Karina

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
A modern take on the classic tale, Sleeping Beauty, beginnings during the turn of the 19th century before Oxana, a young ballet dancer playing the part of Princess Aurora, is put to sleep only to be woken a 100 years later by the mysterious Man in White. Who makes her promise that she will perform the part of Aurora once more.
She wakes to a world filled with so much that she does not know, and all she can remember is her name and that she had been a dancer. Luckily Oxana is found in the unused tower of an academy where she has slept by Leonid and Aria, two students that take her under their wing taking care of her, offering a place to stay, and helping her to become a dancer once more. While also trying to help her regain her memories.

I really enjoyed reading this and thought it was a very interesting take on sleeping beauty that I have never seen before. I would have liked to have seen more about the curse, as only the first 7 pages show glimpses of Oxana's life before the curse and why the curse was cast. But I think that there might be more about the curse in later acts.
I thought that the artwork was pretty nice and smooth, it worked well for the story and I really liked the colour palette that was used. The style did remind me of 90s/early 00s anime and manga, as the hair and faces reminded me a little of shojo anime and manga characters from these decades. I also think that this book is aimed more towards younger readers, probably preteens and teens. That isn't of course to say that older readers can't enjoy this as well.
Overall, I felt that this was a strong and intriguing start to a series that I think has potential be very interesting.… (meer)

A clumsy but earnest updating of the Sleeping Beauty legend. Ballerina Oxana Ravenel is cursed during the premiere performance of the ballet premiere of The Sleeping Beauty in the 1890s. She awakens a hundred years later thanks to a mysterious "Man in White." Instead of investigating or reeling from these events, she finds some friends and auditions for the ballet school that is now part of the theater where she was once the lead dancer and where she dozed for the last century in an apparently unnoticed tower bedroom. Yup.

It's a French graphic novel but has a definite manga feel to it.

I have the second volume on hand, so I'll go ahead and read it because it is short, not because I really care what happens next.… (meer)