Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Cinderella Is Dead

Such a great book! Queer representation with black main characters. A Cinderella retelling with a twist, and strong female characters. I really loved this book, and how Sophia never gave up her fight for others. Perfect to read in the fall/winter.

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seren's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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robin_nescu's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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marloesisalive's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I loved this book, I read it in two days. The story is original and a very different approach to a traditional fairy tale. I did find that the protagonist got over her first love too quickly. But all in all it’s a nice fast read.

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melsage1823's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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hello_ned's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Perhaps if I was younger, I'd have enjoyed this book more. Quite a shallow book about serious topics that just didn't hit hard for me.

The dislikes

The pacing was quite strange, although I admit that near the end, I just wanted to get this book over with
Shallow, one-dimensional characters. All you know about Sophia is she's lesbian and wants to overthrow the patriarchy. She's very outspoken, stubborn, and constantly speaks out- which is strange considering how many times you were told how dangerous it is to speak against the king and the system. She doesn't grow as a character at all. What she starts out with is what we finish with.
The confrontation scenes with her parents and Erin are disappointing, yet again reflections of their shallow characters.
I found the ending quite ironic,
as their whole idea is to otherthrow the dictatorship, but then they placed themselves as the rulers, chose their own advisors "for the good of the people" and didn't change their laws despite the outcry from some people stuck in their ways. You can say it's good they made all those changes to strive for equality, but it was described to quickly and shallowly that it made me disappointed. No matyer how good their intentions were, in the end, they became dictators. Whicb really spoils the meaning of the story.
As a lesbian, i really did not enjoy this portrayal of romance. It was shallow, and immediately focused on physical attraction. There was a scene where they stripped naked, and although it was "necessary for the plot," it was tinged with weird vibes.
The main plot twist was.. meh. Not particularly engaging. There was a "callback" from the middle ish of the story that I didnt remember. I looked back and it was mentioned in like one line.. felt a bit shoehorned it.
Very sad to see the only gay male character be absolutely infinitesimally unimportant to the story. He was present for like 10 pages total and might as well have not been in there, which is a shame.

The loves

Despite clearly aimed for pre-teen girls, there was a lot of violence. The mentions of domestic violence was handled well in a serious tone. The other violence in fighting/battle scenes where very well-written and downright shocking. There was a scene where
they bring out this minor character, that I for some reason really liked, and straight up chopped her head off.
it was important to the story, and my jaw had dropped. I had to take a second to recuperate
It had some humour I really enjoyed, some quite crude. There was a scene where they threatened this man with a dagger and he "pisses his pants." It genuinely made me laugh out loud.

Not much to this story, not spectacular. If this was a Wattpad book or a Netflix show it would have rated higher. This was really popular on booktok, which usually indicates general disappointment- especially with new-age writing.

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x_aura_x's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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calamitywindpetal's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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