Title: Stepsister
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Rating: 📖📖📖.5 / 5
This alternative telling of the Cinderella story was a decent twist on the old tale. We are presented the story of Isabelle, one of the ugly step sisters, and her family in the aftermath of Cinderella (Ella) becoming queen and leaving her family behind. We learn that Isabelle has cut off her toes to fit in the glass slipper and has become a pariah in her town as a result of her deceit. Forces work for and against Isabelle (Chance and Fate, respectably) as she tries to mend her broken heart and become a better person. To make matters worse, there is a threat by the name of Volkmar that wants to destroy everything and everyone in his path.
This isn't a love story. Not in the regular sense anyway. There is a love aspect, but it is more a story of redemption with the darkness that is missing from the typical Cinderella story. And I really, really appreciated that. There's nothing I hate more than reading the same story over and over when promised something different. While different, however, I felt like Donnelly's retelling was missing something. It just wasn't different enough to set it apart. In the end it felt like just the Cinderella story but with a different, less girly character. I felt like I liked Isabelle's sister, Octavia more than Isabelle. But that's just me.
Overall, Stepsister is an interesting take on the Cinderella tale and is a welcome twist at that. I do recommend it to those who want the hints of a familiar story but with a different, darker point of view.
