The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" (Once Upon a Time) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author), Mahlon F. Craft (Designer)

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"Once upon a Time" Is Timeless

The year is 1880, and Bertie, having just arrived in New York with her family, is grateful to be given work as a seamstress in the home of textile tycoon J. P. Wellington. When the Wellington family fortune is threatened, Bertie's father boasts that Bertie will save the business, that she is so skillful she can "practically spin straw into gold."

Amazingly, in the course of one night, Bertie creates exquisite evening gowns -- with the help of Ray Stalls, a man from her tenement who uses an old spinning wheel to create dresses that are woven with crimson thread and look as though they are spun with real gold. Indebted to Ray, Bertie asks how she can repay him. When Ray asks for her firstborn child, Bertie agrees, never dreaming that he is serious....

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Once upon a time, I believe it was 1880 or thereabouts, a young princess set sail from Ireland for a faraway land. Bridget O'Malley never knew she was of royal lineage, due to the reduced circumstances into which she was born.

Foreign conquest had brought endless brutal war to the land, and the devastation of this strife, coupled with the dire poverty it left in its wake, had long ago vanquished the line of magical druidic priestesses and high kings from which Bridget was descended. Though she did not appear the part in her rags and cloddish, peat-covered boots, Bridget O'Malley was, indeed, a princess, and, on her mother's side, a distant but direct descendent of the high king Cormac mac Airt of legend.

For anyone with eyes to see, her lineage should have been clear enough. She carried the brilliant, orange-red crown of vibrant, unruly curls that marked all the royal women of her line. She had the unmistakable crystal blue eyes and the spray of freckles across her high cheekbones.

As Queen Avriel of the Faerie Folk of Eire, I have watched these disowned royals, these noble spirits without crowns, for centuries too numerous to count. A descent in fortune may obscure royal lineage in the eyes of mankind, but not so in the realm of Faerie. Here we know that true royalty remains in the blood regardless of fortune's deviations. And so I watch and record the royal ones, despite the fluctuating cycles of rise and fall that they may experience.

Bridget and Eileen O'Malley were my special concern. After their mother died, Bridget and her wee sister were the last princesses of their line. In my ancient Book of Faerie their histories were recorded with no less attention than when their kinswomen of times past wore the Celtic crowns on their heads.

Bridget and little Eileen's lives were hard from the start, and then the Great Hunger struck. When the potato crop failed, the already-dire starvation, poverty, and crushing serfdom spun wildly out of control. The famine left mothers to die in their thatched cottages, their frozen babes blue in their arms. Between 1846 and 1850 droves of starving, desperate families set sail for distant shores. They went to lands known as Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and a place called America. Hundreds of them left, their meager belongings in tow, not knowing what lay ahead, but praying it would be better than the crushing life they'd had.

When Bridget's mother died, her father, Paddy O'Malley, decided that the time had come to do as so many of his neighbors and kin had already done. He would take his children to America.

And so -- invisible to all -- I went too, in my role as faerie historian. A strange fate awaited Princess Bridget. I never would have predicted the turns of events that she encountered, being unfamiliar with the magic of foreign lands as I was at the time. For the mix and tumble of exotic magic she experienced was like nothing I could have imagined; nor could have Bridget.

And thus begins this faerie's tale.Copyright © 2008 by Suzanne Weyn

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (June 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416959432
• ISBN-13: 978-1416959434
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #249,685 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What starts with real promise turns into bland mush, October 31, 2008

By	Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Sometimes, to give myself a bit of a breather, I take in those fondly remembered times of my childhood, when fairy tales became nearly believable, and there was always a touch of enchantment that just might happen. And happily, most of the time, I find those old, old tales to be just the thing to lift me out of a funk.

One collection that has gained in popularity over the last few years has been an ongoing series of books from Simon & Schuster, under the title of Once Upon a Time... Rewritten for modern young adult audiences, these take traditional favourites, and give them a new spin or two, updating the characters, setting or action.

This time the choice was a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, titled The Crimson Thread. The setting is almost the modern world, nineteenth century New York City, in the slums where newly arrived immigrants learn the hard way that the streets are not always paved with gold. For Bridget O'Malley, ever since her mother has died, and famine has stalked Ireland, she has tried to mother her family, taking care of both her father and her siblings. But in spite of all of the hardships, she still has her dreams of success. But mixed in with all of the hope, there are some obstacles to overcome -- most notably the prejudice that many have towards the newly arrived Irish.

A stranger, Ray Stalls, turns out to be very helpful, befriending Bridget -- now calling herself Bertie Miller to be more acceptable -- with small presents, and almost courting her in his charming way. When the opportunity comes to work as a dressmaker's assistant, Bertie finds herself making an outlandish deal with Ray for his help in crafting a sumptuous ball gown for a wealthy merchant's daughter. But as with all rashly made promises, there is a terrible price underneath the words...

I really wanted to like this reworking of the story where a princess promises her first-born child to a clever dwarf who can spin straw into gold. While Suzanne Weyn manages to keep some of the traditional elements, and the upgrading of the story to a time and place nearer to the modern world, there is one severe problem with this story.

There really isn't any magick involved. Nothing.

There is a rich young man who isn't the prince that he seems as he manipulates Bertie, the characters are pretty much one notes and flit in and out of the story with little character depth or reason. Even the creation of the glamourous dresses is seated firmly in mundania, and while they are wonderful to read about, there's nothing there to give the sense of illusion either.

Even the actions, from the poverty of the Five Points and Hell's Kitchen, to the mansions of Park Avenue, to the horrible conditions in sweatshops and mills and the beginnings of the worker's movements, are very dull to read about. We know what to expect even before the author has set down the words, and for me, that ruined any expectations that I had for this novel. By the time it reached the requisite HEA (Happy Ever After) ending, I didn't care. It might as well just been another historical romance, but even those have some excitement to them, and plainly, this one didn't. Whatever danger or romance that is usually found in the realms of Faerie are just not here -- everything is watered down to a vapid, lifeless mush, and that's a real pity.

I don't know if it is the lack of the author in crafting these retellings, or if the editor in charge of this line of novels are responsible, but these seem to be taking fairy tales and making them the most bland, boring stories with few chills or touches of the macabre that most fairy tales have had through the centuries. Instead, it seems to be necessary to strip out everything and anything that might be offensive or objectionable, and the results just are not worth it.

Overall, two stars, despite the real promise that the story begins with.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Compulsive Reader's Reviews, December 9, 2008

By	The Compulsive Reader (Big Rapids, MI, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Bridget O'Malley never anticipated that making a living in New York City as an Irish immigrant would be so hard. Her family is struggling to stay afloat, and consider themselves lucky for the jobs they do have working in J.P. Wellington's household, even if they do have to change their names to avoid persecution.

Bridget, now Bertie Miller, is a seamstress, and her father and brother are coachmen. But when it looks as if the Wellingtons' business may be in jeopardy, along with the Millers' jobs, Bertie's father tells outrageous lies of Bertie's abilities to turn ordinary fabric into shimmering and fashionable dresses. Bertie is in a state of despair when the mysterious Ray Stalls offers his assistance...and manages to do what Bertie's father claimed. Soon Bertie finds herself caught up between her debt and obligation to Ray, and her one chance to ascend the social ladder and become successful and prosperous.

The Crimson Thread is a sweet and whimsical retelling of Rumpelstilstskin that turns the old tale around completely. It reads more like a historical fiction novel than a fairy tale, and gives a fairly accurate depiction of life for Irish immigrants in New York City along the way, with a dash of the glitz and glamour of the life of the obscenely rich. The pacing of the book is slightly slow at the beginning, but then evens out quickly, making this regrettably short read fly by. The characters are engaging and varied and the magical elements are very light--so much so that it allows readers to speculate as to whether there is any magic at all--but Weyn doesn't divulge any secrets. She manages to create an air of improbability within the story, mirroring Bertie's own uncertain circumstances, which leaves the reader to always wonder what will happen next. But Weyn doesn't disappoint and, through some clever wordplay and neat plotting, brings the story together in a romantic and satisfying end.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, June 20, 2008

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

Bridget O'Malley and her family are new immigrants to America in 1880 looking for a better life full of riches and dreams come true. Things in America aren't immediately wonderful and the family finds themselves looking for jobs and food while living in a small cramped tenement apartment in New York City.

In order to obtain a job as a coachman with the wealthy J.P. Wellington, Bridget's father changes the family name to Miller and boasts that his daughter, now known as Bertie, is an impressive seamstress. Paddy is quite the storyteller, and although Bertie has a talent for sewing, her skills are not quite what her father claims.

When the Wellington's find their family fortune in the textile industry in jeopardy, Paddy once again makes an outrageous claim about Bertie -- this time claiming she has the talent to spin straw into gold and fashion ugly plain fabric into stunning dresses with intricate designs. Bertie fears there is no way she can design and create the dresses expected of her. Desperate and in need, Bertie finds herself relying on the mysterious Ray Stalls for help.

THE CRIMSON THREAD is the latest addition to the ONCE UPON A TIME series, a series filled with retellings of fairy tales. Setting the story of Rumpelstiltskin amidst immigrants, wealth, and fashion of 1880 was an interesting take on the famous tale and added a touch of magic. I would imagine the story of Rumpelstiltskin a difficult story to re-tell, but the author added her own twist on the tale and characters which made it unique. A wonderful addition to the series and a must read for fairy tale lovers.

Reviewed by: Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen