And it takes all the strength I've got: SLEEP LIKE DEATH.

Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Even when doing a retelling, you can always count on Kalynn Bayron's books to be unique and different. Honestly, I either don't know the Snow White story well or Bayron made a ton of changes, because SLEEP LIKE DEATH was always surprising!

Princess Eve was raised to hate the Knight, a traveling creature who has tormented her Kingdom by granting wishes with a catch; no matter what, they only work out favorably for the Knight in the end. She knows this firsthand; one of her moms, wishing for a beautiful voice, was turned into a bird. Now Eve is catching her other mom, Queen Regina, acting strange, and talking into a looking glass/stone.

I won't lie; some of this book is really weird. I'm okay with that part; pieces of it were rather frustrating, though, and that was more difficult. I certainly wish the LGBTQIA+ angle was stronger beyond Eve's two moms (I mean one is a bird) and some pining. Based on Bayron's other books, there was so much more she could have done here. Instead, Eve has a romance with Nova, a messenger of the Knight, that often feels completely unfounded. They see each other, talk once or twice, and then boom, they are suddenly in love. The lack of connections or reasoning in the story made little sense.

DEATH is stronger when it comes to its allusions to myths and stories. There's a very neat parallel to the Seven Dwarfs and some decent attempts at reversing gender stereotypes from Snow White (some fail, though). The book explores dark magic, often veering deeply into sad and tragic territory--this is certainly not a Disney retelling. It looks at the relationships of mothers and daughters and women in general. Eve's relationship with Queen Regina is complicated; sometimes, you wish everyone in the story would simply communicate more. (Or stop making doomed wishes?)

I enjoyed the story the most when Eve was off exploring and attempting to save her kingdom. This was an interesting retelling, but it seemed like a lot of the connections were missing--not a lot of backstory to the Knight's vengeance, Eve's romance, and more. It's a quick read, but lacking some depth.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bloomsbury YA in return for an unbiased review.

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