Gemma's story is different from the widely-known version, however - in this one, Briar Rose has red hair (like Gemma) and lives in a castle where everyone falls asleep after an evil fairy sends a mist over everyone.

There's a lot of reasons why one could dislike this book, what with the bad writing and shallow characterization and gratuitious Polish/German and, oh yes, the problematic use of the Holocaust as a plot device, so I suggest checking the priorities here.īecca has grown up hearing her grandmother (called 'Gemma' because one of her granddaughters couldn't pronounce 'grandma') tell the story of Sleeping Beauty to her and her sisters.

A lot harder than the mass murder of millions of people because of their ethnicity, religion, disability, political and sexual orientation! I completely understand! Also, it's really a disappointment that (SPOILER) it was Briar Rose's prince who was gay! OH NOES! No sappy, neatly heterosexual romance against the background of mass murder which would make this so tragical I'd have to use up a whole box of Kleenex! HOW CAN YOU DEPRIVE ME OF MY SAPPY, NEATLY HETEROSEXUAL ROMANCE AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF MASS MURDER! I'm sure such an offense to your delicate sensibilities is really hard to digest.

I mean, remember history class? The Nazi mass murder of millions of people because of their ethnicity, religion, disability, political and, yes, sexual orientation? And all you do is getting worked up over the portrayal of a homosexual character? DUDE THIS IS SO WRONG I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. THE DANGEROUS CONTENT THAT WAS ONE GAY CHARACTER DEAR GOD GET YOUR TIN FOIL HATS OUT THE WORLD IS GOING TO END. But now that I've read the reviews I'm kind of inclined to go up with my rating just to avoid being lumped together with all the people going on about the ~*~dangerous content~*~ of this book. It's not that hard to ask native speakers, either! That fucking annoyed me because surely there was an editor involved who was actually paid for eliminating these slips! Editor: do your fucking work. I didn't like it because the author would throw in bits and pieces of German and Polish that were, at least in the case of German, grammatically incorrect. Like, HEY I WANT TO WRITE A GRITTY FAIRY-TALE RETELLING OH I KNOW LET'S THROW IN THE HOLOCAUST. I didn't like it because the Holocaust story seemed tacked on and deliberately made to fit the fairy tale for dramatic effect and that just seems tasteless and wrong. Let me be clear here: I didn't like this book. It's been two years since I read it, so I don't exactly remember how graphic it was, but if I had to make an educated guess it wasn't half as graphic as your average heterosexual romance novel. I'm really, really disturbed by the majority of two star reviews here dismissing the book because of its LGBT content.

Briar rose jane yolen summary