Watching the Roses

Egerton Hall #2

by Adèle Geras

In this retelling of "Sleeping Beauty," Alice seems destined to lead a princess's life--except for the frightening curse that dreaded Aunt Violette bestowed at her christening: She will die at the age of eighteen. Although she lives, something horrible happens on her eighteenth birthday. And as a result, Alice falls into a trancelike state and refuses to speak to anyone. Will she ever recover?

Genres: Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Romance, Retellings, Teen, Classics

178 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Adèle Geras FRSL (born 15 March 1944) is an English writer for young children, teens and adults. Her husband was the Marxist academic Norman Geras and their daughter Sophie Hannah is also a novelist and poet.

Geras was born in Jerusalem, British Mandatory Palestine. Her father was in the Colonial Service and she had a varied childhood, living in countries such as Nigeria, Cyprus, Tanzania, Gambia and British North Borneo in a short span of time. She attended Roedean School in Brighton and then graduated from St Hilda's College, Oxford with a degree in Modern Languages. She was known for her stage and vocal talents, but decided instead to become a full-time writer.

Geras's first book was Tea at Mrs Manderby's, which was published in 1976. Her first full-length novel was The Girls in the Velvet Frame. She has written more than 95 books for children, young adults, and adults. Her best-known books are Troy (shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal) Ithaka, Happy Ever After (previously published as the Egerton Hall Trilogy), Silent Snow, Secret Snow, and A Thousand Yards of Sea.

Her novels for adults include: Facing the Light, Hester's Story, Made in Heaven, and A Hidden Life.

Geras won two prizes in the United States, one the Sydney Taylor Book Award for the My Grandmother's Stories and the National Jewish Book Award for Golden Windows. She has also won prizes for her poetry and was a joint winner of the Smith Doorstop Poetry Pamphlet Award, offered by the publisher of that name.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. Heavy subject matter for such a short story.

Unlike The Tower Room, this was definitely easy to trace to the fairy tale it was inspired by: Sleeping Beauty. But the imagery was none too subtle.
More engaging than its predecessor, although the plot was ultimately predictable and the journey there was slow and painful. It definitely dragged; I think a more linear structure would've worked much better for this one.
Again, the characters were pretty lifeless and the story flat. I think instalove is going to be a recurring thing with Adèle Geras, but the main character, Alice, seemed more the type for the 'love at first sight' thing - so I guess in this sense Watching the Roses was more plausible.

[Luna's Little Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watching the Roses is book two in Egerton Hall Trilogy. All three books are modern Fairytale retellings of three girls Megan, Bella and Alice.

Alice’s story is based on Sleeping Beauty. The book is very short, narrated by Alice who is locked away in her room writing in secret. The family doctor has diagnosed her listlessness and silence as her being “nervously exhausted”.

Everything hinges on what happened on Alice’s 18th birthday which is slowly unravelled along with her family and friends trying to “wake” Alice.

Watching the Roses is the darkest of the trilogy and works well as a standalone. You don’t need the other two to follow or care about Alice. I liked the book and rescued it from my lost last month so I could re-read it.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A metaphorical Sleeping Beauty tale which has a young lady raped on her eighteenth birthday due to a curse from one of her numerous aunts. Unable to overcome the shock, she lies in her bed day after day almost in a comatose state. The house she lives in is surrounded by roses which her father allows to become overrun since the rape of his daughter. A young man she has been corresponding with, overcomes the rose mess and wins her back to reality. This is a heavy book even though it is very short. It deals with mature matters as the protagonist, Alice, asks herself whether she is the cause of the rape. Elements of the old fairy tale are present, but the book is brilliantly told in first person as journal entries from the “sleeping” girl.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Content warning: sexual assault/harassment

I discovered this book as a 13 year old and fell in love. I'm already a huge fan of fairytale retellings and I think this is one of the best. Other reviewers appear to complain that it's...too on-the-nose Sleeping Beauty? A retelling of Sleeping Beauty is too Sleeping Beauty. Wat?

[Jeba Shikdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was engaging, main character lifeless but I really enjoyed her friendship dynamic with Megan and Bella. I thought recasting the fariea as her supportive, and sophisticated aunts was very charming and clever, especially enjoyed the details of the physical gift symbolizing a hope for a trait.

[Caitlin Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely preferred it to the tower room - not a bad story

[Amna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really makes a lot of sense. Gives of sleeping beauty vibes. The tragedy that happens to Alice gave me an adrenaline rush, i even cried. How could he even dare??

[Meha · Rating 2 out of 5]

So bored I wanted to pull a real life Sleeping Beauty

[Caitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost like a fariytale gone bad. Alice, Bella, and Megan were eaglely awaiting Alices 18th birthday. This birthday was promised to be the most magnificant and beautiful party they have ever been to. Just before this party her nana was telling her of her aunts, one in particular, Dreaded Aunt Violet. All her aunts has given Alice a gift at birth, all were nice except Aunt Violets gift was the worst gift ever. Yet After this party she lay silent, in the tower room as if in a coma. Silent to everone but her diary. She was destined to live a fairy tale until she heard of the curse, Alice was to die on her 18th birthday. this ill-wishing curse look as if it may come true.
What i liked in this book was you were always on your feet woundering what was to happen next. I disliked that it took such a long time just to get to how the ending was. it dragged on for to long.
The mood of this story was to me mysterious yet sad towards the end. The tone was to me i think was wounderious, like keep you on your feet thinking type. The theme was a fairytale gone bad. which to me was pretty cool.
I think anybody who like fairytale or mysterious books would like this book. although this book does have some big words that are hard to understand so you should be a good reader to read this book.

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accidentally read the 2nd book of a series first which I hate doing but it didn't really affect the story for me at all. It is supposed to be some kind of twist on the fairytale Sleeping Beauty. When Alice is born all of her aunts give her gifts, like one aunt wants her to have grace so she gives her a statue of a dancer, and she has like 12 aunts who give her "gifts" and then of course there is one horrible, weird aunt the "dreaded Violette", who shows up and basically curses Alice to never grow old but instead be extinguished like a candle on her 18th birthday. So something horrible happens but the book is following her recovery, she basically lays in her bed all day, not talking to anyone,almost like she is dead and then near the end of the book you find out what the terrible thing is that happened. And things also start to turn around for Alice and her family. (A kiss helps to revive her eh eh sleeping beauty get it?!)

[karenbee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book in the Egerton Hall series, "Watching the Roses," is a LOT darker than "The Tower Room."

This book focuses on a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The story in "Watching the Roses" is sort of cloaked -- I mean, I could figure out what happened about ten pages in, but I imagine it would be a little harder for younger readers, although they'd probably catch on before everything was spelled out, too.

Once again we have love at first sight, but it's a little more believable this time around, as the heroine seems the type to fall for that sort of thing.

I don't know, it was a good book to waste a lazy afternoon on, since it was finished so quickly, but I wish Geras could have been a little more subtle with the fairy tale imagery. It just felt too easy.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watching the Roses explores the essence of fairy tales, sexuality and memories as we experience Alice’s life through her memories leading up to a trauma that changed her life. The reader travels with Alice to the places in the recesses of her mind to experience each thought, touch and fear along with her. Watching the Roses will be a continued favorite to pull off the shelves when you want to take in some elements of the seriousness of life excited with the essential satisfying fairy tale ending we all want.

[Kricket · Rating 3 out of 5]

the 2nd book in the egerton hall series is a retelling of sleeping beauty. geras is creative with the way she makes the story fit a more modern setting (the 1960s). i spent some time congratulating myself on catching the more subtle allusions- although she does occasionally beat the reader over the head with one.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many others who read this book, I was unaware that it was the second book in a series. It can be read as a standalone title though. It's an interesting twist on the Sleeping Beauty story that is definitely worth reading. I may have to start looking around for the rest of the story.

[flajol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern version of a classic fairytale.

[The Fairy Godmother]

Retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the sweetness of this book, I found it very easy to sympthasize with Alice. She was such a delacit soul, and then some idiot ruined her life.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slower, sadder than The Tower Room, but that makes sense, considering it's Sleeping Beauty's story.

[The Fairy Godmother]

Based on Sleeping Beauty.

[Bridgett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A retelling of Sleeping Beauty centered around a girl's trauma from rape.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Alice is raped at her 18th birthday party and goes into a coma-like state of depression.

[Jen T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book a little stale and sometimes boring. The ending was the only part of the book that kept my interest.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really just want to wrap poor Alice in a cotton blanket and keep her away from the big, bad world.