Jennifer Donnelly

A startling, fiercely feminist re-imagining of Cinderella from the bestselling, award-winning author Jennifer Donnelly.

Stepsister

'In an ancient city by the sea, three sisters - a maiden, a mother, and a crone - are drawing maps by candlelight. Sombre, with piercing grey eyes, they are the three Fates, and every map is a human life . . .' Stepsister takes up where Cinderella's tale ends. We meet Isabelle, the younger of Cinderella's two stepsisters. Ella is considered beautiful; stepsister Isabelle is not. Isabelle is fearless, brave, and strong-willed. She fences better than any boy, and takes her stallion over jumps that grown men fear to attempt. It doesn't matter, though; these qualities are not valued in a girl. Others have determined what is beautiful, and Isabelle does not fit their definition. Isabelle must face down the demons that drove her cruel treatment of Ella, challenge her own fate and maybe even redefine the very notion of beauty . . . Cinderella is about a girl who was bullied; Stepsister is about the bully. We all root for the victims, we want to see them triumph. But what about the bullies? Is there hope for them? Can a mean girl change? Can she find her own happily ever after?

Chiara Tallir

Aisha Sandyck

Anna 

Bohužel na tom nejsem úplně nejlépe, a knížku jsem četla asi 3 měsíce, takže mi většina děje a důležitých věcí asi vypadla, proto bude tato recenze jen velmi stručná, že což se moc omlouvám. 
Knížku jako takovou bych si asi užila víc, kdybych se dokázala odhodlat ke čtení.. rozhodně nebyla špatná, pro mladé dívky byla perfektní, a to v tom, že ukazovala vnitřní krásu každého z nás. nemusíte být nejkrásnější zvenku, důležité je kvést zevnitř, stále se zlepšovat a vyvíjet. jsem moc ráda, že se knížka nepletla jen okolo princezen a bálů a krásných šatů (jako např. selekce, která se mi ale taky moc líbila, ale víte co, žádné poselství to nemělo). děj jako takový byl pohádkový a pro mne asi nudnější, ale pořád si moc vážím té zprávy v tom... že ženy mohou dělat cokoliv.
✩
3*/5*

sophie

Rachel Kanyid

*4.5*
There are very few books that I read that make it onto my list of all time favorites, and only a very small percentage of those are fairytale-remakes/continuations, but I must say, this was one of those for me. I LOVED this book. The story and character development, the way it felt like a classic fairy tale but yet something so much more, and the tie in with out real world were all wonderful. I will definitely be buying this and keeping it on my favorites shelf in the near future.

jana <3

An amazing book with so many gut wrenching yet beautiful moments. Would recommend to people with enough patience since it is quite long!

Eryn Bradshaw

Most people will fight when there is some hope of winning, no matter how slim. They are called brave. Only a few will keep fighting when all hope is gone. They are called warriors. Isabelle was a warrior once, though she has forgotten it. Will she remember? It does not look good. Then again, few things do in the dead of night. The small dark hours are the undoing of many. Candlelight throws shadows on the walls of our souls, shadows that turn a mouse into a monster, a downturn into a disaster. 
Should you ever decide, in those small dark hours, to hang yourself, well, that is your choice.
But don't hunt for the rope until the morning.
By then you'll find a much better use for it.


What happens to the stepsisters and stepmother after Cinderella finds love with her prince? Well, we find out in this retelling of Cinderella. Isabelle, the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to try to trick the prince, is left trying to tend to her sister and mother. She tries desperately to make them happy while also being happy herself, but she is left angry, bitter, and ugly. But she decides she must take fate into her own hands, and somehow find her own fairy tale ending.

I think the beauty of the this story was that our Cinderella villians are just morally grey characters. Were they the best or worst of people? No, they could've easily gone to either side. I absolutely loved Isabelle's character. I felt sorry for her at times and cheer for her when she was down. She never grows into a beautiful character, but she is a strong character. She has her faults and her problems, but regardless of that, she learns how she can be better and do better.

My only gripe with this story is the "fates" side of the story. The story begins with a thief stealing the fates (the Greek goddesses), maps. The thief wants to change Isabelle's fate whereas the Fates want her to stay on the path she's on. I just didn't enjoy the sections with them pushing and pulling Isabelle in certain ways and I thought the whole thing could've been done away with.

Regardless, this book is very good. It's a nice short read as well. And it's inspiring. It gives you the courage to go and stop standing aside. Do the hard things and make something of yourself.

This book is a 4 star book for me! The fates, get rid of them. Isabelle, keep her she's strong and wonderful and I'd love to read more of her and her adventures.


  Hot Key Books provided a copy of Stepsister through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to read this book!

helena gurri

Charmaine

Such a lovely story! A priceless exploration of all the human heart’s emotions: jealousy, loss, love, courage, compassion, and bravery. A toast to defying fate herself, because all you need is a dash of chance. ❤️❤️❤️

Maria

Stepsister Дженнифер Доннелли начинается с того, что сводная сестра Золушки Изабель сидит с ножом в руке и готовится отрезать себе пальцы, чтобы влезть в туфельку и стать женой принца. Делает она это не по своей злой воле, а потому что мать заставляет – считает, что это единственная возможность для некрасивой дочери удачно выйти замуж. А нога... ну что нога. Если станешь королевой, ходить тебе не понадобится, справишься.

Замуж принц её, конечно, не берет – во-первых, кровь наполняет туфельку и пачкает платье Изабель, а во-вторых, с чердака сбегает Золушка, и да будут жить они долго и счастливо. Изабель, её сестра Октавия – тоже с изуродованной ногой, и их мать остаются в деревне, где теперь все в курсе, как отвратительно они обращались с новой королевой, и как хотели обмануть принца.

Что ни говори, а заход в историю мощный. И продолжения ждешь такого же – жесткого и кровавого. Но тут Дженнифер Доннелли не выруливает, и мы довольно быстро выясняем, что Изабель и Октавия не злые, просто задолбанные. Октавия обожает математику и целыми днями решает уравнения. Изабель мечтает вести в бой армии и даже научилась владеть оружием. Но в 18 веке женщине не стать ни ученым, ни полководцем, поэтому мать пытается пристроить их замуж – а никто не берет, потому что внешностью не вышли. Так что их отношения с Эллой – Золушкой – это по сути отношения с сыном маминой подруги. Элла конвенционально красива, мила и послушна, какой и надлежит быть женщине. В принципе, любой бы на месте сводных сестер не выдержал.

Истории злобной завистливой сестры у Доннелли не получилось. Получилась история про feminist issue – немножко нарочитая, даже картонная. Вот так, дорогие дети, плохо живется, когда общественные стереотипы не дают тебе воплощать мечты. Спасибо, Дженнифер Доннелли, мы знаем.

Отмечу еще, что Stepsister понравилась бы мне больше, если б не побочная линия борьбы Судьбы и Шанса. Судьба – вредная старуха, которая нарисовала карту жизни Изабель, а Шанс – экзальтированный повеса, который хочет дать девушке возможность что-то изменить. Оба постоянно вмешиваются в ход событий, и это просто невыносимо читать. Как будто после каждой сцены в фильме на экране появляется специальный человек и объясняет тебе, что сейчас произошло, почему оно произошло и к каким последствиям может привести. И это разжевывание вообще не дает тебе ни шанса отрефлексировать события. Я так злилась, что в итоге даже начала пролистывать эти главы. Впечатление от книги, впрочем, уже было испорчено.

Micol Scalabrino

The Neverending fight between destiny and will, the power of a choice and the simplicity of a change. This book starts with Cinderella finally able to prove she is the girl who danced with the prince during the royal ball. That's easy, the happy ending. But what about the villains of the story? What about the stepsister who made Ella's life hell?

I thought I would never read a book about the stepsister, but I'm glad I did. A powerful study of introspection, friendship and strength, I was able to feel the distress, hate and love, grief and loss. Isabelle and Tavi are not who everyone thinks, they are flawed, feel emotions and just want to live their life. I loved their relationship, but most of all, I loved how the author decided to depict the constant fight between fate and the power of will. 

Final vote: 4/5

Shannon Thomas

I’ll start with a confession: while I absolutely ADORE fairytales, until now I had never ever read a retelling. 

I’ve eyed them from afar, purchased them to sit on my shelves, read manyyyyy a wonderful review but for some reason I never picked one up. 

Anywayyy, my local library had this in stock and I thought the style of the retelling seemed really cool! 
I love that the point of view is switched and we see Cinderella from a different perspective. 

This has completely changed my perspective on retellings of classical fairytales, I’ll definitely be trying some more!! 

I adored the different perspective and the fact that you see essentially the aftermath of Cinderella’s story. I found Isabelle’s journey moving and powerful. 

If you’re feeling apprehensive about trying a fairytale retelling, this book is definitely the book to pick up to ease those apprehensions. Loved it.

Alice

I don't know where to start.

Boy, am I glad I read this book.

"Stepsister" definitely has some "Caraval" vibe in it, mixed with some "The Night Circus" enchantment and sprinkled with a good dose of "Alice in Wonderland" style. Also, bits of "Mulan" in the dynamics.

If you're looking for a complex, intricate story, then this is probably not the right read for you. But if you enjoy light books with eccentric characters, bits of humor here and there, and a considerable display of positive and feminine (feminist) messages, then absolutely pick up "Stepsister". Please. You have to.

And, goodness, I'm weak for retellings. I'm looking forward to reading "Lost in a Book" by Donelly as soon as life will allow me.

Warning: the beginning is a little gruesome as it's a retelling of the original Cinderella tale (the one in which the stepsisters- er, adapt- their foot size to- the slipper... There's blood.)

Full review.

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It’s an amazing way of writing. The way it’s written already swooned me in the introduction and prologue. The story itself is also amazing. It talks about beauty being more skin deep and not everything is what it seems. About finding yourself when you’ve lost your way and standing up for what you believe.

** spoiler alert **
           I’m not sure how i feel about this book just yet. It was super interesting to see everything after Cinderella got her prince as well as the dynamic between the three sisters. The value of beauty and the differences in taste were interesting as well. 

Half the book was fairytale and the other half was realistic and I’m not sure how much I enjoyed it. The Chance vs Fate storyline was symbolic but I didn’t think it was totally necessary. I feel like this book had a lot to say and tried to address so many issues that it felt stretched thin. It was a semi-feminist book which I really enjoyed and seeing the characters change as the story progressed was pretty cool. Learning of Ella’s jealousy was a surprise but felt somewhat forced but I did guess it was her that burnt that note. Her being friends with Felix wasn’t really foreshadowed which is what I think the story needed. Also, there were a ton of things that didn’t need to be mentioned more than once or twice for me to remember them. Like the cheese and the soldiers, they were mentioned well over three times very specifically, which didn’t hurt the story but I knew where Donnelly was going with it. I feel like the book would have been better had she spent more time on other aspects. 

Also, the book was formatted for people to pull specific quotes out. It was like reading poetry at the end of most of the chapters which was cool but got tiring and sometimes didn’t feel like it entirely worked or had the effect the author intended. 

Overall, I just really mentioned why I didn’t give the book five stars but there were sooo many good things I don’t have time to get into now.

Zoe Murphy

I really like the message in this book and the POV of the "ugly" stepsister. The only think I didn't like was the battle between the two "god like" people, Chance and Fate. It didn't seem that important and the story could've done with only Tanaquill's interference. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the perspective of Isabelle and getting to see Tavi's side too. It really shows the problems with society and how it creates its own expectations for women. I also enjoyed seeing some rep for anger issues. Isabelle's character could have been written off as just a mean and cruel girl, but because of everything that was pushed on her, I felt like her anger management problems really helped represent a different sort of mental illness and created more room for her to change and grow as a character. I totally would encourage everyone to try this book out!

Michelle Boyea

So I’ll be honest, I never knew that the original Grimm fairytale of Cinderella involved the stepsisters cutting off part of their feet in order to make the glass slipper fit. So when this book started off that way, it was quite a bit of a shock.

I started off hesitant while reading this book. I had a hard time reconciling it with the Disney version of Cinderella that everyone knows. But I’m glad I kept going. Watching Isabell grow into the woman that she was meant to be and not the woman that her mother wanted her to be, which is inspiring. It was incredible to watch her rise up against her circumstances and turn her life around into the future that she had always wanted and had buried so deep inside for so long. 

I truly hope this author has more books that are similar to this one!

Annabelle Lamont

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.

Jawahir M

Review to come but I give this five stars! So happy to pick this book by mistake during a bookstore run, one of the best Cinderella retellings and a hidden gem!

Score:5/5

everlinet

Beautiful, so so beautiful! Very original retelling of Cinderella, yet about her stepsister. This tale is all about strength, power & determination of one stubborn girl who has to fight her own past to find her future. Enjoyed it so much! The writing style was absolutely amazing and breathtaking. Definitely one of the best retelling!

Chelsea Breher

You know, this book is one of the few books I've read with truly kick ass female characters lately, a book where they truly don't need a man to take care of them. It's full of smart, witty, well rounded women. I'm so happy I read this gem.

Manon van Heumen

I thoroughly enjoyed it! The world-building was precious to me, it was so amazing.

Kate

Liz Griffin

Cool concept, but I struggled with the execution. The blend of multiple categories of lore (Fates, fairy queen, wolf-heart-thing) was confusing, and a couple other style issues just weren’t my preference.

Ashton Reed

”They cut away pieces of me,” she whispered in the darkness. “But I handed them the knife.”


Wow. I’ve never learned so much from a book, and I will truly carry it with me wherever I go. If you’re a teen girl, especially, or if you have ever felt oppressed by the expectations of the world, keep reading.

Goodreads synopsis:
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.

I’m really not sure if I can articulate the depth of this novel. I could list cliche statements this book addresses, but it wouldn’t be near enough. This story communicates in its undertones, in the pitches of its song that can’t simply be seen - they have to be felt. I was constantly moved by its silent intensity, its emotional power. This novel isn’t the mediocre fairy-tale retelling I expected, not by a long shot; it’s passion and realization and strength and the courage to embrace your power.
 
I’ve always been a little jealous of readers who have found inspiration and healing from a particular fictional character. Sure, there are characters I love with my whole heart, but I’ve never felt irrevocably altered by one. Until Isabelle. Stepsister begins with a gruesome scene: the ugly stepsisters of Cinderella, cutting off their own toes to do as their mother says and gain the hand of the prince. As you all know, it ends terribly. But these stepsisters, they’re different from the snotty, vain princesses in the Disney movie. Just in the first few chapters, Isabelle seems broken, empty, misguided, and most certainly not evil. Some of the things she says to herself, or in her head about other people - I have had those same thoughts before. And it makes me wonder, how many of us have? How many of us believe beauty is value? How many of us have been shaped by the dialogue of others, instead of listening to ourselves? How many of us are not who we were designed to be because someone told us we weren’t right before? And how many of us are missing our destinies because we’ve allowed someone else to define what we’re worth?

Isabelle may believe those things at the beginning of the book, but spoiler alert: she sure doesn’t at the end. This is not your sad ending, evil origin story fairy-tale retelling. Nor is this a story about how “everyone’s beautiful and so are you,” because we all know that doesn’t change a thing. This is a story of inspiration, of forgiveness, of understanding. By experiencing Isabelle’s mindset as it shifted from degraded to powerful, it shifted my own mindset. Because no, cliches don’t really work, but Isabelle’s story made me believe in my own power. It made me inspired by my own combination of traits that makes me who I am. It made me actually believe that no one else can define my power or my value.


  ”Each queen was once a girl like you. 
Told who to be and what to do. 
Not pretty, not pleasing, far too rough,
Lacking, less than, not enough. 

Till wounded subjects, anguished dead, 
Mattered more than things that others said. 
Then, like a flag, her will unfurled.
Go now, girl. Remake the world.”


And there are these forces at work behind the scenes: Fate, the cruel crone who maps out human lives in all their destruction and pain; Chance, Fate’s opponent, who believes in the power of risk and reward; and Tanaquill, the fairy queen, who guides humans to their heart’s desires. There are other side characters who change alongside Isabelle, who each learn their own lessons and their own worth. And as all their stories weave together, Donnelly creates an incredibly intricate tapestry of strength, growth, resilience that resonated within me, teaching me truths I hope to never forget.

In other words, I really want you to read this book. I want you to read this book. 
  I want you to read this book.
 It is so so powerful and I truly cannot express how changed I am. Honestly, it’s slow, and you may possibly want to give up once you start, and I get it. But pleaseee start reading, and then don’t stop. This story is so important, and if I could encourage you to read one book, this honestly might be it. I will especially target this to women, because this feminist tale is truly one I would call life-changing, revolutionary. So please, against any hesitancies you might have, give it a shot. 





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Stepsister

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