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: Briar Rose: Even and Odd
Review: Briar Rose is a novel that intertwines the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" with a story about the Holocaust. Jane Yolen takes an interesting tactic with the story. The odd chapters consist specifically of Gemma, the grandmother, telling her version of "Sleeping Beauty" to her grandchildren, mostly Becca. The even chapters, however, tell of Becca's search, after her grandmother's death, to find out her grandmother's real identity and origin. Becca's only clues to begin with were in a box that her grandmother left behind. So, Becca, along with the help of her collegue, set out to what seems to be a hopeless search to Ft. Oswego. While there, Becca talked to a man who knew her grandmother in the refugee camp. He confirmed that Gemma was also known as Ksiezniczka, which means princess. After their meeting, Becca decided to go to Poland to retrace her Grandmother's steps. In Poland, Becca is accompanied by a translator and through sheer luck and coincindence they encounter a priest who leads them to a man who is able to tell Gemma's story along with the story of the Holocaust. During the last half of the book, we learn alot of the terrible and graphic truths about the Holocaust. The last half is also when both the even and odd chapters seem to come together. This is when we notice how Gemma's "Sleeping Beauty" story seems to symbolically coincide with the Holocaust story. For example, in "Sleeping Beauty", the curse that is bestowed upon the princess and her family and friends symbolizes the curse of the Nazis and Gustapo and the doom they unleashed upon everyone. The mist that covers that castle and puts everyone to sleep symbolizes the gassing deaths of millions of people. The castle surrounded with roses that were covered with barbs that were impenetrable symbolized the barbed wire that held the condemned inside the prison camps. By the end of the novel, there is so much symbolism to notice it almost wonderfully overwhelming. It is as if the symbolism clicks together for the reader at the same time Becca pieces it together for herself.
Rating: 
Summary: BORING with a capital B
Review: I picked up this book because it looked really good. Most sleeping beauty type stories are, right? Well, it was a mistake. I tried (I really, really tried!) to keep reading the book, but I couldn't because of the extremely baffling plot and reason #1: it was BORING. I couldn't understand it and not far into the book, (about 5 pages!) I was wishing I had bought another book! I know I've got a pretty big attention span and I'm not a bad reader, but this was terrible. Not even worth thinking about getting. Horrible.~Atalanta
Rating: 
Summary: Briar DUMB
Review: I really was disappointed by this book. I head that it was really good and a great thing to read, but it turns out that it was positively terrible! The plot was completely baffling. I KNOW I'm not a bad reader, but just to be sure, I had my sister read it as well. She didn't get it either! Besides being confusing, it is pretty perverse. Take my advice - don't even open the cover of this book... you'll only be disappointed and disgusted.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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: Fiction-Fact-Fairy Tail
Review: Jane Yolen's Briar Rose is an intriguing story of a woman who lived through a traumatic event during the Holocaust. When I first started reading this book, I was somewhat confused with the way the story bounced back and forth from the present, to a time in the past where as the grandmother (Gemma) was telling her own version of the fairy tale: "Sleeping Beauty." Gemma seemed infatuated with her version of "Sleeping Beauty" as it was the only story she told her grandchildren.
Every odd numbered chapter in this book was devoted to portions of Gemma telling her story, while the even numbered chapters reflected the present day lives of the family that surrounded Gemma. When Gemma died, the family realized that no one knew her real name or her history. As a deathbed promise to Gemma, Becca (one of the granddaughters), set out to find the story behind the mysterious grandmother.
In her search for the truth Becca found herself in Poland. She found an older (homosexual) gentleman whom knew her grandmother and told Becca about the holocaust and the part Gemma played in it. In reality Gemmas version of "Sleeping Beauty" was her own version of being put to sleep by the Nazis and re-awakened by a kiss (mouth to mouth resuscitation).
Jane Yolen splendidly intertwined fact, fiction, and fairy tale in this story. I did not read the back cover of this book until I had completed it. This story was so well written and descriptive, that one could almost visualize the events. Had I not read the back cover, I wouldn't have realized it was a fiction, but instead a traumatic experience uncovered. I would love to see this story as a movie!
I highly recommend this book to young and older adults!
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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: Uh, Everyone is missing the obvious question
Review: The obvious question to this convoluted tale is why couldn't Gemma just say she'd been in a concentration camp? Why the story? Once the girls were old enough to understand. I mean, they learned about WW II and the Holocaust in school. It wasn't like this was a dark, deep mystery that no one knew about. That was the most ridiculous thing about the book. If Gemma wanted Becca to find "Briar Rose" then couldn't she just ask her? Or perhaps go back to Poland to find Josef herself? Why did she have to give "hints" and make this like a treasure hunt? This part made absolutely no sense to me at all, but I guess Yolen needed to make this somehow mysterious, or eerie. Also, didn't Becca's parents have a clue where Gemma was from? Certainly, they knew she was from Poland or Eastern Europe. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you're Jewish, and you're from Poland, and you arrived in the U.S. following WW II--chances are that you either spent the war hiding, or in a concentration camp! Sorry, but Yolen just stretches the imagination too much, that no one on earth could figure out that Gemma must have gone through some sort of experience, having lived in Europe during the war. And that no one knew anything about her, or could find out anything--hint, public records are available. I am really surprised that none of the reviewers have picked up on this. I'm surprised that Yolen couldn't have found a better ploy to weave this tale with, but the mystery just doesn't work.
Rating:
Summary: Uh, Everyone is missing the obvious question
Review: This isn't a story for the weak of stomach or weak of heart, or those looking for a tidy novelization of a Disney-esque Sleeping Beauty. In Briar Rose, Jane Yolen takes the traditional Sleeping Beauty in the Wood fairy tale and sets it in Poland during the reign of Hitler. Becca, granddaugher of Gemma, is haunted by the Sleeping Beauty story her grandmother told hundreds of times, and even struggled to tell on her deathbed. Gemma's last wish is that Becca will reclaim the castle and find the prince Gemma left behind half a century ago. The search takes Becca on a terrifying journey into a land torn by war, where innocent people are murdered and tortured simply for being Jewish, Romani, or homosexual. Yolen is quite explicit with descriptions of Holocaust atrocities that actually (unbelievably) happened. I read this book in one day and cried when the prince and his companions arrived at the deathcamp of Chelmno. Read this book, and please visit http://www.remember.org to learn more about the 11 million who died in concentration camps, to get an idea of what the places described in the book look like, and to prevent anything as awful as the Holocaust from happening ever again.
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