Fun fact: Sleeping Beauty was known as "Briar Rose" in the collected fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Briar Rose just so happens to be Gemma's signature fairy tale in this novel. Except her version has a twist: everyone in her kingdom falls asleep, and no one ever wakes up. (Because Gemma is the most goth grandma of all time.)
Gemma thinks of herself as the princess in the tale, because only she survived the "curse"—genocide—that was laid upon her "kingdom," which was the extermination camp where she was held.
Jeepers. Just imagine the horrors that could lie behind Snow White or Pinocchio.