Cinderella Is Dead

Product Information

Animal death, Arranged marriages, Corpse description, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical assault, Selling people and Sexual assault (nonconsensual kissing)

Filled with (gay!) romance, adventure, and mystery, CINDERELLA IS DEAD recasts the fairy tale as something more horrific than the Disney dream--and shouts aloud for young women to stand up for their rights and their happiness.” - Alex Schaffner, Brookline Booksmith

Sophia's and Erin's relationship is forbidden under Lille's law, since both of them are supposed to be dutiful wives to whichever man selects them at the royal ball. The main character, Sophia, wants to live with and marry her childhood best friend, Erin. For Sophia and Erin to live like this, they will need to escape Mersailles. Sophia is sure that this is what she wants, but Erin is not sure she wants to escape. Instead, Sophia is befriended by Constance (a descendant of the stepsisters in the original story). Constance recounts the history of Cinderella from her perspective—one that is very different from how the fairy tale is usually told. Sophia and Constance join forces to visit the fairy godmother and to confront the King Manford, hoping to change these patriarchal laws for good. I don’t think I can put into words how incredible, important and damn brilliant this book was and that ending had me a little teary-eyed because I was just like “YES”! You will know what I mean if you decide to read the book. I’ll just try to make this review as non-waffly as I can!

Within the kingdom, all young ladies of a certain age are required to attend the King's Annual Ball, where they are paraded around in the hopes of being selected to be a man's wife. They are given a limited number of chances. If not selected, it's sort of unclear what becomes of them, but many forfeited girls are never heard from again. After witnessing the King's cruelty, and the citizens impotence in the face of such evil, Sophia can't stand it anymore. She makes up her mind that she needs to get away. Feeling she has no other option, refusing to bow to these ridiculous traditions, Sophia runs.No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The seamstress helps Sophia get away after she escapes from the royal ball. King Manford finds out about her involvement later on and has her publicly executed as a warning to any would-be rebels and dissenters. The villain had zero motivation beyond he did it because he could. And okay, maybe that’s realistic, but I wanted more from him. He was very two-dimensional overall.