The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham * * * * *
This is a difficult book to review, because I do not think I can say that I enjoyed it in the usual sense. It was not an easy or comforting reading experience. It was painful at times, and it felt messy in places, but it also touched something very real in me.
At its heart, this is a book about depression, escape, grief, suicide, and the terrifying work of choosing to exist in the real world when the real world feels unbearable. That is why it affected me so much. Depression is something I have dealt with for much of my life, and the desire to escape is something I understand very deeply. For me, escape has often meant books, travel, and anything that could make ordinary life feel less heavy for a while.
That is also one of the central ideas of this book. In the dream world, real life stops. You do not age. You do not move forward. Nothing changes outside the dream. And that image felt painfully accurate to me, because sometimes escape can feel like survival, but it can also leave your real life suspended. You may be somewhere beautiful in your mind, somewhere softer and more magical, but the life you are trying to avoid is still waiting for you.
The story follows two girls whose lives take place around a hundred years apart. The first main timeline belongs to Corin, who lives in Gildan, a country torn apart by war. Her parents are dead, her little sister is missing, and she is trying to survive in a world that has taken almost everything from her. Corin eventually comes across the sleeping princess and enters her dreamscape.
The second main timeline belongs to Amelia, also known as Briar Rose, and through her story we slowly learn what happened before she fell asleep. This is where the Sleeping Beauty element comes in, but this is not a simple or traditional fairy tale retelling. If someone goes into this expecting a straightforward fantasy adventure or a romantic Sleeping Beauty story, I think they may be disappointed. This is stranger, darker, and more emotionally tangled than that.
Corin is a character shaped by loss. I would not call her damaged, because that word feels too harsh and too fixed, but she is deeply wounded. She struggles with depression, and we also see that depression has affected multiple generations of her family. At the same time, her pain is not presented as something that exists only because of war or trauma. The book makes space for the idea that depression can exist even when life looks fine from the outside. Circumstances can make it worse, but they are not always the cause. That felt important.
Briar Rose, or Amelia, has a different role in the story. Her journey is about finding the courage to live outside the dream. She has to face the real world, not the soft, strange, controlled world of sleep. Her story asks what it means to stop hiding, to step into a life that may hurt you, and still believe that happiness is possible there.
Then there is Malicine, who uses they and them pronouns. They are a demon, but the book does not treat that as a simple sign of evil. They are not purely good or purely bad. They are a living being with their own pain, betrayals, and desires. Through them, the book questions the idea that appearance determines morality. Looking monstrous does not make someone evil. Looking beautiful does not make someone good.
That contrast is also clear in Prince Ezran. He is blond and beautiful, and in a more traditional fairy tale, that might be enough to mark him as heroic. Here, it means nothing. His beauty does not make him kind. His charm does not make him safe. He wants what he wants, especially from women, regardless of what they want. His role in the story is fairly predictable, but I do think it works thematically, because the book is very interested in the difference between surface and truth.
The book itself is a bit jumbled. There are several timelines, two major ones and a few smaller ones, and the structure can feel all over the place. Sometimes that makes the story harder to follow. Sometimes it also feels appropriate, because this is a book about dreams, depression, memory, and escape. Those things are not neat. They do not always unfold in a clean, tidy line.
I think that is also why this will not be a book for everyone. Some readers may find it too messy. Some may want more fantasy adventure, more romance, or a clearer Sleeping Beauty retelling. But I think the people who need to understand this book will understand it.
For me, reading it felt like holding a mirror up to depression. It is not a joyful book. It is not the kind of book that makes you feel light. But it can offer hope, if you still have enough hope in you to reach for it. It suggests that escape can keep you alive for a while, but it cannot replace living. It also suggests that in the darkest moments, there may still be people who stand beside you, people who help you take the next step when you cannot see the road yourself.
I would recommend The Secret World of Briar Rose to readers who like darker, more emotional fairy tale retellings, especially stories about grief, depression, escapism, and finding the courage to live. I would not recommend it to someone looking for a simple fantasy or a comforting Sleeping Beauty retelling.
This is a messy book, but depression is messy. Dreams are messy. Survival is messy. And sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is wake up and choose the world again.
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