The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham (June 2, 2026) follows Corin, a thief searching for her missing sister, and Amelia, a princess who’s been asleep for 100 years. Corin stumbles her way into Amelia’s subconscious, where she reunites with her sister, and they proceed to travel through Amelia’s dreams and meet demons, alter-egos, and explore all kinds of dreamed-up expanses while they try to escape back to the real world.
I’ve been a casual fan of Cindy’s videos on Youtube for quite a few years now, and when she announced that she was going to be publishing a queer Sleeping Beauty retelling, I was super excited. I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC, and on a recent train trip, I decided to carve out some time to sit down and enjoy it.
Unfortunately for me, it was a really disappointing read. I read most of the first half on that train ride, and I kept on falling asleep. A few pages here and there, and then I would doze off. Normally I would chalk this up to just being tired and good at falling asleep while traveling, but then I was reading it at home when I was rested, and I had to try so hard to stay conscious, which is abnormal because I don’t nap! Was I the real sleeping beauty all along?
The worldbuilding was confusing and wasn’t fleshed out nearly enough for me to understand what was going on in either the dreams or the real world Corin was coming from, and especially in regards to the geopolitics and technology. I don’t know if I was ever entirely sure where or when something was taking place, which is definitely because so much of the book is set in literal dreams and isn’t tied down to the laws of reality or location. And as for the characters, I didn’t feel like I had any reason to care about them. There was a lot of telling backstories rather than showing, so I didn’t really click with any of the feelings the characters were apparently experiencing, and it all felt extremely flat.
The writing itself was very flowery and dreamlike, which makes sense: so much of this book takes place in dreams! The prose is probably the strongest part of the novel, especially if you’re somebody who enjoys dream sequences in books, because it felt very light and airy. I’m not one of those people though, so most of the one good thing was lost on me.
It’s never nice to go into an anticipated read and be let down. There are definitely people out there who will like this book, because the writing itself was well-done, and for the themes of grief and depression that I’m sure many readers will appreciate. It just wasn’t something I connected to in a way that could overcome the shortfalls in the characters and plot.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for the eARC in exchange for review!
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