Creeping Beauty: Fairy Tales Gone Bad

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The illustrations mirror the prose and you cannot help but look at all the pictures flowing page by page matching the skilfully created words.

Freya Hartas’ black and white illustrations appear across most two-page spreads, bringing life to the characters. I really thought I would maybe dislike this book, but I think I needed a book filled with ridiculousness like this one because my mood said yes to this book!

Creeping Beauty caught my eye as it was described as a subversive and feminist take on Sleeping Beauty. illustrated by Allison Colpoys and Luna Loves Library Day and Luna Loves Art both illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. So when she and her sisters are invited to the christening of the princess, she concocts a special spell for the baby.

However, I continued to read the arc as I am a lover of fairy tale retellings and from the original premise this appeared to be an intriguing perspective and story.

However, as the book kept hinting at the feelings and tension between Bitsy and Peregrine I was left feeling deprived of their love story. Bitsy wants to help the people in this world and also to escape and go home and it seems the only way to do either is to defeat The Veist. She knows that disaster will fall upon the kingdom should the christening of Princess Rose take place and tries to prevent the destruction of the kingdom by consulting Aunty, the wise woman of the woods. People like Peregrine made me wonder what was going on with the story, then I accepted the lead role, only to be thrown off a cliff in a flip-flop. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Concepts of civilization versus savagery were briefly dealt with, but when the main character doesn't understand the customs of a different culture, that culture was painted as childish and savage. Bitsy feels very middle grade in her language and innocence, the way she creeps away from trouble and minds her manners but dealing with very adult situations such as slavery/trafficking felt a little off brand for her and the situations she ended up in felt misplaced for her character. A fairytale retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the princess isn't dependent on a prince to save her? Portes's second novel, BURY THIS, was published in January 2014 by Counterpoint Press's imprint Soft Skull Press to critical acclaim.In this twist on the classic fairy tale, the narrative focuses on Eshe, one of the fairy godmothers and whose name means ‘life’, rather than the ‘sleeping beauty’ character, Princess Rose. I had hopes for this because I love books with fairy tale elements, but I just cannot recommend this. A wildly wicked twist on the Brothers Grimm classic Rumpelstiltskin, the reader is easily immersed and enthralled in the storyline.