Zinnia is now an expert on all things Sleeping Beauty in her real life, and inside the multiverse. She has been inside a plethora of dimensions, saving every princess she can by warning them away from anything sharp – especially spindles.

Now 26, she has lived beyond all doctor’s assurances she wouldn’t live to 22. Now in remission, she is making the most of life, but neglecting important people in it. Jumping from dimension to dimension, she is now looking for a way out of the Sleeping Beauty narrative her life is now shaped by.

When this opportunity arises, she is keen to get back to what she knows, because how the hell did she end up in a version of Snow White? The first person she meets is the evil queen, and she’s quick to tell her what she thinks of her. The queen is just as evil as her story has depicted forever, and soon proves it to Zinnia.

After hours spent manacled and a little concerned about what is going to happen next, Zinnia is released. The longer she spends with the evil queen, the more she learns of her back story. Is she really as evil as the Grimm’s brothers made her out to be. When they are both sucked into another dimension, they begin to realise all is not right in the land of folklore, and it might just be their fault.

Both Zinnia and Eva (short for evil queen) must admit to themselves and each other that they are both fleeing their own inevitable story endings. Running from their unavoidable destiny is doing damage to fairytales, but brings them closer together. Would it be possible to stay together and live happily ever after?

A follow on from A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Mended is another feminist adventure inside the world of fairytale. Again, it provides an entertaining contrast between our present and the historical era of folklore. In this novella a villain becomes the hero, the witch’s cottage a place of refuge and comfort and the innocent protagonist, the villain.

References to well known stories outside of fairytale, anchor the reader again and again inside this fractured fairytale. Both humorous and bloodthirsty, A Mirror Mended tips fairytales on their head, as the main character tries to put things right both inside the dimensions she travels and at home with her best friend Charm.

Bring on the next novella. I adore Zinnia and the spin Alix E Harrow has on this world of Grimm.

Author – Alix E Harrow

Illustrator – Michael Rogers

Age – 16+

Read an Excerpt here

See another in this series (Click on the Cover)

(2022, Fantasy, Series, Action, Historical, Humour, Murder, Revenge, Fractured Fairytales, Rewritten, Folklore, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Spindle, Evil Queen, Vanity, Huntsmen, Badass, Contrast between then and now)