Briar Rose

NB the synopsis and reviews given here are for another book which bears the same name but is by Jane Yolen, as I found out after buying this one! The book pictured above by Anna Barrie is about a curse on a West Country family. Stars given are neutral as I haven't read this book.

Becca Berlin grew up listening to her grandma (Gemma) tell the tale of Sleeping Beauty, a story about castles and thorns and mists. For years, Becca and her family thought it was just a story, until Gemma starts insisting that the princess is her. On her deathbed, she extracts a promise from Becca that her past will be uncovered and the story will come true.

Briar Rose moves through several layers of storytelling technique. The chapters alternate between episodes of Becca's search for Gemma's past and lyrical "memories" of Gemma telling the story of Briar Rose. Near the end of the novel, Becca's travels enfold an account of the lives of several partisans in the German forests.

Yet it is because of this resonating current that Becca's pilgrimage engages us as readers. For a moment, we almost become Becca. Despite whatever connections we may or may not have to this dark period in history, there is a part of us that is only able to comprehend the true enormity of such stories when they are hidden in depths of older tales, for these old tales exist in the dualities of light and dark, pain and joy, life and death.
Jane Yolen's Briar Rose speaks with unflinching and brutal honesty. It tells the truth - as much as fiction can. Yet that truth reveals one much deeper - the ability of people and stories to overcome and endure.

In this novel, Jane Yolen cleverly intertwines her grandmothers life during the holocaust with the beloved fairytale Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty). It was a wonderful book that I heavily enjoyed and I have yet to find another book quite like it.

This is an incredible book. Once you pick this book up you will never ever put it down. This story haunts you at night and keeps you thinking about this story. It is nicely weaved into the story of the Holocaust. It is so interesting. You have to right it. TRUST ME. YOU WILL LOVE IT.

This is an incredible book. Once you pick this book up you will never ever put it down. This story haunts you at night and keeps you thinking about this story. It is nicely weaved into the story of the Holocaust. It is so interesting. You have to right it. TRUST ME. YOU WILL LOVE IT.