Briar Rose (Fairy Tale Series)

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Summary: Has content inappropriate for YA readers (violent sodomy)
Review: Plot is forced. Character development is very incomplete. Family relationships are left dangling. The last third of the book is an add on that introduces adult subjects by a stranger who is suppose to relate Gemma's early history but really describes his own life as a gay libertine "living in the belly of the wolf" preceding and during WWII

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Summary: Intriguing premise!
Review: This is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust and Nazism. The flashbacked sequences and the present day narrative were handled very well and kept me turning the pages in search for the ultimate truth of Briar Rose. Becca was a well drawn character and would like to see what becomes of her and Stan. The passages decribing the extermination camp were frightening and well as shocking. Man's inhumanity to his fellow knows no bounds. The courage of the Partisans was uplifting. It makes one appreciate the freedoms and privileges we sometimes take for granted. Yolen's presentation of the classic fairy tale and the explanation of Gemma's peril compares favorably with Robert Bly's treatment of Iron John. Read this book and think!

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Summary: simply beautiful
Review: This book is a beautiful tale of the classic sleeping beauty set in a time and place that is very real and horrifing. Jane Yolen spins a touching twist, by using the Holocaust as her setting. I suggest this book to everyone who ever heard the tale of Sleeping Beautiful and everyone who ever knew the pain of the Holocaust.

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Summary: Superior!
Review: I read Devil's Arithmetic with my 8th graders and cried. In Briar Rose, Jane Yolen has taken us on a different journey into the Holocaust by entwining a well-known fairy tale with a tragic, realistic story

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Summary: Jane Yolen proves to be a beautiful writer on the holocaust.
Review: Briar Rose is very well worth the read. The story is beautiful, in its unexpected twists and turns. The book makes you want to both cry and rejoyce at the same time. Each character has their own background, and Josef's is amazing. Its a whole new point of view. I recommend this book for all ages.

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Summary: I thought Briar Rose was a very intreging book.
Review: Jane Yolen certainly has a way with words. I loved the suspense towards the end of the book. Josef was my favorite character. I loved his mysterious way of ending the story. I think that Briar Rose really shone a different, yet beautiful light on the holocaust. I believe that everyone will love this book as much as I have. Thanks Jane.

Rating:
Summary: Briar Rose
Review: A fairy tale intertwined with the nightmares of the Holocaust, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is a very inspiring novel. The story of Sleeping Beauty becomes the map of one girl's voyage to discover the past of her grandmother. Being unaware of what your family's real heritage is leaves you with an emptiness that won't be filled until finding the answers to all your questions.
In the book Briar Rose, Rebecca Berlin searches for the past of her dying grandmother. Rebecca is the main character and all throughout the book she's an idol; she's someone that everyone wishes they could be. She's loveable, honest, helping, and much more. She would stop her life to help somebody else and that's what makes her such a good person. I believe her determination is the strongest among her traits and I admire her for that. Refusing to give up no matter what, she travels long distances in search of who her grandmother was.
Rebecca's older sisters Sylvia and Shana don't believe that she can go through with all of this. It angered me that they don't support her at all, family is supposed to be there for you, and they weren't. They've had pure jealousy of the relationship that Rebecca had with their grandmother all along. however, she wont' let anything get in her way, not as long as curiosity is left racking at the back of her brain. Rebecca is convinced that the story of Sleeping Beauty that her grandmother alwyas told her ever since she can remember is a metaphor to her life before coming to America. "The prince sang, too, and as he added his voice to theirs it was as if he witnessed all their deaths in the thorns."
The only real possession that she has of her grandmother's is a little box with a man's ring and paperwork from her journey to America, as well as photos inside from around the time of 1945. One was a picture of her grandmother, in a sack-like dress, long red hair resting on her shoulders with a baby in her arms, looking beyond the overseer of the photo with empty eyes. The photow as taken at Chelmno, which was an extermination camp during the time of the holocaust. It made me wonder if her grandmother was one of the people who were tortured during that time. As things start to become clearer she realizes that everything in that box is a piece to the puzzle that she's trying to solve.
I have a lot of respect for Rebecca because she never gave up no matter how hard things god, no matter who didn't support her, and no matter what surprises were thrown at her. The book gave me little pieces of information at a time and remained a mystery. I loved the book's layout and how it kept me turning the pages. Unfortunately, toward the end of the book it started to drag and became boring. I was very disappointed that the author did what she did. It ruined the end of the book. Anyone who likes romance-mystery novels should read this book. This book has sorrow, jealousy, and love tied in with the characters, which makes it a good book besides for the fact that it gets slower at the end.

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Summary: Good Story - Bad Writing
Review: My friend bought this book for me, knowing I love fairy tales and the holocaust - and what's better but having them together in one book?! The story was very interesting and I had a hard time putting the book down, wanting to figure out Gemma's secrets. However, the style of writing wasn't very good - she tried too hard at being an adult writer and it wasn't a very good attempt. The sentences were choppy and her descriptions were not very descriptive. I totally liked the comparison between Sleeping Beauty and the Holocaust. But the coincedences weren't very good - Becca "just happened" to run into the guy who saved Gemma's life; she "just happened" to meet the guy who was in the picture with Gemma. I know it's a fairy tale, but in real life, that's a bit too far fetched. Overall, the story was good, but I didn't enjoy the writing style of the author.

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Summary: A Great Story
Review: In Briar Rose, Jane Yolen merges the tale of Sleeping Beauty with that of a Holocaust survivor, seamlessly blending the details and twining story and reality together. Becca's grandmother has just died, leaving her family with questions: What was her real name, where was she from, and was she really the princess she claimed to be, the princess Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty, the story that she left behind as her legacy? With only a few random papers and pictures to guide her, Becca follows a trail that leads her to Poland, where her grandmother was supposedly from. And it is in Poland, near the site of an extermination camp from WWII, that she finally learns the truth about the past.
I loved this story; it was interesting, engaging, sad, funny, beautifully written, flawlessly plotted. And like all fairy tales, it has a happy ending, although I suppose that depends on whether you're Rumpelstiltskin or the Queen.

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Summary: A pretty story
Review: I really, really liked this book. Again, something I haven't read in at least three years, but I remember crying while I was reading it but putting it down and thinking it was just too good. I understand what the young lady/sir from France said before, but I disagree. The story is told from the angle of--would you believe it?--a fairy tale. It's not going to come right out any say it, obvious or not. If it did, how could there be a story? That would take the mystecism right out of it, and the story wouldn't have been nearly what it was.

I liked the strange combination that Yolen chose for the book--the nightmare of the holocaust, and Sleeping beauty... a fairy tale. Maybe it just seems to be an odd combination, considering that we associate (these days) the old fairy tales with a happy ending for the princess. Perhaps, though, it's not off the mark at all, seeing the way the Grimm brothers originally wrote the piece.