Stepsister

Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe ... which is now filling with blood. When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant. Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow. Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly - release date May 14, 2019

A few years ago I read/loved the Waterfire Saga from Jennifer Donnelly, so when I saw she wrote a Cinderella inspired tale I was super excited.  Since the Waterfire books were so good, I had really high expectations for this novel, and they met them!!

I know there’s a bunch of “what happened to the step sisters after Cinderella” stories, but this one really stood out to me for the strong female lead and two characters you don’t usually see: Fate and Chance, personified.  The three Fates from Greek mythology are in the very beginning, but only the crone is present throughout. The Fates create maps for each mortal, and Chance (I’m assuming he’s some kind of god and that his power/dominion is chance) steals Isabelle’s map in an attempt to help her change her fate.  They both end up moving to her town and I loved how they were actual real characters in the story who could actually interfere and manipulate the storyline, because that is not something you see very often. Isabelle was an amazing female lead, with all her struggles in wanting to be “pretty” in order to please the rest of the world who turns their backs on her for not enjoying things like fancy dresses and being obedient to boring lords etc.  She and Octavia (Tavi) are branded the “ugly step sisters” and they’ll be damned if they let the world define them before they define themselves. Another thing I liked about this was that while Ella was portrayed as beautiful and good and all you expect, you get to see a different side of her which makes you appreciate this tale of sisterhood even more. I also appreciated that even the side characters, like Hugo and Felix (the love interest!), got their own arcs too and we could see them developing and changing over the course of the story.

I really liked the format of the chapters being really short and the chapter breaks being in the middle of the page.  It made me feel like I was flying through the book; I went through it so fast.

I liked how the fairy godmother in this version was a cool fox fairy queen.  The Felix/Isabelle romance was also really good. I also loved the idea of the Fates creating maps for everyone.  Don’t really have any specific dislikes.

I’d give this 4.5 stars.  Anyone who loves fairy tale retellings should check this one out! The strong feminist message is really moving. Took me 5 days to read.

-Taylor

Reviewed on March 24, 2019