Spindle by E.K. Johnston is the sequel to A Thousand Nights. Generations after the the Storyteller Queen drove the demon from her husband and saved the land by imbuing it with good magic, evil has once again reared it’s head and prepares to strike. The mountain prison holding the demons at bay is weakening and the kingdoms on either side are at risk.
When a princess, Little Rose, is born a powerful she-demon places a curse upon her and her people. For more than a decade the demon bides her time, waiting for Little Rose to mature and her body ripen for the taking. No one dares try to break the curse until a boy, one of the spinners exiled because of the curse, and his companions steal the princess away from the castle.
Now the curse is coming to a head and all may be lost if the curse is not broken and the demons sent back to their iron prison. Without the storyteller queen, will her heirs be able to follow in her footsteps and set their people free?
Spindle is ultimately a retelling of sleeping beauty–spindle, curse, thorns, kiss and all. This retelling is told from the perspective of the “prince” a poor boy, torn from his home by the deadly affects the curse has on anyone who risks spinning. Yashaa is his mother’s son and he was meant to be a royal spinner in his lords household. But the curse took that away from him and anger drives him to return to his lost kingdom no matter the price. But the princess isn’t what he expects and his path changes forever.
This was no A Thousand Nights. A Thousand Nights was magical and intriguing, it held an air of mystery and the language was flowy and beautiful. Spindle wasn’t quite that. It was a fine tale but doesn’t live up to the writing and story of it’s predecessor. I think if this was a book on it’s own, not connected at all to A Thousand Nights, I would have expected less and liked it more.
The ending came close the the feel of A Thousand Nights but it was also sort of a let down because it didn’t really feel like it belonged with the narrative we’d spent 300+ pages reading. I also thought there were a lot of loose ends with the ending being what it was.
This wasn’t a bad read but I expected more. This one gets a lean three stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-
Comments