caught and held to the end of the book.
October 17, 2018
I have no idea how to review this book. I started out enthralled with it and Robin McKinley’s beautiful writing.
My progress got slower and slower till I finally stopped at chapter 21, nearly at the end.
I feel awful not finishing it but it just lost allll interest in this book. I feel like it’s at a more rambling, sleepy pace than it was at the beginning and the characters it focuses on now are much less interesting (to me) than the ones at the beginning.
#Did not finish because I’m too busy right now to be reading books I don’t absolutely love.
My progress got slower and slower till I finally stopped at chapter 21, nearly at the end.
I feel awful not finishing it but it just lost allll interest in this book. I feel like it’s at a more rambling, sleepy pace than it was at the beginning and the characters it focuses on now are much less interesting (to me) than the ones at the beginning.
#Did not finish because I’m too busy right now to be reading books I don’t absolutely love.
May 24, 2020
A retelling of Sleeping Beauty that I've read approximately 50 times since I was a kid. So feminist and witchy and unexpected. As an adult and writer, I now have some qualms with the pacing and narrative style, but the characters are so important to me that I can forgive all concerns.
June 21, 2022
This was a weird one for me, being one of the few books in my life (barring exceptional circumstances) that took me over 4 months to finish. I re-checked it out from the library at least 6 times.
The story itself was interesting enough that I wanted to see how it ended. And while I was actually doing the reading I did enjoy myself. But every time I put it down, picking it back up again just seemed like a huge burden.
There is SO much description in this book. I think maybe 90% of it is told in passive voice by the narrator explaining how things are. Dialogue and action make up the other 10%. This is not necessarily bad; the world being described is quite fascinating, and all the tiny details that get relayed do add up to a magical place that I'd love to visit. And McKinley's writing is very nice. But it did make it feel as though I was listening to an educational lecture rather than an exciting fantasy adventure.
As in her other books, McKinley here excels at depicting friendships between humans and animals. I love the personalities she writes for her dogs, cats, horses, and sundry woodland critters. I also like the relationships she writes between characters, particularly between female characters. For a fairy tale to centre the love of friends and family rather than romantic love is always so refreshing.
Overall I'm glad I persevered, but I'm equally glad that it is over.
The story itself was interesting enough that I wanted to see how it ended. And while I was actually doing the reading I did enjoy myself. But every time I put it down, picking it back up again just seemed like a huge burden.
There is SO much description in this book. I think maybe 90% of it is told in passive voice by the narrator explaining how things are. Dialogue and action make up the other 10%. This is not necessarily bad; the world being described is quite fascinating, and all the tiny details that get relayed do add up to a magical place that I'd love to visit. And McKinley's writing is very nice. But it did make it feel as though I was listening to an educational lecture rather than an exciting fantasy adventure.
As in her other books, McKinley here excels at depicting friendships between humans and animals. I love the personalities she writes for her dogs, cats, horses, and sundry woodland critters. I also like the relationships she writes between characters, particularly between female characters. For a fairy tale to centre the love of friends and family rather than romantic love is always so refreshing.
Overall I'm glad I persevered, but I'm equally glad that it is over.
January 16, 2020
Robin McKinley does a lot of fairy tale retellings, though with Spindle’s End she’s branching out a bit and doing a retelling of something other than Beauty and the Beast (which she’s done at least 3). The thing about fairy tale retellings is that either it’s different enough to lose that comforting familiarity, or else it’s not different enough and it’s perfectly predictable. Spindle’s End manages to split that difference perfectly: I never lost track of the fact that I was reading a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and yet McKinley still kept me guessing literally up through the epilogue.
And through all of this, the book was (unexpectedly) funny as hell.
Y’all know the premise: kingdom is delighted to welcome the daughter of the King, fairy godmothers bestowing blessing, wicked fairy bestowing a pre-industrial-textile-manufacturing-equipment-based curse, princess spirited away to hiding, grows up not knowing her identity, curse to strike on her 18th birthday, etc. All of that happens.
The thing about Sleeping Beauty is that you really can’t tell the whole story from the princess’s perspective - after all, she’s a newborn at the beginning, and newborns generally don’t have that much of an internal monologue. So McKinley’s solution here is to make the protagonist for the first half of the book Katriona, a teenaged fairy who manages to (accidentally) bestow an additional blessing on little Rosie (as they call her), and then is press-ganged into being the one to take and raise the baby in secret, along with her older, more experienced fairy aunt. (Fairies, in this context, are more or less villagers like everyone else, but with some additional magical talents and effects. Sometimes more annoying than useful.)
So we get Katriona’s perspective for the first half of the book, with a gradual transition to Rosie’s perspective as she grows into her teenage years. Katriona’s a great character: warm, befuddled, and in over her head.
Rosie herself is (in the tradition of Robin McKinley protagonists) intelligent, willful, determined, and not particularly pretty. (All the fairy godmothers, in blessing the baby with things like “hair like gold” and “skin like milk”, never thought to bless her with “a pretty face.” Her hair is gorgeous (though she hates the ringlets and keeps it short), and her complexion is very fair (so she burns after about 10 seconds of sun and everyone knows when she’s feeling any strong emotion), but her face is rather plain).
Rosie’s life growing up is delightful to read - McKinley does a truly wonderful job with it. I give her credit for actually working in the woodland-creatures-flocking-around-her in a way that actually makes a degree of sense.
Things change as Rosie approaches her 18th birthday, and finds out her heritage. Katriona and her aunt have been working this entire time to arrange matters so Rosie can evade the curse, but the wicked fairy is powerful, and they know the danger is very real. The back half of the book just crackles with tension in the lead-up to Rosie’s birthday. This was the kind of book that is just exhausting to read, what with the tense muscles and accelerated heart rate and all.
I don’t want to reveal much, but while the expected Handsome Prince does in fact appear, it’s not in a way I expected. And no prince is coming in at the eleventh hour to save the damsel in distress, thank you very much - Rosie is the heroine of this story, and there’s no snoozing-until-molested-awake going on here.
I generally adore Robin McKinley, and this is a book that needs more attention. Highly, highly recommended.
And through all of this, the book was (unexpectedly) funny as hell.
Y’all know the premise: kingdom is delighted to welcome the daughter of the King, fairy godmothers bestowing blessing, wicked fairy bestowing a pre-industrial-textile-manufacturing-equipment-based curse, princess spirited away to hiding, grows up not knowing her identity, curse to strike on her 18th birthday, etc. All of that happens.
The thing about Sleeping Beauty is that you really can’t tell the whole story from the princess’s perspective - after all, she’s a newborn at the beginning, and newborns generally don’t have that much of an internal monologue. So McKinley’s solution here is to make the protagonist for the first half of the book Katriona, a teenaged fairy who manages to (accidentally) bestow an additional blessing on little Rosie (as they call her), and then is press-ganged into being the one to take and raise the baby in secret, along with her older, more experienced fairy aunt. (Fairies, in this context, are more or less villagers like everyone else, but with some additional magical talents and effects. Sometimes more annoying than useful.)
So we get Katriona’s perspective for the first half of the book, with a gradual transition to Rosie’s perspective as she grows into her teenage years. Katriona’s a great character: warm, befuddled, and in over her head.
Rosie herself is (in the tradition of Robin McKinley protagonists) intelligent, willful, determined, and not particularly pretty. (All the fairy godmothers, in blessing the baby with things like “hair like gold” and “skin like milk”, never thought to bless her with “a pretty face.” Her hair is gorgeous (though she hates the ringlets and keeps it short), and her complexion is very fair (so she burns after about 10 seconds of sun and everyone knows when she’s feeling any strong emotion), but her face is rather plain).
Rosie’s life growing up is delightful to read - McKinley does a truly wonderful job with it. I give her credit for actually working in the woodland-creatures-flocking-around-her in a way that actually makes a degree of sense.
Things change as Rosie approaches her 18th birthday, and finds out her heritage. Katriona and her aunt have been working this entire time to arrange matters so Rosie can evade the curse, but the wicked fairy is powerful, and they know the danger is very real. The back half of the book just crackles with tension in the lead-up to Rosie’s birthday. This was the kind of book that is just exhausting to read, what with the tense muscles and accelerated heart rate and all.
I don’t want to reveal much, but while the expected Handsome Prince does in fact appear, it’s not in a way I expected. And no prince is coming in at the eleventh hour to save the damsel in distress, thank you very much - Rosie is the heroine of this story, and there’s no snoozing-until-molested-awake going on here.
I generally adore Robin McKinley, and this is a book that needs more attention. Highly, highly recommended.
November 19, 2020
4.5 stars!
Spindle's End is my fourth Robin McKinley novel (and my new second favourite after the wonderful Deerskin), and I've come to love the quirks of her writing. She tends to write books sparse in dialogue but rich in description, world-building, and character-studying; rather than snappily zipping from action scene to action scene, her narratives slowly unfold to introduce you to their world and often go off on tangents, explaining this or that. This, I think, is what puts some would-be readers off her stories, which is valid! Personally, I really like it; reading Spindle's End felt very much like reading an old tale, full of magic and whimsy.
Speaking of fairytales, there's enough of the Sleeping Beauty story woven in here that you won't forget that you're reading a retelling of the tale, but McKinley injects her own fresh twists. Even if you've got an entire shelf full of Sleeping Beauty variants, you won't quite have read this one. I grew up with the Disney film (I watched it so often that now, almost twenty years later, my dad remembers the opening song by heart), but where Disney's princess has been criticised for lacking agency, McKinley's princess is lively, headstrong, and unlike a princess at all. On her name-day, twenty of Rosie's fairy godparents grant her impractical gifts--skin like milk, talent in embroidery, golden curls, lips as red as cherries--but she balks against them all, cutting off her golden hair at the age of four and choosing to spend her time with animals rather than playing the flute.
Ordinarily, these characteristics in a protagonist would give me pause, given that young adult literature in particular is full of tomboyish female characters who elevate themselves above other girls who do like "girly" things. Wonderfully, however, McKinley introduces another protagonist, Peony, who embodies all the "princessy" characteristics Rosie dislikes--and then has them become best friends. It was so refreshing to read a strong friendship where both girls are allowed to be utterly themselves!
This is a novel full of female characters in charge of their own destinies, even when according to fate, they ought not to be. It's got sweet, slow-burning romances that you'll see coming and won't be able to help but root for, and there's also a huge emphasis on platonic and familial love, each just as powerful as the last. There are animals who can talk (but only to Rosie), and what they have to say is often funny, often poignant.
In short, I'd recommend Spindle's End to any fairytale fan, especially one in search of something comforting and cosy to sink into. I bought my own copy used on Amazon, and from the slightly shelf-worn edges and yellowed pages, I can tell that it might have deservingly been somebody's well-loved favourite!
Spindle's End is my fourth Robin McKinley novel (and my new second favourite after the wonderful Deerskin), and I've come to love the quirks of her writing. She tends to write books sparse in dialogue but rich in description, world-building, and character-studying; rather than snappily zipping from action scene to action scene, her narratives slowly unfold to introduce you to their world and often go off on tangents, explaining this or that. This, I think, is what puts some would-be readers off her stories, which is valid! Personally, I really like it; reading Spindle's End felt very much like reading an old tale, full of magic and whimsy.
Speaking of fairytales, there's enough of the Sleeping Beauty story woven in here that you won't forget that you're reading a retelling of the tale, but McKinley injects her own fresh twists. Even if you've got an entire shelf full of Sleeping Beauty variants, you won't quite have read this one. I grew up with the Disney film (I watched it so often that now, almost twenty years later, my dad remembers the opening song by heart), but where Disney's princess has been criticised for lacking agency, McKinley's princess is lively, headstrong, and unlike a princess at all. On her name-day, twenty of Rosie's fairy godparents grant her impractical gifts--skin like milk, talent in embroidery, golden curls, lips as red as cherries--but she balks against them all, cutting off her golden hair at the age of four and choosing to spend her time with animals rather than playing the flute.
Ordinarily, these characteristics in a protagonist would give me pause, given that young adult literature in particular is full of tomboyish female characters who elevate themselves above other girls who do like "girly" things. Wonderfully, however, McKinley introduces another protagonist, Peony, who embodies all the "princessy" characteristics Rosie dislikes--and then has them become best friends. It was so refreshing to read a strong friendship where both girls are allowed to be utterly themselves!
This is a novel full of female characters in charge of their own destinies, even when according to fate, they ought not to be. It's got sweet, slow-burning romances that you'll see coming and won't be able to help but root for, and there's also a huge emphasis on platonic and familial love, each just as powerful as the last. There are animals who can talk (but only to Rosie), and what they have to say is often funny, often poignant.
In short, I'd recommend Spindle's End to any fairytale fan, especially one in search of something comforting and cosy to sink into. I bought my own copy used on Amazon, and from the slightly shelf-worn edges and yellowed pages, I can tell that it might have deservingly been somebody's well-loved favourite!
April 17, 2018
4.75 STARS!!
I finished this a couple days ago and I'm STILL thinking of it. I can't even describe how absolutely gorgeous the world-building and magic system in Spindle's End is. The whole book I felt like I was sinking into a soft cloud, or maybe wandering through magical forest with cozy cottages sprinkled throughout.
The writing is "flowery," (sometimes abundantly so) so if you're not a fan of descriptions, this might not be the book for you. But the writing and details of everything are SO PERFECT that I could read a textbook just on this world, with absolutely no plot, and still enjoy it.
But luckily, this book is NOT just a textbook, and does have a plot - and oh, what a plot. I absolutely love retellings and this one was done even better than most. It's not just "another retelling of Sleeping Beauty," it truly feels like the people and places are REAL. I adored all the characters, especially the main trio - Katriona, Rosie and Peony - and Rosie and Peony's best friendship was one of my favorite things in the whole book.
I marked it a down .25 of a star because the writing sometimes (rarely, but still) is SO detailed and dense that I got slightly confused with what was being said/what was happening. However, this hardly ever happened and the uniqueness of the book made up for it. Overall the writing is awesome and the characters are awesome and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME.
Final recap: read this book. It's immersive and gorgeous!
I finished this a couple days ago and I'm STILL thinking of it. I can't even describe how absolutely gorgeous the world-building and magic system in Spindle's End is. The whole book I felt like I was sinking into a soft cloud, or maybe wandering through magical forest with cozy cottages sprinkled throughout.
The writing is "flowery," (sometimes abundantly so) so if you're not a fan of descriptions, this might not be the book for you. But the writing and details of everything are SO PERFECT that I could read a textbook just on this world, with absolutely no plot, and still enjoy it.
But luckily, this book is NOT just a textbook, and does have a plot - and oh, what a plot. I absolutely love retellings and this one was done even better than most. It's not just "another retelling of Sleeping Beauty," it truly feels like the people and places are REAL. I adored all the characters, especially the main trio - Katriona, Rosie and Peony - and Rosie and Peony's best friendship was one of my favorite things in the whole book.
I marked it a down .25 of a star because the writing sometimes (rarely, but still) is SO detailed and dense that I got slightly confused with what was being said/what was happening. However, this hardly ever happened and the uniqueness of the book made up for it. Overall the writing is awesome and the characters are awesome and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME.
Final recap: read this book. It's immersive and gorgeous!
March 12, 2018
I wanted to like this, I really did. Robin McKinley was one of my favorite childhood authors, so I felt like it was time to read some of her novels that I haven't read. Here's the thing about Robin McKinley, her books are either amazing ("Sunshine", "Hero and the Crown", "Beauty") or quite frankly just suck. Unfortunately, this book falls into the latter.
Spindle's End is a retelling of the story of "Sleeping Beauty" and by retelling I mean like borderline plagiarizing (think Melania & Michelle Obama's speeches). Almost nothing in the story is really that creative. That said, I absolutely enjoyed the first 75 pages or so. Her world-building is great and really gives a sound base for her to build her story off of. The only thing is, the story really doesn't take off. The characters really don't evolve. Everything basically stays the same with absolutely no action. And, her writing becomes over-descriptive to the point where you want to smack the editor for not doing a better job.
Although this is a retelling, the ending was beyond predictable (I know this is somewhat expected when reading a retelling). I would just pass on this one. I have a feeling Robin and I won't be seeing too much of each other for a little while.
Spindle's End is a retelling of the story of "Sleeping Beauty" and by retelling I mean like borderline plagiarizing (think Melania & Michelle Obama's speeches). Almost nothing in the story is really that creative. That said, I absolutely enjoyed the first 75 pages or so. Her world-building is great and really gives a sound base for her to build her story off of. The only thing is, the story really doesn't take off. The characters really don't evolve. Everything basically stays the same with absolutely no action. And, her writing becomes over-descriptive to the point where you want to smack the editor for not doing a better job.
Although this is a retelling, the ending was beyond predictable (I know this is somewhat expected when reading a retelling). I would just pass on this one. I have a feeling Robin and I won't be seeing too much of each other for a little while.
July 15, 2014
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 rogue 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, whatever?), and sentences that wander all over the place without necessarily coming back to the point it started out with. That same problem became bigger across pages--one paragraph would start a point, the next would flash back to give some history or missing background info, and at some point the story would revert to the present, but it was not always easy to tell when that happened. Despite these frustrations, I still enjoyed McKinley's imagination, her wonderful created worlds of fantasy, and the fleshing out of the Sleeping Beauty story, though told much differently than you've ever heard it before.
February 11, 2010
This is total comfort reading for me. Like being wrapped in a big fluffy blanket of fairy tales. Fairy tale retellings are the best. All the romance and fantasy with much less of the sexism.
The magic in this book is a little woojy, and maybe that was McKinley's intention, but it makes it hard for me to visualize the scenes that are mostly about magic. The setting the rest of the time is wonderful and easy to picture.
Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction. Family is less about blood than about love. Fish don't exist.
The magic in this book is a little woojy, and maybe that was McKinley's intention, but it makes it hard for me to visualize the scenes that are mostly about magic. The setting the rest of the time is wonderful and easy to picture.
Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction. Family is less about blood than about love. Fish don't exist.
November 2, 2016
A warm, fluffy blanket of a book in which the tiny bit of conflict seems almost superfluous. The only surprise was how relentlessly heterosexual it managed to be despite a climax that involves two women kissing each other.
October 21, 2012
I can't believe I've not read this since I started using Goodreads!
I love this book, it's such a beautiful, gentle story, McKinley at her best. The plot is obviously based around the Sleeping Beauty fairy story, but really, it only starts like it (fairy curses princess to prick her finger on a spindle and die on her 21st birthday).
McKinley writes a tale of a no-nonsense girl, Rosie who grows up in a small village, the guardian of two fairies, not knowing that she is the princess. She is the least "princess-like" princess you could possibly imagine, and I love the book because of this. Instead, she spends all her time hanging round the smithy, learning to doctor horses after a childhood where she's grubby a lot of the time with a penchant for falling into bogs!
It's a book full of well realised female characters who are full of agency and who ensure that the destiny that Rosie is supposed to follow is not met.
Reading this book is like getting a warm hug and I always regret finishing it because it's so utterly lovely.
I love this book, it's such a beautiful, gentle story, McKinley at her best. The plot is obviously based around the Sleeping Beauty fairy story, but really, it only starts like it (fairy curses princess to prick her finger on a spindle and die on her 21st birthday).
McKinley writes a tale of a no-nonsense girl, Rosie who grows up in a small village, the guardian of two fairies, not knowing that she is the princess. She is the least "princess-like" princess you could possibly imagine, and I love the book because of this. Instead, she spends all her time hanging round the smithy, learning to doctor horses after a childhood where she's grubby a lot of the time with a penchant for falling into bogs!
It's a book full of well realised female characters who are full of agency and who ensure that the destiny that Rosie is supposed to follow is not met.
Reading this book is like getting a warm hug and I always regret finishing it because it's so utterly lovely.
April 18, 2008
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 though. It was full of rich language and big words that I didn't know =).
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 though. It was full of rich language and big words that I didn't know =).
October 27, 2017
Very good variant of Rumpelstiltskin, in which a fairy accidentally absconds with the princess after she's cursed. The princess is raised with no idea who she really is. I stayed up too late reading this one. :)
June 16, 2018
Saving the world by talking to animals and with the power of female friendship <3
October 21, 2021
Although Spindle's End has the same kind of dreamy, vague narrative (with virtually no dialogue) as the much beloved Beauty, I couldn't enjoy it. I thought that the first few chapters were absorbing, hinting at a rich fantasy world, engrossing traditions, and fairies and magicians.
McKinley starts off by introducing charming details, right from the first chapter:
The author is also adept at portraying lively animal characters. One of my favourites was a tomcat named Flinx.
Based on my personal experiences with my own cat overlord, I can definitely agree with the general portrayal of cat behavior.
But despite all of this, the book flagged so much in the middle that I almost abandoned it. None of the characters seemed well-developed to me, except perhaps Katriona (a young fairy who adopts the princess) and the lost princess herself (named Rosie). The villain's motivations were of the "Destroy and Conquer the World" variety, which didn't impress me. And the climactic confrontation at the end was so vague and dreamlike that I felt deeply unsatisfied and irritated.
There's a very high possibility that I just wasn't in the right mood for this book, since many reviewers have enjoyed it. I think people who liked the writing style and gentle pace of Beauty could perhaps give this a shot (although the obligatory romantic elements in Spindle's End seemed perfunctory and lifeless to me).
The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust.
McKinley starts off by introducing charming details, right from the first chapter:
If you lived in that country, you had to de-scale your kettle of its encrustation of magic at least once a week, because if you didn't, you might find yourself pouring hissing snakes or pond slime into your teapot instead of water.
The author is also adept at portraying lively animal characters. One of my favourites was a tomcat named Flinx.
Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic -- which was what all magic was -- it was rather soothing to have all the same qualities wrapped up in a small, furry, generally attractive bundle that looked more or less the same from day to day and might, if it were in a good mood, sit on your knee and purr.
Based on my personal experiences with my own cat overlord, I can definitely agree with the general portrayal of cat behavior.
Katriona's theory was that cats were one of the few members of the animal kingdom who had a strong artistic sense, and that aggravated chaos was the chief feline art form
But despite all of this, the book flagged so much in the middle that I almost abandoned it. None of the characters seemed well-developed to me, except perhaps Katriona (a young fairy who adopts the princess) and the lost princess herself (named Rosie). The villain's motivations were of the "Destroy and Conquer the World" variety, which didn't impress me. And the climactic confrontation at the end was so vague and dreamlike that I felt deeply unsatisfied and irritated.
There's a very high possibility that I just wasn't in the right mood for this book, since many reviewers have enjoyed it. I think people who liked the writing style and gentle pace of Beauty could perhaps give this a shot (although the obligatory romantic elements in Spindle's End seemed perfunctory and lifeless to me).
October 9, 2022
Definitely took me a longggg time to finish. I feel like the writing style is kind of a double-edged sword, because it has such a dreamy, fairy tale ambience, which I love, but it can also be really hard to follow. Like I would think a sentence would be about to end, but lo and behold, we still got 30 words left.
Another odd thing is that there's a ton of detail and description, but I still feel like the characters and places are a little hazy.
I think the ending is the best part, and there's enough of a spin on the story that I wasn't exactly sure what would happen. Actually I kind of even forgot what fairy tale retelling I was reading. I like the animals, I like that it's strong female characters, honestly I even like the magic system/description even though I'm pretty sure the rules are just made up for whatever works for the story at that moment.
Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to people, I think I would point to some of her other books first (maybe only one other book because I think maybe I've only read one other).
Another odd thing is that there's a ton of detail and description, but I still feel like the characters and places are a little hazy.
I think the ending is the best part, and there's enough of a spin on the story that I wasn't exactly sure what would happen. Actually I kind of even forgot what fairy tale retelling I was reading. I like the animals, I like that it's strong female characters, honestly I even like the magic system/description even though I'm pretty sure the rules are just made up for whatever works for the story at that moment.
Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to people, I think I would point to some of her other books first (maybe only one other book because I think maybe I've only read one other).
November 8, 2018
That took ages to read. It wasn't terrible, it just could have been so much better. It was dense with words upon words and I thought I would never be done with it. It was just what I needed for a while: a nice, slow book to read in my spare moments, but by the end I was sick of it. So, 2.5 stars.
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