Creeping Beauty (ANZ)

From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Misfit comes a subversive and feminist take on Sleeping Beauty, sure to appeal to fans of Damsel and To Kill a Kingdom. 

The dark and deadly world of Heartless meets the empowering twist of Cruel Beauty in this thrilling, unpredictable, multigenre retelling of one of the most beloved fairy tales: where instead of falling asleep to await her prince, this sleeping beauty finally wakes up.

Bitsy is no one’s ideal princess.

She’s heard it all: that it’s a shame she’s so plain, so lacking in grace. That the best thing for her to do is simply wait (and wait some more) and hope some prince will grant her a happy ending.

Then Bitsy pricks her finger on a spindle and falls down, down, down.

Into a world where cutthroats and con artists are more common than curtsies. Where no one ages and everyone is beautiful. Where an inscrutable evil rests at its core.

A land where Bitsy’s fate and her future are solely in her own hands—and neither are what she expects.

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"Andrea Portes writes with the tip of a knife, shape-shifting between characters and laying bare their darkest secrets." - Dylan Landis, Normal People Don't Live Like This

"Anika’s droll voice shines, and her emotions are palpable. After a heartbreaking tragedy, Anika’s ending . . . will leave readers cheering." - School Library Journal

"Fifteen-year-old Anika Dragomir throws her arms around us and draws us in from the very beginning… Droll, intimate, often laugh-out-loud funny narration carries the reader through more than 300 pages... Anika’s winning voice may just be the star of Portes’s first young adult novel." - New York Times Book Review

"Anika Dragomir is the funniest, snarkiest, most insightful misfit a reader could ever hope to meet. I laughed my way through Anatomy of a Misfit right up until the very end, when the book broke my heart into a million pieces. This is a beautiful, brave and powerful novel." - Melissa Kantor, author of Maybe One Day and The Breakup Bible

 “Portes writes with such cool grace we almost forget to be astonished by her narrative’s complexity.” - Matthew Specktor, American Dream Machine

"Portes’s short chapters and staccato narration make for a quick and compulsive read." - Publishers Weekly

"Quick, light, and fun. Bitsy is a character readers will root for." - School Library Journal

Praise for Andrea Portes:

“[Portes] tempers gruesome scenes with Daffodil’s likable and chatty personality, and creates a memorable novel reminiscent of John Bellairs stories.” - Publishers Weekly

“The chills here are on par with The Shining. Readers [will] know to be very, very afraid.” - Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“For all that the title claims, something spooky is happening in this house. This is a horror book that pokes fun at itself and the genre, managing to be both spooky and funny…[with] an interesting twist at the end.” - School Library Journal

Praise for ANATOMY OF A MISFIT:

?“It’s rare that a book can be as funny and absolutely delightful as it is moving and thought provoking, and Anatomy of a Misfit is both.” - Lauren Oliver, author of Before I Fall

"A self-deprecating and highly memorable heroine whose bawdy, laceratingly funny narration makes her instantly endearing while also revealing her flaws, uncertainties, and ethical quandaries." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A romance filled with seriously funny dark humor and tragedy.” - Kirkus Reviews