Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo is a novel that can be packed into a single word that is a viable review. The writing is simply elegant. The research is impeccable, the insight into Sleeping Beauty the fairy tale is insightful and important. Just the simple fact that in the most important versions Sleeping Beauty is not awakened by true love’s kiss, or saved by a Prince. The curse ended. She woke up.
How Pelayo winds all of this into the life of a grieving daughter, living in a clearly haunted house and trying to write about grief is the atristry. This novel is a slow burn. The first parts are beautiful and enticing, but once the action begins things progress at nearly breakneck speed, while losing none of the beauty of the prose.
This is a wonderful novel and I look forward to further stories by this author.