Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for mature readers
Review: I do not read very much anymore. So it may interest you that I read this book all in one day. Well, to be honest the mystery held me captive for hours at a time. When I bought this book I was surprised to see that I found it in the childrens section next to books like Harry Potter. After reading it I decided that although it is one of the most excellent books I've ever read, some content is not for children. For one thing the plot is confusing at times and, for a little kid, some of the words would be unfamiliar. The main chcaracter is an adult so there is obiously going to be adult humor that children would not get. Briar Rose also has curse words in it at times. And there is one scene that was, I think, TMI and also inappropriate. I loved this book so much but the only problem I have is that it is often considered a children's book. If you are probably over the age of 13 i would highly reccomend this book. Even if you are not a heavy reader the plot will definately captivate you.
Rating: 
Summary: A fairy tale of a different kind.
Review: Jane Yolen splendidly intertwines the classic tale of "Sleeping Beauty" with a tale from one of the most horrific times in history, the Holocaust. This book is intriguing from the begining to the end, continuously holding the reader's attention. Yolen gradually presents both the story and the fairy tale in a manner that is intriguing and suspenseful to the reader. This "Sleeping Beauty" type story is told with an enchanting twist of love, hate, heroism, and fear. Like all fairy tales, even this somewhat grim and surreal story has a happy ending. This story has such an air of truth and believability it is easy for the reader to forget it is only fiction. I found myself consumed in the book and not wanting the book to end. This is a captivating and moving tale for young adults and adults alike, and is well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Confusing
Review: Briar Rose is about a young girl name Becca who ever since she was a little girl loved the story of Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty. Her grandma, Gemma would tell her this story all the time nonstop but it isn't the version you would normally hear. When Gemma dies she tells Becca that she is Briar Rose. Becca intrigued by the box of pictures with a rose on it sets out to find out about Gemma's past. This leads her to Chelmo where she discovers that her grandma was the only woman to escape from that concentration camp and how she was married in the woods. I think that was how the book went.I was very interested in this book at the beginning. It was sort of like a mystery you have to read to the end to get the whole story. I personally love fairy tales retold and I did like this book. It was just very confusing and I hate reading books over and over again to get what is going on. It isn't like I just want a story that is straight and to the point, but if you can't follow stories well or you have a short attention span, don't even try to read this book. I did finish it, but this book still left me wondering a bit too much.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and eye opening read
Review: I had to read this for my final year at high school and found it on first appearance to be a beautiful story of the love between a grandmother and her daughter. Briar Rose was also a very clear and unflinching story of the horrors faced by both the grandmother years before and a homosexual male living in the middle of Nazi Germany and all the terrible acts of that period in time.
But to look at this story as simply a fairytale would be a major mistake - it is very much an adult novel in its themes and some of the imagery provoked in the retelling of the genocide in WW2 clearly displays this. Yolen does give the book a sort-of happy ending but uses a post script to make the reader realise that this is only a story and that the horrors mentioned within this novel are the only nonfictional components.
I would recommend this book for those who enjoy dark fairy tales and who are facinated in the horrible acts that humans can inflict on other humans. but this book could also be seen pure and simple as a young womans hunt for her past, to find the truth in her grandmothers stories in the hope to find a more significant future for herself - and because of this I believe that those who love an inspirational story or have a deep inbeded need to find their own cultural identity would truly love this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Thorn and Twine
Review: The heartwarming story of Sleeping Beauty and the bone chilling tales of the Holocaust are tied together in Jane Yolen's unforgettable novel of Briar Rose. As a child Becca (Rebecca) always loved the stories that Gemma, her grandmother tells her. Her sisters, Shana and Sylvia also love their grandmother's stories; however, one always stays in their minds, the one of Sleeping Beauty. Gemma tells the story of Sleeping Beauty countless times in the course of the girl's childhood. As Shana and Sylvia mature, the once favorite bedtime story grows old. Unlike her sisters, Becca loved the story, and it doesn't matter if she hears it a million times, she would still want to hear it again and again. The story of Sleeping Beauty as Gemma tells it takes place in a far, far away kingdom, where a child is born. The king and queen decide to name her Briar Rose. In celebration of the child's birth a party is thrown, and at the party the angel of death comes and curses the baby. Anyone who bears her name, will also be cursed and suffer. The curse stands but the princess was able to outdo the curse by living a wonderful life, marring a prince, and creating a family of her own. The story then progresses to when Gemma is in a nursing home and on the verge of dying. Shana and Sylvia come to visit her but not as much as Becca does, everyday, to hear the wonderful stories. Minutes before Gemma's death, she confesses to Becca that she is the child from the story, she marries a prince, and that she is Briar Rose. Gemma also leaves a wooden box with a carved rose on the top, in her possession. She tells her to find the prince and the castle. After Gemma's death Becca begins to unravel grandmother's past with the worn photographs and documents she finds among the other possessions in the box. The journey to unravel her beloved grandmother's past leads to her love that helps her on her quest. Rebecca's journey takes her to Poland where she stumbles across a man who unlocks the forgotten past. The way that Yolen uses her words to describe the many pictures in the book is truly amazing. The story it self is captivating and motivating at times but Yolen knows just how to capture every kind of emotion.
Jane Yolen's novel of the Holocaust tied with that of Sleeping Beauty is a book in which Becca uncovers stories on how certain classes were treated during the Holocaust. One of the characters, Josef Potocki, who reveals some of Gemma's past, is gay. He also tells many of his stories to Becca and her friend Stan, about being a gay, Polish man during the Holocaust. All of his stories show and explain how the gay population was looked down upon in that time and stil today, the horrors that homosexual people faced. It teaches you that not only did gay people suffer, but Polish, some Christians, and Jewish people did as well. Another reason why some readers would recommend this book is because in the concentration by the name of Chelmno, no women who would enter would leave alive. Gemma's character brings admiration to the story, because she was probably the only woman who ever escaped that concentration camp. Her character shows how hard it was for Jewish woman at the time. Both Josef and Gemma suffer for the cause of their identity but both of then are able to succeed in their calling, in which Yolen describes incredibly.
Some readers believe that Briar Rose is a boring book; the parts where Gemma is telling the story, as if it were in the past, are useless and not meaningful to the plot of the story. About every other chapter Gemma tells a part of the story of Briar Rose, as if she were relating it to her grandchildren. Each one of these chapters is important because they add to the story and the plot thickens every time. This book is an informative and interesting read to help peoples' understanding of the Holocaust and how the different minority groups suffered and came through, as well as a twisted story of Sleeping Beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: Briar Rose Review
Review: When I first heard what this book was about, I thought it sounded pretty good. I love re-tellings of fairy tales (like the books by Donna Jo Napoli)and also books about people in times of war or hardship. This book isn't really about any of that. It is more about Becca's (the main character)journey to find out about her grandmother's past. Even though the writing was descriptive and made sense, I thought this book was boring and didn't really have a point
Rating:
Summary: Holocaust book focuses not only on persecution of Jews
Review: Having never read one of Yolen's novels, I had a very open mind when starting. The topic of the Holocaust is of great interest to me. I teach a unit on this topic to my students every year. This is maily a story about a young woman named "Becca" who is searching for the truth about her grandmother, "Gemma", a Jewish Holocaust survivor; a large portion of the novel focuses on "Potocki", a homosexual who was persecuted for his lifestyle. It's a Holocaust story like none I've read before. The intertwining of the horrors of the Holocaust with the fairy tale, "Briar Rose", is done exquisitely. There is one racey paragraph that deals with one of Potocki's sexual encounters. Other than that, the realities of what the persecuted had to endure is something that everyone should be aware of - young and old. I think it's a very appropriate and informative book for young adults and adults as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it in two sittings.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful, lyrical tale of the Holocaust.
Review: Though not long by novel standards, this is a powerful, magnetic read. It's a quiet, meditative, exploratory tale, almost a detective novel, but without a real whodunnit. I found it deeply satisfying. A young woman's grandmother dies, leaving behind a legacy of bizarre mementoes and a statement that she (the grandmother) is the princess in the oddly altered version of "Sleeping Beauty" story she has been telling her granddaughters their whole lives. The heroine spends the rest of the novel trying to ascertain the truth of that statement, and it leads her to the Holocaust, Poland, concentration camps, and more. Characterization is spot-on, as always for Yolen, who has a gift for capturing a person's essence with just a few brushstrokes. The plot is tight and moves along briskly and without the reader noticing -- and it actually sounds plausible. Readers who prefer whiz-bang action or fantasy will find this a different kind of story, but I can't imagine anybody actually disliking this book.
Rating:
Summary: A true disappointment
Review: When I bought this book, I figured, "Oh, it's by Jane Yolen. I bet it's really good!" That just proves that people really shouldn't judge books by thier cover or author. I really thought this book would be one that I wouldn't be able to put down. I also thought I would finish it in like, 3 days. Boy was I wrong. I found this book to be quite boring (especially in the beginning). There were so many times when I found the book would make me drop to sleep. I really expected more from this author. However, to be on the positive side, when a man tells his story about Briar Rose in the book, it get's very interesting. but from there on, it just isn't all that great. the end however, is very cute. But I must agree with other people who have read this book. It really isn't meant for people under 14 or 15. Some of the content is very disturbing. But other than that, this book was so so. I just wish I didn't have to force myself to keep reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Younger (10 to 14) Young Adults
Review: On Jane Yolen's website, this book is appropriately labeled an adult book. The story is good, but the main characters are in their 20's, the themes are adult including innuendo and explicit sexual (both hetero and homo) references, the horror of the Holocaust is presented, and expletives are interspersed in general conversation.
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