Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Cinderella Is Dead

If you like feminist or queer retellings of fairy tales, or dystopian reads, you might enjoy this! I'm disappointed that I hated it, because it's a fun story (and the author is from my area), but there were a few things that didn't work for me. Maybe it's because I'm a-spec, but I felt like Sophia's immediate attraction to and fixation on Constance was unbelievable. Sophia's so smitten with her right away that she can't focus on anything as Constance tells her a very serious story on the most traumatic day of Sophia's life. Speaking of that story, it felt weird how quickly Sophia went from believing the dominant narrative to beliving what Constance told her. A lot of the writing was also clunky, preechy, or really felt like writing... Especially the dialogue.

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kbairbooks's review

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Her relationship with Erin was… not it. I really didn’t feel like there was even the slightest hint of chemistry. I didn’t like the way every single character interacted with her. I didn’t like the boy. I didn’t like all the domestic abuse and women hating and make bullshit. I just couldn’t stomach this and didn’t like the vibe at all. Cool concept… I think… but I really didn’t enjoy the execution at all.

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boekentrol's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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michellemaas's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad tense 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? Yes

2.0

This book only deserved 2 stars (meaning it was okay), but the romance between Sophia and Constance was so good that it almost deserved a star all on its own.

In terms of this being a fairytale retelling, I will give props to Kalynn Bayron in saying that the premise was quite creative, but the execution ended up lacking. My biggest caveat is that I found the story dragging along often, especially in the beginning (keep in mind that this is a relatively short book, with my version having only been 299 pages). When your short book isn't fast-faced it is a recipe for disaster.

Another problem I had was with the foreshadowing being so heavy-handed. I can appreciate the author focusing on certain aspects so that big developments don't seem to come out of anywhere, especially when you are setting up a big plot twist at the end, but I feel that it was written so obviously that the ending lacked some of the impact it was aiming for.

The last thing I want to mention is the representation. I haven't seen many fantasy books with LGBTQ+ characters as the leads and that aspect was beautifully done. Sophia and Constance were just so perfect and had me fangirling since their first encounter. I also enjoyed the parallels of Erin and Constance since it is a parallel a lot of queer people have to deal with. Some more representation comes from our lead, Sophia, being a person of color. Again, I don't find that many books come out and say: My lead is a POC and I'm proud of that (it's always "olive-skinned") so I thought that was cool.

Ultimately I would recommend you read this because the representation is something else and it's important to support stories/authors with representation, but if you're just reading it for the plot you might be disappointed.

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beestingbea's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I honestly didn't think this book would be worth all of the booktok hype, but oh my gosh it totally is worth the hype!

I thought I was going to try to be more stingy with my 5 stars, but there's no world where I would put this under 5, it's just such an incredible, empowering book. And the diversity is a plus, of course.

Is it a lil predictable? Sure. But do I love a modern-day re-do (not really a retelling) of Cinderella with a dash of Smashing the f-ing Patriarchy.

I also rate books solely on how they make me feel and if they solicit emotion from me and am not a super critical reader, and I just loved this.

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sunsetcity's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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? No

3.0

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luna_is_superior's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

Amazing book that explores hard hitting current issues like misogyny and domestic abuse, it showcases tyranny, injustice and oppression and how they're overcome. Beautiful feminist literature which sets a great example for young girls/women.

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