Book two in Harrow’s Fractured Fables series continues the adventures of Zinnia Gray — a self-professed “folklore major with a significant Grimm obsession” — hopping around the multi-verse helping young fairy tale princesses cursing their cruel fates. In the five years she’s been adventuring, she has never managed to escape the Sleeping Beauty narrative, but suddenly a beautiful and cruel face is beckoning to her through a mirror and asking for help. Enter not Snow White, but the Evil Queen, and while she lives up to her Evil reputation (Zinnia calls her “Eva”), things are not at all what they seem.

A good romp through the multiverse with plenty of non-venomous snark, academic folklore overlays, and welcome feminist twists on standard fairy tale princess tropes. Well-written (as always), funny, and great messaging on how to write your own story without succumbing to cultural expectations.

Book one was excellent! Read it while you wait for this book to be published! Review here.

Some great quotes:

“It’s just that they’re so damn happy. I doubt they’ve ever lain awake at night feeling the bounds of their narratives like hot wires pressing into their skin, counting each breath and wondering how many are left, wishing — uselessly, stupidly — they’d been born into a better once upon a time.”

“I’m sure Charm would explain about the psychic weight of repeated motifs and the narrative resonance between worlds if I asked, but I don’t ask…”

“The queen is watching me in a way that reminds me uncomfortably of a lean-boned stray watching a very stupid robin.”

“Am I in some kind of fairy tale mash-up? Is Chris Pine about to pop out and sing Sondheim lyrics in a confused accent?”

“There were plenty of other stories floating around the European countryside at the time — weirder, darker, stranger, sexier stories — but the Grimms weren’t anthropologists. They were nationalists trying to build an orderly, modern house out of the wild bones of folklore.”

“I know how I must sound, what you must think of me, but I only mean power over myself. Power to make my own choices, and arrive at my own ends.”

“Anyway, you’ve created a universe that runs on plot, and a main character who smashes plots like a human wrecking ball. In refusing to complete her narrative arc, she is compromising the integrity of the universe.”

a mirror mended is the next in line in alix e. harrow’s fractured fables series and sees zinnia gray five years and forty nine happy endings later. instead of focusing on sleeping beauty—as a spindle splintered and zinnia’s own life does—a mirror mended pivots and shows the consequences of zinnia’s world-hopping as she finds herself falling into the story of snow white’s evil queen, who may not be as much of a villain as zinnia thinks.

just as hilarious, heartfelt, and wildly entertaining as the first book, a mirror mended tells the story of a sickly, determined woman as she struggles to find the happy ending within her own story. a perfect recommendation for those looking for villainous love interests, a sharp and delightful take on fairy tales, and anyone interested in somewhere to start with harrow’s work.

Sometimes, you just want something that is unabashedly fun. This book delivers on that. It is lightening fast, with the characters moving at a literal run almost the entire time. The characters are fast talking, dropping jokes and cultural references at Gilmore Girls speeds. If you want a fast, light, fractured fairy tale, this will be perfect for you.

What an unexpected treat, to see Harrow continuing her fractured fairytale spider-verse novella-world! I appreciated the spin on the evil queen and the re-envisioning of the politics (both gender and literal) there -- but this truly flashed by in a way that made me long for a deeper engagement with the story and the ideas Harrow is playing with. There are times when the novella form really works and times where I wish it wasn't so constraining and this ended up being one of the latter. It's a good problem to have, though, you know?

Alix E. Harrow is one of my favorite authors currently publishing. She has such a way of tricking me into feeling things that I would normally avoid - coating it all in a layer of good-natured (never mean-spirited) snark to break through my defenses, right to the gooey center of my hidden heart. HOW DARE.

This is such an excellent retelling, full of twists and turns, a little horror, so much feminist agency, love. I cried. I’m so sad it’s over, and so glad she wrote it for all of us.

This second novella in Harrow’s Fractured Fables series is the perfect follow up to A Spindle Splintered. With a better understanding of travel through the multiverse and the role of stories, hilarious Zinnia undergoes a satisfying character arc for such a short book, and helps a villain with no name rewrite the ending to her story. I like the way this book reads like so much more than what’s written on the page; it represents the narrative of our lives and world, and the agency to change what is written for us.

An enchanting, dark, funny, and worthy sequel. The sarcasm and voice is fantastic, and the character development for Zinnia is top notch. I didn't anticipate the massive time jump, but it worked, and I loved getting to see all the characters again. It managed to be even more meta than the first one, which was a delight.

Another great Zinnia Gray novella, this time unpacking the Evil Queen narrative in fairytales and the inherent balance of power in storytelling.

This was a solid followup to A Spindle Splintered. I loved that it followed a different fairytale completely. Harrow gets into some meta-storytelling here that I am a complete sucker for. It was even more gay. Just all very very good things. I read it in a single sitting and my only complaint is that I wish there was more of it. (Which is not to say that it felt incomplete! In fact, Harrow is one of only a few authors who I believe knows when a story is a novella vs when it is a novel. This is the perfect length for what it is, my wanting more is my own greed.) Anyway, A+, highly recommend, will read anything this woman writes.

Oh my goodness! Zinnia Gray who has astonishingly smartest and darkest sense of humor, brilliantly sarcastic, sappy narrator is one of the greatest heroines the author has created: Yes, she’s spent the last five years of her life diving through every iterat
Sleeping Beauty, chasing the echoes of her own shitty narrative through tin
space and making it a little less shitty, like a cross between Doctor Who and
editor. Rescuing princesses from space colonies and castles and caves; blessing babies; getting drunk with at least twenty good fairies,
making out with every member of the royal family are just occupational hazards she’s been dealing for long!

Is it fair for her dedicating her life to give each character a happily ever after when she just gets bored, exhausted, lost: mostly having no clue where she is, what she is doing, what her life purpose is?

Then she finds out one of the villanelles also revolts against her doomed destiny. The evil queen of Snow White learns the end of the story and she’s so determined to change her future. Could Zinnia help Evil Queen fulfill her destiny even though she cannot move a finger to do some slightest changes about her own derailing life story?

Well: the characterization, witty tone, smart plot line, twisted retelling idea of the fairytale lured me! I loved the first book and this one also earned my four magical stars!

The series is getting much better at each story! I’m looking forward to read the third one!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan/Tor/ Forge for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.