Yeah, I much prefer this version of Rapunzel/Sleeping Beauty/Grimmesque fairytale.

Half the world had died of the plague and made less impact on her than a few moments of conversation.
Toadling's years of solitude triggered a memory of my two years spent in much the same as the rest of the world recently - lockdown, isolation, quarantines, hybrid this and hybrid that. At the tailend of the pandemic I wondered what it would feel like to be that alone again or that isolated. The first chapter hooked me. The way Toadling felt speaking to someone for the first time in maybe hundreds of year left something raw in the periphery of my mind. Poor little Toadling.

The bait 'n switch was so well done. A story like this, it's only natural to seek out the pretty princess. The Sleeper was a welcome subversion of the fairytale.

Plot/Storyline: -1   Bravo for making me not shudder at the thought of toadflesh, toadslime...just general toadiness.  However, "she though she might cry" became like an annoying catchphrase stuck on repeat.
Characters:   I thoroughly enjoyed that entire exchange between Halim and Toadling in the opening chapters. The Greenteeth, Elder and Duckwit were sweet in an Oh My God that's gross kind of way
Favorite scene: “I brought things to break curses,” He gestured toward the mule. “There’s moly and salt and rowan and rue and candles, and a knife that my mother’s imam said duas over and also I had it blessed by the Benedictine monk who ran the library, so between the two of them, it ought to be quite holy by now. I couldn’t find a rabbi. Well, I did, but he wanted to come along because he’d never met a fairy, and I thought you wouldn’t like that.” (Halim on curse-breaking)
Favorite Concept: The Changeling and the surviving human baby. The timewarp between the mortal world and the faerie world. Oh, yest and Greenteeth and so much more
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Fantasy books