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Verdict: A genuinely brave YA Sleeping Beauty reimagining about depression and the pull of escape, with a dreamscape worth visiting, let down by prose so ornate that close to one reader in five gives up before the end.
Best for: Readers who want lyrical, emotionally heavy fantasy about mental health, who read for mood and metaphor rather than plot, and who can live with a sapphic romance that stays firmly in the background.
Heat level: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5 — glimpses and kisses)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (2.9/5 — a 3.16 Goodreads average, an 18% StoryGraph did-not-finish rate, and trade praise the readers do not echo)
Tropes: Fairy-tale retelling, dream-world portal, cursed princess, sympathetic villain, sisters, dual timeline, multiple POV, thief heroine, grief and escapism, sapphic first love.
The Secret World of Briar Rose is the standalone debut from Cindy Pham, a traditionally published young adult sapphic fantasy from Penguin’s Kokila imprint, set in the ruined kingdom of Gyldan a century after its last princess fell into an enchanted sleep — and built around what happens when Corin, a hardened thief chasing her runaway little sister, walks through a hidden portal into that princess’s dreams and finds a girl who has no intention of waking up.
It arrived on 2 June 2026 with starred reviews from School Library Journal and Booklist, a #1 New York Times bestseller banner on its publisher copy, and an author with more than half a million YouTube subscribers — and it sits at a 3.16 average across roughly 2,450 Goodreads ratings. That gap between the professional reception and the reader one is the whole story here, and both halves are worth understanding before you start.
What Is The Secret World of Briar Rose About?
This is a fairy-tale retelling in the loosest sense and a mental-health novel in the most direct one. Pham says the book grew out of her own experience of depression and suicidal ideation, and the Sleeping Beauty curse is used as an allegory for it: a princess who would rather stay asleep in a world she controls than wake into one that asks too much of her. The publisher puts it at 14 and up; Kirkus says 14 to 18.
Corin is the outsider — eighteen, dark-skinned, poor, living by theft in an occupied land and holding herself together for the sake of her twelve-year-old sister, Elly. Amelia, the princess, is the one who has everything and cannot bear it. In the dream she calls herself Briar Rose. The book moves between Corin’s present and Amelia’s past, with Malicine, the fairy who cursed her, given a history and a point of view of her own. That structure buys its best idea — villain and victim both explained — and costs it most of its momentum.
What Makes This Sapphic Fairy Tale Retelling Work
- The dreamscape: A world shaped by a sleeping girl’s wants is the element even disappointed readers call a great concept. Fans name the ice castles and sunflower mazes.
- The depression story: Readers who connect with the book connect here. The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books credits it with not romanticising mental illness, and several reviewers say it spoke to their own experience.
- Malicine: The fairy villain reimagined as someone with real wounds and a reason for what she did is one of the most consistently praised choices in the book.
- The sisters: Corin and Elly are the emotional core for many readers, more than the romance is — a very character-driven centre of gravity for a fantasy.
- The ending: Positive reviewers repeatedly say the final stretch is where it pulls together.
Book Synopsis
A hundred years after Princess Amelia pricked her finger and slept, Gyldan has nothing left to show for its golden age. The kingdom is poor, occupied and tired of its legends, and Corin has no time for them. She steals what she needs, keeps her head down, and tries to keep Elly fed and out of trouble — which becomes impossible the day Elly disappears into the tunnels beneath the old kingdom, chasing the story of the sleeping princess.
Corin follows her down. What she finds under the ruins is not a tomb but a doorway, and on the other side of it is a world made entirely out of one girl’s dreaming: impossible landscapes, a court that bends to a single will, and a golden-haired girl calling herself Briar Rose who seems happier than anyone Corin has ever met. Somewhere in it is Malicine, the fairy the stories blame, and she is not what they said.
Running alongside Corin’s search is the other half of the tale — Amelia before the curse, a princess watched, promised and managed by everyone around her, counting down to a birthday she has been told she will not survive. The question the book keeps asking is whether waking up is worth it, and it asks both girls at once.
My Review
The idea at the centre of this book is a good one, and it deserves to be said first. Sleeping Beauty as a story about a girl who would rather not wake up is the kind of reading of an old tale that feels obvious only once someone has done it, and Pham commits to it. The book does not treat suicidal ideation as a twist or a shock; it treats it as the weather the characters live in. For a YA fantasy from a major imprint, that is a serious choice.
The second strength is the two women outside the romance. Malicine, the cursing fairy, is given enough history that her choices make sense, and readers who liked the book single her out again and again. Corin and Elly’s relationship carries more feeling than anything else in the novel; the fear of losing a younger sister to the same darkness that took the princess is where the stakes actually live.
Where it struggles is the prose, and this is not one reader’s taste — it is the single most repeated criticism across the low-star reviews on both Goodreads and StoryGraph. Readers call the writing purple and overwrought, with metaphors that obscure rather than clarify. Around that sit the structural complaints: a slow, meandering middle, time jumps and memory sequences that leave readers unsure whose scene they are in, a Corin whom several reviewers find hard to know, and dialogue called stilted. StoryGraph shows an 18% did-not-finish rate — double the 9% I called high on Her Spell That Binds Me last month — and 41% of its readers call the pace slow.
One expectation to reset: this is sold as a queer Sleeping Beauty retelling, and it is only loosely either. Readers who wanted a clever twist on the fairy tale report that very little of the original plot survives beyond the sleeping princess, and readers who came for a sapphic romance find it slight and late. It is a grief-and-depression novel dressed as a fairy tale. If the retelling is what drew you, calibrate; if you wanted something that takes mental health seriously, that is the book’s real subject.
My honest note: An important idea written in a style that will either hold you or lose you inside fifty pages. If ornate prose wears you down, the DNF numbers are a fair warning; if you read for mood and meaning, the ending pays you back.
| Element | In The Secret World of Briar Rose |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Corin & Briar Rose (Princess Amelia) — street thief and dreaming princess, a secondary sapphic romance |
| Core tropes | Fairy-tale retelling, dream-world portal, cursed princess, sympathetic villain, sisters, dual timeline |
| Setting | Gyldan, a fallen, occupied kingdom a century after its princess fell asleep — and the dream world inside her head |
| Heat level | 1/5 — glimpses and kisses |
| Series | Standalone debut — no sequel announced |
| Content notes | Depression, suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt on the page, death and grief, war and violence, child death; minor homophobia, animal death and infertility |
How Spicy Is The Secret World of Briar Rose?
A 1/5, and that is a description rather than a criticism. romance.io does list it — unusually for a YA title — and places it in its lowest steam band, “glimpses and kisses,” from a small pool of 15 ratings. Reader reviews agree: nobody reports anything beyond kissing, and the publisher’s 14-and-up age range fits what is on the page.
The thing worth knowing in advance is not heat but darkness. StoryGraph readers tag suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt as graphic, and the book’s whole emotional engine is depression. If you want sapphic YA fantasy in the same closed-door band with a lighter emotional load, Sweet & Bitter Magic and This Coven Won’t Break sit at the same 1/5.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you read for lyrical, image-heavy prose, you want YA fantasy that treats depression and suicidal ideation honestly, you enjoy dreamlike worlds more than tight plotting, and you like villains with a reason.
You may want to skip it if: dense metaphor and long description wear you out, you need a plot that moves, you came for a faithful fairy-tale retelling or a romance at the centre, or suicide content is something you need to avoid right now.
In short: a serious and heartfelt debut whose style is the price of entry, and plenty of readers decide the price is too high.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
The engine behind this book is not a viral moment, it is an audience. Pham built a following of more than half a million subscribers on her YouTube channel, Read With Cindy, and the Goodreads reviews are full of people who say outright that they came to the novel because they have watched her for years. That audience, a Kokila launch and a run of trade stars put it on the bestseller lists: the publisher lists it as a #1 New York Times bestseller and a USA Today bestseller, and it made the Kids’ Indie Next List for July/August 2026 and our own list of new sapphic books this year. I could not check Reddit or TikTok from here, so I am not claiming a footprint either way. The audiobook came out alongside the print edition on 2 June 2026 from Penguin Random House Audio, narrated by Elena Rey and running 14 hours 35 minutes; the one listener comment I found on it praises the narrator even while panning the book.
Prefer audio? Listen to The Secret World of Briar Rose on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The atmosphere, first — “lyrical,” “lush” and “dreamy” are the recurring words, and the invented dream landscapes get named specifically. Then the handling of depression and suicidal ideation, which positive reviewers describe as honest and personal rather than decorative, and which the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books praises for the same reason. Malicine is the favourite character by some distance. The sister relationship draws the most emotional reactions. Several three- and four-star reviewers say the ending lifted the whole book.
What readers argue about and complain about: The prose, above everything. It is the most common complaint in the low-star reviews by a wide margin: overwritten, metaphor-heavy, repetitive, and in the harshest reviews simply hard to parse. Even fans say it needed trimming. Second: pacing. The book is around 400 pages, the plot is thin for that length, and “slow,” “meandering” and “boring” recur; StoryGraph’s 18% did-not-finish rate is the number that goes with it. Third: structure. Multiple timelines, memory-sharing scenes and shifting points of view leave a steady stream of readers confused about where they are. Beyond that: a flat Corin, stilted dialogue, a romance too fast to feel earned, and little of Sleeping Beauty left. Some say liking her channel set their expectations too high. Opinions divide on the style itself — one reviewer’s poetry is another’s noise.
The most useful finding is what the trade reviews leave out. SLJ and Booklist starred it, Publishers Weekly praised its twist-riddled plot, and Kirkus called it somberly beautiful — and none of the quotes on its retail pages mentions the prose problem dominating the reader reviews. Kirkus comes closest, noting the time jumps and memory scenes demand intense engagement — which is the polite version of what a lot of readers are saying.
The standalone question worth asking first: it is a standalone and it resolves; reviewers describe the ending as hopeful and satisfying, and nothing is left hanging for a sequel. There is no back catalogue yet — this is Pham’s first novel, so her channel is the only place to go for more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Secret World of Briar Rose a sapphic romance?
Partly. There is a romance between Corin and Briar Rose, the dreaming Princess Amelia, but it is a secondary thread in a book about depression, grief and sisterhood, and many readers found it rushed.
How spicy is The Secret World of Briar Rose?
A 1/5. romance.io places it in its lowest band, “glimpses and kisses,” and the publisher rates it for ages 14 and up. There is nothing beyond kissing on the page.
Is The Secret World of Briar Rose a standalone?
Yes. It is Cindy Pham’s standalone debut, it resolves with what reviewers describe as a hopeful ending, and no sequel has been announced.
What content warnings does The Secret World of Briar Rose have?
The major ones are depression, suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt, which StoryGraph readers tag as graphic. Death, grief, war, violence and child death also appear, with minor homophobia, animal death and infertility.
Is there an audiobook of The Secret World of Briar Rose?
Yes. Penguin Random House Audio released it on 2 June 2026, narrated by Elena Rey and running 14 hours 35 minutes.
Is it a faithful Sleeping Beauty retelling?
No. It borrows the sleeping princess, the curse and the fairy, then goes its own way through dream worlds and a second timeline. Readers expecting a close retelling are among the most disappointed.
If You Loved The Secret World of Briar Rose, Read These Next
If it was the Sleeping Beauty material that pulled you in, Malice by Heather Walter retells the same tale from the villain’s side with a sapphic romance at its centre rather than its edge. For another YA sapphic fantasy built around a curse and a girl who cannot feel what she should, Sweet & Bitter Magic is the closest in spirit, and much lighter. And if a princess, an arranged future and a quieter first love are the draw, Of Fire and Stars does it with a cleaner plot.
For more in this register, browse our YA sapphic fantasy reading list, the wider best sapphic fantasy books, or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
The Secret World of Briar Rose is a debut whose heart is bigger than its craft. The dream world is a genuinely inventive setting, the treatment of depression is honest and brave for the age range, and Malicine and the sisters give it an emotional weight that most fairy-tale retellings never reach. It is also overwritten, slow through the middle, and structured in a way that loses a lot of readers before the ending that redeems it. If ornate prose works for you, you get a hopeful, complete story about choosing to wake up. Check The Secret World of Briar Rose on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, The Secret World of Briar Rose ranks as an earnest, critically starred YA sapphic fairy-tale debut — moving on depression and inventive in its dreamscape, weighed down by purple prose and pacing, and best approached for the mental-health story rather than the romance or the retelling.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★☆☆ 2.9/5
- ✓ 3.16 average across 2,450 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Starred by SLJ and Booklist
- ✓ Depression story is its real strength
- ✓ 18% did-not-finish rate on StoryGraph
Romance ★★★☆☆ 2.5/5
- ✓ Corin and Briar Rose, a sapphic first love
- ✓ Some readers find it sweet
- ✓ Opposites pairing of thief and princess
- ✓ Repeatedly called rushed and shoehorned
Characters ★★★☆☆ 3.1/5
- ✓ Malicine is the standout reinvention
- ✓ Sister bond carries the feeling
- ✓ 71% of StoryGraph readers see strong development
- ✓ Corin often described as flat
Writing ★★★☆☆ 2.8/5
- ✓ Lyrical, lush dream imagery
- ✓ Fans call it poetic
- ✓ Kirkus: somberly beautiful
- ✓ Purple prose is the loudest complaint
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ 76% of StoryGraph readers tag it emotional
- ✓ Suicidal ideation handled without romanticising
- ✓ Readers say it spoke to them personally
- ✓ Slow pacing dulls the stakes
Heat Level ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
- ✓ romance.io: glimpses and kisses
- ✓ Publisher age range 14 and up
- ✓ No reader reports anything beyond kissing
- ✓ Darkness, not heat, needs the warning
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Hopeful, complete standalone close
- ✓ Resolves without a sequel hook
- ✓ Several readers say it lifted the book
- ✓ Too many readers never reach it
Re-read Value ★★★☆☆ 2.7/5
- ✓ Dense imagery rewards a slower second read
- ✓ 14h35m audiobook offers another way in
- ✓ Timelines make more sense second time
- ✓ 400 slow pages discourage a return
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