Creeping Beauty

From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Misfit comes a subversive and feminist take on Sleeping Beauty, sure to appeal to fans of Damsel and To Kill a Kingdom. The dark and deadly world of Heartless meets the empowering twist of Cruel Beauty in this thrilling, unpredictable, multigenre retelling of one of the most beloved fairy tales: where instead of falling asleep to await her prince, this sleeping beauty finally wakes up.Bitsy is no one’s ideal princess.She’s heard it all: that it’s a shame she’s so plain, so lacking in grace. That the best thing for her to do is simply wait (and wait some more) and hope some prince will grant her a happy ending.Then Bitsy pricks her finger on a spindle and falls down, down, down.Into a world where cutthroats and con artists are more common than curtsies. Where no one ages and everyone is beautiful. Where an inscrutable evil rests at its core.A land where Bitsy’s fate and her future are solely in her own hands—and neither are what she expects.In a kingdom built on dark secrets and dangerous beauty, what does it take to survive?A Dark Fantasy Retelling: This isn't your mother's fairy tale. When Princess Bitsy pricks her finger, she isn't cursed to sleep—she's plunged into a brutal reality where survival is the only happy ending.Portal to Another World: Forget enchanted castles. Discover a treacherous land of eternal youth, where a mysterious elixir holds the kingdom captive and being anything less than beautiful is a death sentence.Strong Female Protagonist: Told she was too plain and quiet to be a proper princess, Bitsy must find a strength she never knew she possessed to navigate a world of assassins, schemes, and a terrible secret at its core.Found Family: To make it out alive, Bitsy must learn who to trust among a band of hardened warriors and a cynical con man, forging alliances where she once only saw enemies.