Beauty Sleep: A Retelling Of Sleeping Beauty (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
This review is also posted on my blog.(view spoiler)[I’m new enough at writing reviews that it’s still always relatively difficult to figure out where to start, but something about fairy tale retellings makes it seem even *harder*.I’m sure it’s the traditional fairy tale aspects. The magic out of nowhere, the wonder of it all, the fact that literally anything can happen at any time. It seems almost childish, which of course is to be expected in any kind of fairy tale. But it makes it very hard to review fairly when you’re not used to incorporating childlike aspects. That isn’t to say that they’re bad things! Children’s stories are just as amazing as any other story. I’m just not sure exactly how to feel about it all when I’m accustomed to ”adult” magic or how I should judge any of the happenings.So with all that said I’m just going to hope that my normal way of saying things as they pop into my head will still work out.First off, I was not expecting Aurore and Oswald to end up together. I could feel the romantic vibes coming off from them right before she left for the Forest, but - they’re *cousins*. I was so badly hoping they wouldn’t get paired together. I’m not sure if in French medieval court, it was acceptable for cousins to love and marry one another? But it just seemed strange and awkward to me, and I couldn’t get into it at all. I understood where it was coming from, in the true love aspect - it certainly lasted longer and was more real than anything Aurore and Ironheart shared, for sure. I appreciated that, at least. But… her cousin? Did he have to be her cousin? And did she have to kiss him while he was still old? (I know, true love, and all that. But it was just an uncomfortable scene to read.)It was highly interesting, though, how what seemed like literally just a few moments to the reader and to Aurore when she pricked her finger was *actually* a full hundred years. That took me by surprise. And I loved the incorporation of her parents over her journey, how she found out they went to find her and were the ones who build the cottage she stayed in on her first night in the Forest. How he’s sure they’re still alive, because if Oswald was, they must be. And then there’s the nature and the magic of the Forest itself. How it made its own rules, how nothing was how we expect it to be, how the laws of nature and physics simply did not exist inside of it. It had rules of magic, as opposed to rules of science, and I simply loved how that was written.The characters! Aurore herself. She was very, very believable. Throughout the story she was both likeable AND dislikable, relatable AND annoying, wise AND immature, and as a female teenage protagonist, that she was given both types of characteristics was very relieving. And, even though the story seemed slow to start off with, and her mother was painted as much more of a worrisome and dislikable parent than her father was, I highly enjoyed all of their depth and believability. Nobody was just single sided. Everyone was multilayered, even Aurore’s mother. They seemed to me like real people, and when done well in such a magical world, it’s something I find beyond fascinating.I did give a chuckle when the woman responsible for cursing Aurore was revealed to be named Jane. Just, Jane. And she wasn’t even in the story again afterwards! Both she and the fairy godmother disappeared the moment after they cast their respective spells, something I found very interesting. There’s no villain! OR a savior. Just the lingering curse, and Aurore herself.The gender roles and intricacies of court matters highly fascinated me as well. That Aurore was picked over Oswald to be the king’s heir; that she was 100% for helping the people outside the castle walls to do what they do to live their lives rather than ignore them in disdain; that her father did the exact same and never once discouraged her from doing a single thing she wanted to do because ‘she was a girl’; that some details of court politics were revealed to give the reader some sort of idea of what they had to deal with in terms of making both classes happy; that Ironheart wasn’t bitter in the slightest towards Aurore for not choosing him and admitted he preferred it that way after all, and they could still be friends afterwards; and so on and so on. The only person who really would have despaired (and did) at Aurore’s gendered freedom is her mother, which is another reason why she’s partially dislikable. But, really, considering what exactly her mother wanted before Aurore was born and how it was rewarded, and by who the curse was laid, you can hardly blame her for being more strict and controlling than she likely would have been otherwise.There are only a couple other mentionable criticisms I can think of: as much as I love magic in books, and as much as I don’t mind its use, don’t use it as a deux ex machina. I get that that’s part of the nature of fairy tale magic. It VERY much solves everything simply and brings about the happily ever after at the end. But I felt it could have been done better. Something about Aurore kissing an old Oswald after 100 years to make him young again just felt strange. Every other magical aspect of the book I believed. But not that one. It felt far too convenient, to me. Though, I do realize that is likely because of my own personal biases that I’d already mentioned, and I’m probably not being very fair. I just think that it could have done with not being wrapped up quite so neatly after the departure from the forest.And secondly: many times, in books where the princess / heroine is the one to help, save, or rescue the prince / hero, the prince is not described in a stereotypically masculine way. He is almost always smaller, physically weaker, eccentric, intelligent to the point of nerdy; traits that are perfectly good and 100% preferred to anything connected with typical masculinity. But you don’t know how much I would LOVE for a princess to save or heal or rescue a big burly manly man and have the exact same outcome. You never see that in retellings. The men that are saved by the women are almost always softer, and I would love to see the type of man who would shun anything typically feminine be saved by a female, and be changed by it.Overall, I highly enjoyed the message and theme of discovering yourself, of no longer remaining invisible to those around you, of being aware of your own inner nature and of finally finding who you are. That message, along with the other inherent message - “ladies get shit done” - definitely, despite the handful of flaws, determine that this book deserves five stars from me. It was short, it was sweet, it was fulfilling and magical and a breath of fresh air from sexist, strictly gendered characters in other books, and I’m really not sure why I dragged my feet and made it last for over four days before I finished it. Certainly, if I had really sat down and read properly, it could have been done in less than a day. It definitely was good enough to be. (hide spoiler)]
Arrrrghhhhhh! WHAT DID I JUST READ?! This installment In the Once Upon a Time series centers around Aurore, a girl destined to fall into a deep sleep at the age of 16. This story quickly dismisses any notion that this will be anything similar to the Disney version; or the Grimm brothers's version for that matter. There aren't evil witches or fairy godmothers or anything like that. The "sorceress" that casts the spell on Aurore is called Jane. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? PLAIN JANE IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN CHARGE OF AURORE'S WHOLE LIFE. I shouldn't care about this, but I really do. Aurore is a strong willed girl, always stands up for herself. I admired that about her, but I didn't feel like it was antything different than all the other Once Upon a Time stories. Now, this story is COMPLETELY predominant with plotholes. I can't believe there are such high ratings, when upon finishing the story I didn't know what had occured. (view spoiler)[ First of all, how the he'll does Aurore meet Ironheart BEFORE she falls into her deep sleep? Second of all, HOW THE HELL are 100 years passed? Is the forest suddenly psychic and knows that although Aurore still hasn't pricked herself with a needle she will eventually so why not stop time while she's in there already?! Another thing I don't get: How is it acceptable that she marries her COUSIN? And not only that, but she has children with him. Not one, but three. THREE! Does no one in that land know about genetic disorders and all that?! And the author never once dismisses that they are related, so yes, she did in fact marry her FIRST COUSIN! (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Beauty Sleep: A Retelling Of Sleeping Beauty (2006)?
What a surprise! You know most of these books are fairly predictable, which I don't mind, but this one wasn't. Don't get me wrong it's not like a thriller with major twists at every page, but I honestly didn't have everything figured out from the beginning. A totally refreshing change.Aurore is of course the girl with that golden hair and startling eyes, but she is different apart from that. Though her curse at first is a hindrance, in some weird way it turns into an advantage. She explores as much as she can, and she has her cousin Oswald to thank for that. She learns to start a fire, shear a goat and countless other things that seem "unprincess like". Once she is sixteen havoc starts to ensue upon the kingdom and she knows what she has to do...or at least she thinks she does.One of the things I enjoyed the most was the host of secondary characters. In fairy tales they tend to play minor roles, but here they certainly stand out more. Go into this like you haven't heard the fairy tale before because in all reality I think it's better than the original Sleeping Beauty. I mean how cool is it to be helpless and asleep for years on end? I can answer that: it's not cool. Dokey defintely knows how to weave a story and make things come full circle. What I like so much about this series that they are light reads, and you know they'll make you smile. This one has to be the most romantic of the fairy tales oddly enough. What I did think was kind of off was how much she told about the ending. I've read a lot of Dokey's other retellings and it's not usually her style. I just wonder what made her do it here. That aside this retelling is one of the most original of the series; a total heart warmer for all those romantics out there.
—Cara
I was completely at a loss on how I was going to rate this book. It’s not that I didn't like the story or the writing. It just wasn't what I expected, mostly just the ending though. I'm sure others would think that the ending was obvious but I was actually surprised.The princess Aurora is the type of princess everyone loves. She does everything from archery to sheering sheep to embroidery. She may not be good at everything but she tries it all. She is terrible with the royalty stuff such as dancing and she can't seem to be very graceful. Aurora isn't a spoiled brat of a princess. She cares for her people and is practical minded. As in most Dokey books that I've read the real adventure doesn't happen until about half way. I think Dokey does this to give you a sense of the character, setup for the adventure, and establish the protagonist's relationship with her family/freinds. I like the relationship she has with her parents. The relationship with her cousin has it's ups and downs but it ends well. There is a happy ending. I like a happy ending so that wasn't the problem. Aurora was happy but there were things that didn't quite sit right with me because I'm not sure that I would've been able to be happy with how things went down. I thought about it and decided that if Aurora could accept it then I might as well too.
—Valerie
This has become my favorite book. It was SO amazingly good! At first it went along like your typical Sleeping beauty, but what made it a novel after my heart was the fact that the princess, Aurore, takes things into her own hands, and leaves everything that she loves behind in order to save her whole kingdom. But by doing so, she manages to find true love. Towards the end, my hands were shaking because I was so afraid, I had gotten very into the story, and I was gasping, and my eyes were wide, and then at the very end, my smile was so wide, I thought my face might crack.
—Bethany
