A lot of stories are retellings without disclosure. This one discloses, and makes the story part of the driver. It's hard for me to give a derivative story more than 3 stars, and I'm not tempted here. It's a nice story--really, it is--and protagonist Zinnia is satisfyingly complex. She is dark and fatalistic but not depressed. She seems to be wringing what life she can out of a flawed body, just lamenting that it's not enough. Harrow also gives us a good indication of how much emotional energy very ill/terminal children can spend taking care of their parents and others ostensibly taking care of them. Again without dwelling on it.
The erstwhile Sleeping Beauty (Princess Primrose) is well done also, imbued with a steel backbone. Harrow generalizes--this applies to princesses everywhere that are trapped by their circumstances.So it's a good book. Glad I read it. Full disclosure, I am not a teen girl so I did not connect with it, and that may be why it left me in the end unmoved. It will move others.
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