Reviewer: Kate
I received a copy of While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
I am not the sort of person about whom stories are told.
And so begins Elise Dalriss’s story. When she hears her great-granddaughter recount a minstrel’s tale about a beautiful princess asleep in a tower, it pushes open a door to the past, a door Elise has long kept locked. For Elise was the companion to the real princess who slumbered—and she is the only one left who knows what actually happened so many years ago. Her story unveils a labyrinth where secrets connect to an inconceivable evil. As only Elise understands all too well, the truth is no fairy tale.
Review:
This is the version of Sleeping Beauty I want my daughters to read!
Since entering adulthood, it has been my strong conviction that much of what ails American culture in particular but perhaps on a more global scale are Disney movies. The idea that good always conquers over evil, and that the princess always gets her handsome perfect prince in the end is ludicrous. But we grow up with those notions. Cautionary folk tales have been morphed into unrealistic brainwashing fairy tales.
Thank God for authors like Elizabeth Blackwell who have the good grace and wonderful creative ability to weave a more complex tale more reflective of real life.
Now that is not to say that I don’t enjoy some escapist reading on occasion—I do. But Blackwell’s revisioning of this classic fairy tale story is refreshing and refreshingly honest. From page one through to the very last page, Blackwell kept me eager to read the next line. Most apparently Blackwell borrows from Sleeping Beauty but there are also elements of Cinderella. Blackwell skillfully tells her story through the eyes of Elise a servant of the royal household, instead of through the princess. This device allows Blackwell to add dimension and depth to the story, allowing the reader to see the royals as people instead of heroes or idols and allows regular people to have heroic moments.
There is pain and suffering in this tale—Blackwell sugarcoats nothing. But there is also a tremendous amount of hope and redemption here that reflects a life worth living even without the guarantee of a happy ending.
While Beauty Slept is a superb modern interpretations of the classics and a welcome addition to my library. For the Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland lovers, this should be an absolute hit. And if you love Gregory McGuire’s Wicked or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister or the original Grimm’s fairy tales, this is a must read.
