What differentiates the two books is the sense of scale. One moment characters can be lovers, the next sworn enemies. As a reader you never get the chance to assume that a character is being truthful as they may turn at any point. The relationships in these books are complex and move back and forwards. The reason Malice, and in turn Misrule, are such good retellings of Sleeping Beauty is that they refuse to be simple books. Can Alyce awaken Aurora and, if she succeeds, will their feelings be the same? Is she willing to sacrifice all her power to be with the one she loves? Not only is she a human, but a Briar Princess, the enemy of the Dark Court. Hidden deep within her private library is the sleeping form of Aurora. She stands of the precipice of taking the war to the Fairy High Court, but will her secret be her undoing. When this Princess wakes she will not be compelled and there is the messy matter of the relationship with Alyce, who has since risen to be the head of Briar.Īfter the events of Malice, Alyce has spent the decades creating her own court made up from the disenfranchised and abandoned dark magical creatures. Misrule opens 100 years later and tells the second part of the fairy tale when the Princess is awoken, but this is no simple fable. Everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty, or do they? Malice by Heather Walter retold the story leading up to Aurora falling asleep, but with far more detail on Aurora and her relationship with Alyce, the person responsible for her curse.

Malice sleeping beauty retelling