Briar Rose
The original fairy tales were darker and scarier than the tidied-up modern versions. Sure, some present-day ones still retain a shock factor, but they are so watered-down and are nothing like the original accounts, which, for the most part, do not end in "happily ever after."This is the a contemporary telling of the story of 'Sleeping Beauty', weaving it into a dark time in our recent history (no spoilers here). It is this spirit of non-political correctness, in addition to a creative re-imagining of a timeless story, which makes this book brilliant (subject matter notwithstanding).
