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My Review:Title: Cinderella Is Dead
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Published by: Bloomsbury YA
Release Date: July 7, 2020
Format: eARC
Pages: 400
Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling, Young Adult, LGBT
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Retellings Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Quarantine Edition
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .
This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.
4 stars — Yet another book that I was wary of when I started…just wasn’t immediately sucked in, you know? Kept wondering where it was going to go. But somewhere along the way I did get sucked in, and I desperately wanted to know details of the mystery. I think this is probably a 3.75 star book for me, but since that’s even more impossible to indicate than half stars, I’m just going to be generous.
It was great to have an ownvoices aspect to this story, but I will say that Sophia being black really didn’t play into the narrative at all (it’s just nice having a black heroine). But the LGBT aspect played a HUGE role. I appreciated the role it played, and only occasionally did it feel like the allusions to present day were a bit heavy handed…otherwise it was pretty smooth and eye opening.
I was worried a bit about the romance in this one, particularly given Erin. But I thought that was all handled very well, and it was really cute watching Sophia and Constance develop feelings, and navigate a new potential relationship. Their romance didn’t play a major role, but their orientation definitely did.
As far as the retelling aspect, this is obviously not exactly a retelling so much as a “what happens after”, and “maybe we didn’t have all the facts” type of story. But I’m still classifying it as a retelling, because the story plays a MAJOR role in the plot.
There were certain aspects of the story that, as a READER, were so obvious it was actually painful when none of the characters saw it. Why can’t they just be reading this book and seeing all the clues the way I am? I’m a bit impatient that way, so that was…occasionally frustrating. But there were plenty of other aspects of the mystery that I *totally* did NOT guess, and kept me on my toes! I kind of loved a few of the explanations in this one, it really made me think and want to keep reading.
There are some heavy themes involving domestic violence, the toxic elements of inequality among the genders, and all that falls out of that. I appreciated the way it presented how good people can feel hopeless and thus allow a bad situation to continue.
All in all, I was entertained and kept on my toes. And the side romance didn’t hurt at all. I feel like I’ve been generous in my reading lately (and how I’m rating this), so I bet a couple months ago Lenore would have rated this one more 3.5, but still a fun ride.
I was so excited to see you review this one! I’ve been so curious as to what people were going to think about it. I loved that cover and title, so it’s nice to hear the inside was pretty good as well. I’m going to have to read this one!