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 friend, then parade in front of suiters. 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 descendent 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...
CINDERELLA IS DEAD by Kalynn Bayron
Published: 2020
Genre: YA Fiction, Fairy Tale Retelling
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book is the ultimate female empowerment fairy tale retelling. Cinderella Is Dead begins in Cinderella's kingdom 200 years after her passing. The kingdom is under the reign of a masochistic king, who's behaviour and laws have encouraged men to treat women as possessions of lesser worth.
A ball is held each year, and attendance is mandatory from all the kingdom's young ladies. At the ball, they are chosen and claimed by the men in attendance, and taken away to uncertain lives as their wives. Those who aren't chosen are never seen again, their fates unknown.
Sophia despises this tradition, not only because because of the injustices and the lack of freedom, but because a husband is not what she desires. She's in love with Erin, and wishes to run away with her to freedom and the possibility of a life where they can be together.
But it is not to be.
Sophia is such a strong representative for women!
We need more strong, black, openly-gay characters like her to be written across all genres. She's a very real, very relatable character that stands up to injustice under impossible circumstance.
A character of equal strength and intrigue was Constance, the last remaining descendent of one of the "ugly" step sisters, Gabrielle. Constance's goal is to prove that the king's version of Cinderella's fairy tale that is preached throughout the kingdom is a fraud. She knows the real story as it's been passed down through generations of her outcast family since Cinderella's reign - and all is not as the king says.
All the true and original components of a fairy tale appear within this book, there's love, hope, magic, despair and the promise of a happy ending, even if it doesn't play out the way you expect.
I love the way the author has emphasised and expanded upon the darker elements of the original story, and taken the characters that we all know and recognise and displayed them in a different light.
The double twist on the fairy godmother's character is one to look forward to. Her motivations kept me guessing until the very end of the book.
This is going to be a shorter review, but I honestly enjoyed this book so much. I've mentioned before that fairy tale re-tellings are a favourite genre of mine, and this one did not disappoint. It had a very fresh, very modern feel which blended really seamlessly into the setting of the book. I would thoroughly recommend giving this one a read. It's an excellent concept and debut novel by Kalynn Bayron.
Zuzu
As always with your book reviews, you made me want to read what you recommend. Another one for my list, it sounds fascinating x
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