Briar Rose

This book was a difficult read, not because of the writing, but because of the content. It is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale set during the Holocaust. It reminds us that gypsies and gay men were among other smaller populations that were also exterminated in the camps. Any book or visual media that deals with the Holocaust really saddens me and makes me angry. It also made me angry that I found so many reviews on Goodreads that condemned the book because of homosexual content and an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Wake up people! Over two hundred fifty thousand gay men died in the concentration camps. Their stories need to be told. And there are some people that have sex (gasp!) outside of marriage. Despite the sexuality references, there was no explicit sex in this book. In fact, I found it very appropriate for teens. Despite its short length, I thought it was really well done. It was nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards and won the Mythopoeic Award back in the early '90s.

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