Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell

 The beautiful Briar Rose pricks her finger on spindle and falls into a deep sleep.  A brave prince battles a dragon to save her.  He leans over, kisses her and they all live happily ever after, right?  What if Prince Philip's kiss had not worked.  What if Briar Rose and the rest of the castle were locked in a terrible dream world where Maleficent is the queen, Aurora is her ward, and there never were three good fairies. 

That is the premise of this edition of Disney's Twisted Tales books.  Like the Aladdin book I read earlier, this story is squarely YA, and rather dark.  Aurora is totally messed up psychologically as she has fragmented memories of her real life and the fictional life in her dream world. In addition to the emotional elements, there is also a pretty high body count complete with moderately graphic descriptions of ritualistic sacrifice. Though it was a little hard for me to get through, (edgy isn't really my thing) I could see a certain type of teen loving it because it addresses some real issues with the original story. I mean, really, wouldn't a girl get a little twisted and traumatized having been raised the way Aurora was? (2016, 448 p)