'Sleeping Beauty Act I' with story and art by Karina is a graphic novel that links the sleeping beauty story in more than one way.

Oxana, a dancer from the end of the 19th century, is a brilliant dancer. While dancing the Sleeping Beauty ballet, she is cursed to sleep by a spurned admirer and when she awakens, it's the present day. She somehow knows that she needs to complete the dance and with the help of some talented students, she just might.

The curse, in this volume, only seems to bring this fish out of water to our world, and without it, I lost interest in the story. It may be a more interesting story arc overall, but I found it dull. I did like Karina's manga style art.

This was just ok. It was a Sleeping Beauty retelling, the artwork was medium at best, and the story was such meh. There are better retellings out there.

Something of a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that abandons the premise early on to tell a story about the Sleeping Beauty trying to get into ballet school. Weak manga influenced art.

I really enjoyed this book. The artwork was gorgeous, it was definitely an interesting read and take on Sleeping Beauty. I loved it.

This was a nice manga style production of the classic Sleeping Beauty story. I enjoyed the story very much.

Time travelling story. This comic was really good. Hahaha. Still a sucker for graphic novels and manga. And this one is one of my first read comics. I really did quite enjoyed it!!!

A beautifully illustrated re-telling of Sleeping Beauty in which "Aurora" is actually Oxana, a ballet dancer who is cursed during the premiere of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet. She falls into a deep sleep and wakes up 100 years later (without the icky non-consensual kiss) with no memories of her life at an arts school where she is befriended by Aria, a pianist, and Leonide, another ballet dancer.
There is also a mysterious man, dressed in white, who is rumored to be a jwel thief. He is the one who gives Oxana a strange necklace that glows each time she dances.

I admit that I left for this reticent book after reading some less positive reviews.
But I had a surprise. What I thought was a simple story proved to be a mixture of mystery and romance. Only pity, it's so small.
I look forward to Act II!

Oh, my heart! How I wanted to fall head over heels into the world of a ballet inspired retelling of Sleeping Beauty. And I did for the most part. Oxana, the main character of this graphic novel, has a curse laid over her and she falls into a slumber lasting 100 years,,,,,blah blah blah... You know the drill. So she wakes up, no memory of her life before and begins this life as a ballet dancer. That's cool. But what about the curse?! The story about her becoming a dancer again and regaining her memories and the friendships she finds is WONDERFUL, but we hear almost nothing about this curse. That frustrated me. But, that's a personal preference, not an end all, be all. The art was very interesting as well. I enjoyed the color scheme, it was a darker and more sinister type of scheme. I enjoyed being able to explore a side of the story that I'd not thought of, or heard of. Karina's use of ballet and music, along with the visual art, created a story that was read quickly and easily. 4/5 stars!

I thought this was so cute! Thank you Netgalley for the arc. I liked the art and the outfit she was wearing.

With nice and colorful art, we have a new turn on the Sleeping Beauty, now we have Aurora be a dancer, that for some evil doins ends up sleeping for years and years until a vigilante ends up in her tower.

The story is cute, with lots of mystery of who the white masked man is, who is the one that had bewitched our dear protagonist to sleep forever more.

Ohhhh anime ballerinas.
The artwork is adorable but the story is a bit clunky. It takes a while to get into the flow of the story. 3.5 stars.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I feel like the ending was too incomplete. I really wished the story was a bit more resolved in this first volume, as I don't like when I'm kind of being pressured into picking up the second volume. The story was alright, but I really wished it had been more of a sleeping beauty retelling. The artwork was pretty, though.

I loved the art in this manga styled Sleeping Beauty. It was very pretty and if there is one thing I like is pretty manga. As for the story, I liked this retelling of the classic fairy tale. It was cute and mysterious. I would love to read the next volumes to see how it ends.

A comic that will definitely appeal to girls with a fancy for dancing and the ballet. Way back when, a young girl was given the premiere of Sleeping Beauty, only for a nasty type dancing opposite her to curse her to centuries' sleep, just like her character. When she is woken up it's at the urging of a Man in White, who seems to be funding his mysterious lifestyle by thieving things from the dance academy leaders. But is he only stealing things back – after all, the dark-haired criminal of the past was light-fingered? Anyway, in the modern day our heroine is awake, and befriended by two bezzies who want her to study there. Which is all well and good, but nobody can tell what convoluted mess she'll end up in…

And neither can the readers, really, for this is clearly a small part of a much bigger series – if this is wrapped up in a trilogy I'd be surprised. All the modern characters are descendants of the people behind her slumbers, for a start, and there's a sort of magical necklace charging itself on her slowly returning memories… The fantasy of it, and the Mitteleuropean setting and glamour is all good. What clearly wasn't was the manga trappings – why something this potentially classy has to be childish with sound effects and show characters as about five years old when presenting their more emotive states, I'll never know. Still, even if this clearly isn't targeted at the likes of me I wouldn't be averse to finding out what the full story is. Three and a half stars.

I was sent this book by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this version of Sleeping Beauty, it was different and unexpected. The art work is beautiful and I found myself just stopping to look at some of the images. The plot kept me guessing as to what was going on, why things were happening and how everything fit together.

The only part I did not like was that it ended on a cliffhanger! I wanted more! I was left with so many questions and now I will have to wait to see what happened.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves graphic novels and the story of Sleeping Beauty, but with a twist!

"Sleeping Beauty" is a very sweet and beautiful illustrated Graphic Novel adding a new aspect to the well-known story of Sleeping Beauty. The illustration are gorgeous and vivid. You are consumed into the story and everything becomes alive on the page. Every character is individually illustrated, so it is very easy to recognize them. They have a Manga-esque feeling and their emotions are transported very well via gestures and mimique. The story is interesting and the cliffhanger at the end really gets you excited for the next volume. The setting feels like an American Highschool setting with all the drama and all the feels. It is really sweet and you definitely see the love trinagle and conflict coming.I really enjoyed reading "Sleeping Beauty". It's a short Graphic Novel to consume and to dream. I'd definitely recommend it, especially for fans of Anastasia!

1.5 stars.

It was a quick read but the story is too fast paced with barely any details and moreover too unrealistic even for a fiction. There's barely any time for emotions to sink in even, it quickly just jumps to the next scene. This is more like a children's comic rather than general fiction (adult). The art is nice during important scenes but most of the time it looks rushed with barely any details.

Absolutely stunning. I love the artwork in this and Karina tells a compelling story, the perfect blend of magic and mystery. I love the way that ballet and the original story of Sleeping Beauty are used in the story too. The only problem is that I want to know more about what happened and want the next installment immediately!

I wanted to like this. I really enjoyed the ballet elements and dance scenes in here, and the simplistic beauty of the artwork was perfect for that.But the storyline?? It's pretty much non-existent and is literally summed up in the blurb.

Oxana (wtf kind of name is that anyways?) and all the other characters are nothing more than pretty drawings who talk. There is really no depth to this story and honestly no ode to the original fairy tale except that there is the ballet 'Sleeping Beauty' and Oxana is apparently cursed to sleep for a hundred years. But there is no kiss that awakens her, she maybe has half a page of a confused reaction to the modern world she finds herself in, and the "mystery" of the story is all confusing and not at all intriguing.

So while the artwork is pretty, this ultimately feels more like a quick Tumblr sketch idea instead of an actual graphic novel story. The author has artistic talent but I think they should focus on developing their storytelling, too.