The Unsleeping Witch

About This Audiobook

Forget the passive princess—this *Sleeping Beauty* retelling hands the magic to a gingerbread witch-in-training whose spells are as messy as her heart is huge. Alexandra Overy flips the fairy tale into a riot of baked-ginger snark, where curses aren’t just broken but *weaponized*, and the real villain might be Maud’s own lack of impulse control. Billie Fulford-Brown’s narration is a masterclass in balancing manic energy with emotional depth, her voice cracking with teenage frustration one moment and dripping with witchy menace the next. This isn’t just an adaptation; it’s a full-throated rebellion against ‘damsel’ tropes, packed with food magic, cursed forests that *talk back*, and a protagonist whose body is literally held together by icing and stubbornness.

The audiobook’s brilliance lies in its *texture*—Fulford-Brown leans into Maud’s crumbly, sugary physicality with ASMR-worthy descriptions of frosting repairs and cinnamon-scented spells, while the sound design subtly layers in creaking forests and the *sizzle* of magic gone wrong. It’s a rare middle-grade listen that trusts young audiences with moral gray areas (Maud’s ‘heroism’ often involves property damage) and a narrative voice that’s equal parts *Monty Python* absurdity and *Howl’s Moving Castle* whimsy. Perfect for listeners who’ve outgrown sanitized fairy tales but aren’t ready for YA cynicism—this is the audiobook equivalent of a cake left in the oven too long: deliciously uneven, with a crispy, unpredictable edge.