{"id":33724,"date":"2017-10-17T22:28:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T02:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=33724"},"modified":"2017-10-17T22:40:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T02:40:30","slug":"review-of-while-beauty-slept-by-elizabeth-blackwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=33724","title":{"rendered":"Review of While Beauty Slept, by Elizabeth Blackwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While Beauty Slept<\/em><\/p>\n

by Elizabeth Blackwell<\/p>\n

Berkley Books, 2014. 456 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve meant to read this book for a very long time, especially once I had a signed copy. But I have a horrible problem with not getting around to reading books I own because they don\u2019t have a due date. Anyway, I finally got this book read on a flight home from Portland \u2013 and I\u2019m so glad I did.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved fairy tale retellings. This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. But usually such retellings are Fantasy. This one takes out the overt magic. There is a possibility of a curse; there is a possibility that the baby\u2019s great-aunt does dark magic. But the story is told as historical fiction, set in medieval times, as something that could have actually happened. (Except that the kingdoms mentioned are still not actual kingdoms from our world, so technically, I’ll have to classify it as Fantasy. But the flavor is Historical.)<\/p>\n

Our narrator is an old servant of Queen Lenore, the mother of Rose who became the Sleeping Beauty of the fairy tale. She saw all the events of the tale from start to finish. She\u2019s looking back on her life and telling the story to her great-grandchild.<\/p>\n

In the prologue, she\u2019s hears children telling the fairy tale based on the experiences she lived.<\/p>\n

Ha! It would be a fine trick indeed to fell a royal daughter with a needle, then see her revived by a single kiss. If such magic exists, I have yet to witness it. The horror of what really happened has been lost, and no wonder. The truth is hardly a story for children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was afraid with that line that the book would be too dark for my taste \u2013 but the story is beautiful. Yes, there are dark and tragic parts, but it\u2019s woven through with love and with actual human passions and mistakes and foibles.<\/p>\n

In the fifty years since those terrible days in the tower, I have never spoken of what happened there. But with my body failing and death in my sights, I have been plagued by memories, rushing in unbidden, provoking waves of longing for what once was. Perhaps that is why I remain on this earth, the only person who knew Rose when she was young and untouched by tragedy. The only one who watched it all unfold, from the curse to the final kiss.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During the course of the tale our narrator, Elise, grows from a child in poverty into a mature adult, living in the castle. She gains perspective and makes hard choices and becomes a guide for young Rose through difficult times. I think that\u2019s why this isn\u2019t a young adult novel. This isn\u2019t a coming-of-age story, but a story of a life lived beside large events, events that affected a kingdom. It\u2019s about love and about choices and about making your way in the world.<\/p>\n

And I especially liked the ending.<\/p>\n

This is a beautiful book, which I know I\u2019m going to want to read again sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

elizabethblackwellbooks.com<\/a>
\npenguin.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/while_beauty_slept.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I got at an ALA conference and had signed by the author.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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