In the hurry to get the rest of my reading goal met I have decided to do several one sit reads. And tonight's selection was The Sleeper and the Spindle. This small volume has been sitting on my TBR shelf for months. I really have no clue why it took me so long to get to this book.
In this book Neil Gaiman takes us to a small kingdom that is falling under a "sleeping spell" - a spell that was cast on a young princess in a Kingdom that borders their own. The young queen of this kingdom takes it upon herself to go and save her people; and she (along with the dwarves that accompany her) are immuned to the sleeping spell. Our Queen in question was once asleep herself for a year; in a glass coffin. (That should be a clue to who she is. She is never named).
They make their way to the castle; only to discover that things are not what they seem. The villain is killed in the end but there is no real happy ending. The people of the Kingdom the Queen rescues has no clue what happened. And the Queen heads back to her Kingdom to get married.
This little book seems to have two intentions 1)to let the reader know that women are capable and equiped to save themselves; 2) Not all fairy tales get happy endings - sometimes the endings are all to real. This book also left me with some questions like: Where did the villain come from? Will the Queen take the same lead in her own life? Will she marry because it's what is expected or because she wants to? Maybe she needs to rescue herself.
The main attraction of this book was the artwork (by Chris Riddell); the illustrations where gothic and hauntingly beautiful. Which is what I would expect in a book about spells, witches and queens. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.com.
****Above is just some of the artwork for the book****
