Briar Rose (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "GEMMA, TELL YOUR STORY AGAIN'" SHANA BEGGED, PUT-ting her arms around her grandmother and breathing in that special smell of talcum and lemon that seemed..." (more)
Key Phrases: great mist, bad fairy, four piles, Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty, Father Stashu (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Windling's Fairy Tale series has produced several excellent fantasy novels inspired by classic fairy tales. This is one of the series's most ambitious efforts, and only a writer as good as Yolen ( Sister Light, Sister Dark ) could bring it off. Yolen takes the story of Briar Rose (commonly known as Sleeping Beauty) and links it to the Holocaust--a far-from-obvious connection that she makes perfectly convincing. Rebecca Berlin, a young woman who has grown up hearing her grandmother Gemma tell an unusual and frightening version of the Sleeping Beauty legend, realizes when Gemma dies that the fairy tale offers one of the very few clues she has to her grandmother's past. To discover the facts behind Gemma's story, Rebecca travels to Poland, the setting for the book's most engrossing scenes and its most interesting, best-developed characters. By interpolating Gemma's vivid and imaginative story into the larger narrative, Yolen has created an engrossing novel. She handles a difficult subject with finesse in a book that should be required reading for anyone who is tempted to dismiss fantasy as a frivolous genre.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A young woman's promise to her dying grandmother leads her on a quest to discover the truth of her own family's mysterious beginnings in this grim retelling of the classic fairy tale "Briar Rose," or "The Sleeping Beauty." In Yolen's modern-day version, the wall of thorns becomes a barbed-wire prison, while the sleeping princess is both victim and heroine. The latest in the "Fairy Tale" series showcases Yolen's skill at transforming the real world into a realm of fantasy. A good selection for adult and YA fantasy collections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tor Teen (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765342308
• ISBN-13: 978-0765342300
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (182 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,273 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( Y ) > Yolen, Jane
  #94 in	Books > Teens > History & Historical Fiction > Historical Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Briar Rose, December 29, 2005

By	Heather "I Read, Therefore I Am" (NC USA) - See all my reviews

This was my first book by Yolen. I had heard great things about her, especially about this book and given my recent fascination with fairy tales I thought I would give it a try. It was a quick read, easily because it was fascinating and very hard to put down. Ultimately, it left me feeling very, very sad, bordering on devastation yet...hopeful somehow. Another book I must buy.

Briar Rose takes the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and links it to the Holocaust. Rebecca, the youngest of her grandmother Gemma's granddaughters, has grown up listening to Gemma's rendition of Sleeping Beauty. Upon Gemma's death, Rebecca realizes that the story is one of the few clues to Gemma's past, a past that Gemma makes her swear on her deathbed to discover. Her search carries her to Poland and into the heart of the horrors of the Holocaust.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly magnificent!, April 16, 2000

By	N. Bernadsky "ski429" (Conway, AR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Briar Rose (Mass Market Paperback)

I was introduced to Jane Yolen by her short story in After the King: A Tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien (another great read...highly recommended!). On a recent trip to the library I looked for a book by her on a whim. Briar Rose caught my eye. Last summer I took a trip to Poland, and during my stay visited Auschwitz. Since then I have been very interested in Holocaust stories. Briar Rose, though not a true account, is still a very moving story. It is very well-written and the pace is good, but make sure you have tissues nearby! (Unless I'm just the overly-sensitive type, which I doubt.) I've had to order a copy for my personal library, and I plan to read it again as soon as UPS delivers it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning novel, but with one glaring flaw, December 6, 2007

By	S. Weiner (NY, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I tend to disagree with the reviewers who say this book is unsuitable for readers under 14. I was 9 or 10 when I first read it 15 years ago and though I may not have grasped everything in it with quite the same degree of understanding that I bring to it nowadays, it certainly wasn't unsuitable. Children are far more capable of handling dark subject matter than most adults will admit. As for the 'homosexual themes' I've seen some reviewers mention... The Nazis persecuted homosexuals nearly as zealously as they persecuted the Jews. This is historical fact, and one that tends to be overlooked. Kudos to Jane Yolen for addressing it. I wouldn't necessarily hand this book to a child under 10, but it's definitely appropriate for 6th graders and up.

As for the book itself, Yolen does a lovely job of interweaving past and present, fairy tale and reality. "Gemma's" version of Briar Rose has long been one of my favorite modern retellings. There are some issues with the book--the shallowness of the minor characters, the inordinate convenience of Josef Potocki's appearance in the story--but these are easily brushed aside due to the cruel beauty of the fairy tale, which is indisputably the highlight of the novel. The only major problem is this:

Granted, the characters believed Gemma came to the US before the war. But. Are we truly to believe that a Jewish family descended from an Eastern European immigrant never made the connection between the details in Gemma's unique telling of Briar Rose and the Nazis? Big black boots, shiny silver eagles, deadly "mist", and no one but the heroine lives happily ever after, yet none of them picked up on the Nazi references? I can't say it bothered me when I first read this book--I was a child, after all--but in subsequent readings it has jolted me out of the story. It was necessary for the plot to develop in the manner Yolen desired, but I can't help feeling that there are other ways she might have handled it so that this unrealistic device didn't intrude on the story.