Sleep Like Death

• Author: Kalynn Bayron
• Genre: YA Fantasy
• Publication Date: June 25, 2024
• Publisher: Bloomsbury YA

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: grief, violence, death, gore, mention of death of a child, murder, mention of torture, suicide

New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation Kalynn Bayron returns to fairytales with a lush, thrilling and original YA Snow White retelling that brings a new and exciting voice to this familiar tale. Perfect for fans of Cinderella Is Dead.

Only the truly desperate – and foolish – seek out the Knight, an ancient monster who twists wishes into curses. Eve knows this first-hand: one of her mothers was cursed by the Knight and trapped in the body of a songbird. With the unique abilities to communicate with animals and conjure weapons from nature, Eve has trained all her life to defeat him.

With more and more villagers harmed by the Knight’s corrupt deals, Eve believes she’s finally ready to face him. But when Queen Regina begins acting strangely – talking to seemingly no one, isolating herself, and lashing out at the slightest provocation – Eve must question if her powers are enough to save her family and her kingdom.

I’ve kept my eye on Kalynn Bayron since reading her debut, Cinderella is Dead, and her writing has only gotten better and better. So, my expectations were naturally high for this book. And returning to her writing roots, she took on a neglected fairy tale for this book—Snow White, although there are hints of other fairy tales woven into the story.

To start with, Bayron’s writing is incredible. Her stories are always written in a straightforward manner, although she includes vivid descriptions and makes it easy to immerse myself in the story. The book takes place in winter, and despite it being almost 90° where I live, I was nearly ready to wrap myself in a blanket and make some tea. I loved reading every page, and this is the kind of book that I couldn’t put down and walk away from.

Eve is the main character, and the only POV character in the story. We see everything filtered through the eyes of this teenager, who is nearly seventeen, and she has been training for her entire life to remove the threat of the Knight from their kingdom. She’s confident in her abilities, both physical and magical, but she borders on arrogant at times. I liked that she’s a flawed character—she makes decisions without thinking the consequences through, which is natural for a teenager; she has a short temper, but she’s able to leash it when needed; and she often speaks without thinking, making her seem insensitive to others. But it’s clear that she has a good heart, even if she’s typically so fixated on vengeance that she can’t always see what’s in front of her.

I couldn’t help but feel confused about the Knight and the nature of the deals that were made with him. Every single deal that was made seemed to go badly in the most cruel of ways, and there wasn’t even one deal that was made that didn’t end in misery. If this was the case, I didn’t understand why even the most desperate of people would go to him to make a deal, knowing that it wouldn’t end in the way they were hoping for. If there were a few deals that went well, I could understand this more, since some people would hope that they’d wind up happy, but even getting what you hoped for ended in cruel and torturous ways, negating the value of the deal. 

However, this story completely subverts the traditional Snow White story, which involves tension between Snow White and her “evil” stepmother—there’s the presence of the evil other woman, who views Snow White as a rival and not a daughter figure—yet in this book, that isn’t the case at all. I can’t say much more about this because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but don’t expect to see the Snow White story that you’ve heard since childhood. This one gives agency to the women in the story, but especially Snow White, who isn’t a damsel in distress, but a strong, confident, and able young woman who is in a bad situation and needs to learn how to let people help her. So basically she’s the anti-Snow White, although there is still a romance subplot in the story.

I was a little surprised by the romance aspect in the story, mainly because there was a lot going on in the story, and the pairing is different than what I’ve seen in Bayron’s other books. She still has queer representation in the story, and the world is a queer-centric one, where same sex relationships are common and viewed just like heterosexual relationships. 

Overall, this was one of the best fairy tale retellings that I’ve read in a long time, although I would have liked to see the Knight at least make one or two successful and happy deals to understand why people would still consider making deals with him. Without that, it didn’t fully make sense to me. But aside from this one snag, the story was written beautifully and tightly plotted. If you like fairy tale retellings with empowered women, queer-centric worlds, and subverted retellings, this is hands down the book for you!

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