欧宝娱乐

I really like all the world-building in this. There's such a lot of it, right from the first few pages. The problem with it is that there's too much of it -- it's very vivid, but it weighs down the story. The story of Sleeping Beauty is usually fairly unadorned, and the elements of the original story seemed bogged down in all this detail.

It's delightful to read, in some ways, but it did take me a long time to finish reading, and it didn't grip me or become compulsive. I loved the tongue-in-cheek element to some of the details, like the way the fairy godmothers' gifts went awry, and absent-minded fairies getting burnt on their kettles.

I did care about the characters -- especially, though slowly, Narl -- but there wasn't enough happening. It's an awkward cross between a thick fantasy novel and a delicate little fairytale that doesn't quite work. It doesn't help that you start with Katriona, and get close to her as a narrator, but then she's supplanted by Rosie as she grows up. It's a bit like a bait-and-switch: I don't know how else the story could have been the way it is, but I liked Katriona and was quite happy to settle down in her POV.

I do like the ending. I was wondering, all through it, how various things were going to work out, and I like that they did work out... not perfectly, but as well as they could possibly do. I was almost surprised by how much I cared about the happy ending for Narl, but considering I haven't stopped grinning yet... I liked the way the traditional elements were all present, although not in quite the expected way -- in the kiss to wake the princess, for example. I liked the way that Rosie had to go out and fix things herself, that she didn't have to wait for any prince to come and save her.

I still feel oddly ambivalent about the whole thing, though. It's not a book I can see myself reading again because it took so long to read, and didn't grab hold of me in the way I liked.