Here are the things girls die of: hunger, disease, accidents, childbirth, and violence. It takes more than heartache to kill a girl. Girls are tough as rocks.

Well, well, well. What do we have here? A not so fairytale retelling? A slant on Cinderella that barely includes its namesake, Cinderella?

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly gets 3/5 stars from me. Inventive, heartbreaking, romantic – it was a joy to read! I’ll be honest, in the beginning this was slightly slow and tricky to immerse myself within. I’m going to put that down to the fact that I had two very BIG and very high-profile YA fantasy books being released imminently when I picked this up…. I think I was just watching my time to make sure I could read them when they came out.

When I actially began to let myself enjoy this I REALLY enjoyed it. The messages within this novel are so much more than meets the eye – Isabelle is a symbol of not only overcoming the pigeon-holing and categorising that society has deemed for you (fitting that this is being posted on International Women’s Day 2020…) but also showing that, it’s okay to dream and want to achieve more for yourself. Books provide me with an escape, as I’m sure they provide most readers with, and that’s why I am consistently picking them up and delving into their pages. But another reason why the underlying themes of this book resonated so deeply with me were because I saw my own desires reflected in Isabelle – desperate to be liked (shamefully), but wanting to also not just conform to that which is expected of me to BE liked and wanted. This story features Fate and Chance as secondary characters and I thought this was a really clever idea to personify elements of the human condition and experience that are fantastical and mystical within themselves. It also helped to assign blame to the right people when it was due.

I would say that this book is more fantasy than historical fiction, and I would used that term extremely liberally. The author has obviously taken what she wants and what she doesn’t from the world she has created to resemble known historical facts on society and nationality within France. Cinderella and her Prince (The King and Queen of France) feature very little within this. That was one of the things I enjoyed most. I loved this alternative telling of the Cinderella story with the frame shifted to focus on the ugly stepsisters, and an offering of redemption for them through highlighting WHY they are so ‘ugly’. It became clear that this ‘ugliness’ was a reflection of their personality, rather than their looks (a theme that is apparent within the Disney and Grimm tales but is often accomponied by physical features that some associate with being unattractive). Because really, who is to say what is and isn’t ugly/pretty?

I highly recommend anyone to read this with an open mind and heart towards the characters and to be willing to view the renowned fairytale from the villian’s POV. It is definitely worth it.

P.s. Anyone else who has read this – did you not want more of Tavi??! She is an ultimate force to be reckoned with. I would read a second installment of this just to get her individual story too.