This book had a lot of potential, taking the story of sleeping beauty and creating a princess that is suddenly finding herself in charge of her own destiny. After falling into a cursed sleep, Bitsy finds herself in a world very different from the one she knows, full of bandits and con men. She has to find her way through this strange world if she ever wants to get home, but by the end she's not sure what she truly wants. While the ideas were really neat, I felt like the narration was very spotty and that the plot, as it goes on, gets more convoluted and hard to understand. The worldbuilding was fun, but not integrated well and the characters were rather lackluster. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I felt like it was mediocre overall.

I don't want to speak negatively about a book, but this one just missed the mark in so many ways.
2⭐️ for a decent effort and idea but this just wasn't it

I found this book to be overly fluffy and not my style. I didn't enjoy reading it, and if I wasn't posting this review, I wouldn't have finished it. I generally like fairy tale retellings and enjoy more fantasy-esque books, but this just didn't do it for me. I don't love the author's writing style and I found myself more annoyed with the writing, the characters, and the plot.

Creeping Beauty was an interesting retelling of Sleeping Beauty with the Frog Prince and other fairy tales tossed in. There was some fat-shaming that wasn't great. The ending was a big surprise, so it's hard to talk about without spoilers.

I usually love fairytale retellings. However, this was not for me. I thought that this would be a feminist and faithful retelling to Sleeping Beauty. But it was very weird. I found the plot to be very confusing. Therefore, it did not live up to my expectations.

This was a very surreal book. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching the plot loop and tangle and twist back around on itself. I would have liked more consistent pacing, but within the narrative it acknowledges that the pacing is jarring. It reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland.

I was excited about this book as I thought it would be a fairytale retelling of sleeping beauty. This book was bizarre and hard to follow and not at all what I expected. I just didn’t enjoy it .

This book had a lot of potential, taking the story of sleeping beauty and creating a princess that is suddenly finding herself in charge of her own destiny. After falling into a cursed sleep, Bitsy finds herself in a world very different from the one she knows, full of bandits and con men. She has to find her way through this strange world if she ever wants to get home, but by the end she's not sure what she truly wants. While the ideas were really neat, I felt like the narration was very spotty and that the plot, as it goes on, gets more convoluted and hard to understand. The worldbuilding was fun, but not integrated well and the characters were rather lackluster. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I felt like it was mediocre overall.

This is the most disappointing story I’ve read so far this year.

It left so much to be desired! The writing style was almost childish.

There was so much potential but it fell way flat.

Bitsy has a very interesting skill, creeping. She has taught herself to disappear from unpleasant situations. For any other girl in the kingdom, this might not be a problem, but since Bitsy is a princess and the only child of the king and queen, this is a problem. She is deeply cherished by her mother, but that doesn't protect Bitsy from the scorn of others that she is rather plain. So when she touches a spindle and falls asleep, the king and queen try everything to wake her up, including summoning eligible men from far and wide to give her "true love's kiss." Meanwhile, Bitsy finds herself not asleep, but in a parallel reality where she must learn how to fight for her life and save herself. This book was delightful to read until the ending. Portes had crafted an interesting twist on the Sleeping Beauty story, but then it seems as if an ending was just stuck on without any care. I was so bitterly disappointed.

#CreepingBeauty #NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-Arc copy of this novel. Teens will love the dark fantasy.

This book is unexpected. While the writing felt a bit juvenile to me, I found myself drawn into the mystery of the story. What is this world that Elizabeth stumbled into? What is the curse and what happened with her father? I found that all my questions did not get answered in the end and I was left wanting more. I love a good retelling of a fairy tale and this was slightly disappointing, but I still enjoyed it.

Without revealing any spoilers, let me just say that Creeping Beauty is an outstanding retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I was thoroughly impressed with the Portes' ability to explore complex themes such as female empowerment and autonomy. I appreciate the author's nuanced approach to these important issues. Creeping Beauty could be triggering as it contains themes of self harm, suicide, and parental abuse/neglect.

Bitsy faces numerous challenges throughout the story, and it's heartbreaking to see how the men in her life fail her at every turn, especially her father and mother. Even when she finally breaks the curse herself, she is met with disbelief and skepticism from those around her.

Personally, I found Bitsy's journey to be incredibly powerful and moving, especially the way she grows and matures over the course of the story. I found the ending especially distressing - it's not a happy ending even though the curse is broken.

Creeping Beauty is beautifully written and thought-provoking. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC - this is my honest opinion.

The concept of the book was really cool. I gave me sleeping beauty kinda meets Alice In Wonderland. I however felt lost most of the the through the book. I didn’t connect with the characters, and I felt like there was a lot going on.

Creeping Beauty was mediocre, to put it mildly. From the second chapter, readers are told how different Bitsy (yes, that's the main character's name) is, how she isn't as pretty or as stupid as the other girls, and how she wants more from life because she's just so different. Sound familiar? Often. characters like her outgrow their not-like-other girls rhetoric, but Bisty only embraced it as the story went on. Within the span of pages, she magically becomes a fighter, and you'll never guess, but she's the Chosen One meant to save the poorly constructed world from nonexistence destruction. Yet despite having the opportunity---if not the necessity---to become a better person, she never developed beyond a stereotype. Archetypes are fun: audiences love to watch the enemies become lovers, the underdog triumph, and the rouge find a family. But archetypes only work when they are developed beyond stereotypes---you can't have a good character without any depth and Bitsy was about as deep as a puddle.

Beyond the failed characterization, the plot, worldbuilding, and writing left something to be desired. The plot was simple enough for a child to follow yet the aspects it deals with (poorly, I might add) are not. Human trafficking was a surprisingly big element of the story but it was treated without any care or seriousness, brushed off the moment the author got bored with it. Any conflict was too easily solved and there weren't any stakes because the main character was never allowed to fail. Concepts of civilization versus savagery were briefly dealt with, but when the main character doesn't understand the customs of a different culture, that culture was painted as childish and savage. Therefore, it was okay for the main character and her friends to use the other group because they were savages who wouldn't understand. Darker themes were hinted at throughout the novel yet their execution was so trivial and frankly insulting that it was hard to believe that the author had done any kind of due diligence before perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

The writing too was juvenile and unpolished; the author even broke the fourth wall at random times for no reason. I felt like I was reading someone's first draft pulled out of a middle school portfolio, not the published work of an established author. The worldbuilding was all over the place, the side characters barely existed and nothing important happened. There were times that I considered DNFing, but since Creeping Beauty has already gotten bad reviews, I wanted to keep going to give the author a chance to make the book better.

Honestly, I do not enjoy giving books low ratings, especially ARCs. I understand the time that goes into creating a novel and I wish this one had been given more drafts to become what it could have been: a feminist retelling rather than a childish miss.

DNF @ 10% because the narrator was absolutely insufferable and the writing sounded like bad Wattpad fanfic.

Also: "...if you don't wed, well, you won't ever be a... person. Or at least a person of value."
HUH. Maybe I'm missing something later on in the book that somehow excuses this line, but I guess we'll never know because I can't finish this.

As a fan of fairytale retellings, I decided to give this book a try. It was a darker book than most retellings which I really enjoyed. Where I struggled with this book was its plot, it just didn't seem to know what plot it wanted to go with. It just felt like a slow read and I struggled to get though it.

Sleeping beauty meets Alice in wonderland

A fantastic concept of a girl who pricks her finger and instead of just sleeping she’s transported into another world while her body remains in slumber. The writing seemed rather juvenile with words from a thesaurus sprinkled in. I wanted more world building and depth that I observed here.

I wanted to love this book.

I truly, honestly hoped to love this book...

The intro to the book started it off with a bad taste. The Narrator approach with the character breaking the 4th wall just made the read slow and chunky to me. It wasn't entirely bad. I did like some of it and managed to finish, though it took me a lot longer than I'd originally thought.

The true docker of stars for me though was the opening attitude about our MC. The shame of her appearance being a major plot point for the character setup gave me the icks. Bitsy could be a truly amazing character if given the proper treatment, but she sort of felt like a sidekick that was standing in for the heroine and floundering. Granted [insert iconic "That is a CHILD"] she is new to the game, so we can forgive her the mishaps of naivety. Especially when the man she begins to fall for was the man who sold her to a known abuser?

Redemption points for the amazing cover. That is a stunning selling point.

I really liked Creeping Beauty. A re-telling of Sleeping beauty that is very adventurous, a bit creepy and has great characters. I liked Princess Elizabeth and the way she came out of her shell and became her own person. I really enjoyed the Kingdoms and there different inhabitants. The battle with the Veist was my favorite part. A twist at the end. I enjoyed this Author writing and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.
#CreepingBeauty #NetGalley

I give Creeping Beauty 4 stars for its unique re-telling.
I would recommend this book to Fantasy fans.