I must shamefacedly admit that A Spindle Splintered is the first book by Alix Harrow that I’ve read, but I can at least say that it certainly won’t be the last. This tiny powerhouse of a book made me a believer, and it started with a fairy tale that Harrow herself points out is “no one’s …

I’m a sucker for fairy tales. A large part of that probably comes from growing up in the golden age of Disney animation. Another large part of that comes from the fact that fairy tales–the real, original ones–acknowledge the horrors of life as well as the adventure and romance. For Sarah Pinborough, the terrors are the …