i was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of WHEN ROSE WAKES at a local bookstore, seeing as how i’ve always had a hard time looking for christopher golden titles in the philippines. i guess the trick is not to look for them, and they’ll just pop out of nowhere.
WHEN ROSE WAKES is a retelling of the fairy tale SLEEPING BEAUTY. well, it is sort of a retelling.
the story goes like this: teenage rose, the titular character, wakes up from a coma with no memory of her life before her coma. she has two very eccentric aunts who are very old-fashioned, and not a little weird. and cherry on her cake: she keeps having strange dreams where she has the starring role in a vicious version of SLEEPING BEAUTY.
and then there’s her aunts biggest rule that rose isn’t certain she can follow: never get involved with boys.
rose is a teenage girl about to rediscover what it is to be a teen. how in the world can she not get involved with boys?
WHEN ROSE WAKES reads like a chic-lit at first; with rose as the main character, you follow her journey as she sets out to rediscover what it is to be a teenage girl. and throughout the story, you get glimpses of her dreams which clearly shows that something supernatural is going on. so it’s a supernatural chic-lit.
and then somewhere along the way, you realize that you’ve been reading a horror novel. and you realize that you’ve been suckered in believing that your hero is just a girl searching for her identity, when she’s in fact the center of an age-old battle of evil and humans.
it’s another solid book from christopher golden, and it has a great twist on the very familiar story of SLEEPING BEAUTY. to understand what i’m talking about–well, you’ll just have to read the book!
Huh, interesting. I like retellings as much as I like dystopia and zombies. I haven’t read any Christopher Golden book, though (his SOULLESS and POISON INK are sitting in my ebook reader right now), so I have no opinion of his works.
Oh and the cover is pretty.
the cover is, indeed, pretty.
SOULLESS is a great book, especially for us zombie aficionados. POISON INK is something you can skip–and that’s coming from a fan.
Oh, no! I think you’re going to be responsible for making my TBR more monstrous. Or maybe not, because you review so well that I would want to read (this book particularly) right away.
haha, thanks?
but WHEN ROSE WAKES is indeed a great book. then again, i have a tendency to gush when i write about something i really liked.
Supernatural chick lit, hahaha! I’ve added this to my wishlist, I’m always interested in fairy tale retellings.
Next time I see another one, I’ll let you know
When Rose Wakes is actually right up your alley, as it reads a little like YA.
And yes, Supernatural Chic-Lit! It’s a new genre! Hahaha. But seriously, I think we can count all those vampire novels under Supernatural Chic-Lit.
They’re not YA anymore.