Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Cinderella Is Dead

Absolutely loved this Cinderella retelling and thought it was spectacular. We have a world where women are second-class citizens and are expected to follow in Cinderella’s footsteps to find true love at the ball and make her future husband happy forever. The men have all the power. The girls have 3 chances to go to the ball and usually if they are not picked on the second chance, they were sent away to work. It was important to look your best for the ball and to attempt to get a good husband, but there are issues that the parents of the girl must agree to the exchange of their daughter and fees must be exchanged. We follow Sophia who is upset and enraged with how their kingdom is run, she wants to change. She thinks the ball is stupid and is frankly not interested in marrying a man, but instead a woman. Well, we join Sophia in her attempt to change the kingdom and dethrone the king.

I thought this was an amazing book and loved how the fairytale was mixed in with the misogynistic kingdom. I figured out pretty quickly what our villain was doing to extend their life, but I did not figure out how or why it was that way. I think this was a good solid 4 star read for me because I was able to find some of the plot patterns. I definitely think this would make a fabulous movie. Definitely recommend this book!

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lennie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-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

4.5

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readingbetweenthenotes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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teatales's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

A wonderful fast-paced fantasy centred around a retelling/reimagining of the classic tale of Cinderella. I liked the short chapters and it was easy to read.

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annettewolf's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

As far as fairy-tale retellings/re-imaginings go, this is a solid story with excellent twists on the tale we're familiar with in its various versions. We have just enough grounding us in the familiar, with updated, about-damn-time feminist themes. And the protagonist is sapphic, which of course makes me happy.

Unfortunately, the writing didn't do it for me all the time. There were times when the characters would come up with a plan, but the plan didn't make much sense. It was kind of like a series of excuses to connect the beats, or get the characters to the right location for the next thing that the author knew was going to happen. That said, I honestly didn't see the plot twist coming at the end, so, that was well done.

The romance was a little insta-love-y to me, and I didn't feel like there was much to connect with, with the main character. In some ways it was like the plot was moving too fast to spend much time exploring how she was feeling about everything. I wanted to know how she felt about things with her parents, things with her girlfriend. And we got some tantalizing glimmers of her interest in witchcraft, but, again, not enough time spent on it to really explore the connection between witchcraft and resistance (or if you want to be really on-the-nose, smashing the patriarchy). There's somehow enough time to hang out at various locations for a week at a time to "come up with a plan" or prepare for a spell, but not enough time to explore her emotional state. That was a bummer.

I think we can always use re-imaginings of old stories. And this take on the Cinderella story is inventive and explores themes that I really love. Even if the writing wasn't always my cup of tea, I'm really glad this story exists to help introduce young readers to these themes, and give us a sapphic, Black protagonist who has a lot of traits to love.

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dhwani's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

3.75

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sarah984's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I was really excited to read this book, but it just didn't work for me. Most of the characters were thinly drawn and annoying, especially the main character Sophia, who doesn't seem to live in the world she comes from and constantly makes stupid decisions. Sophia’s entire quest is based on how much she loves Erin but she doesn't seem to actually like her very much, the insta-love with Constance who has exactly one character trait bugs me, the plot twist involving the king is so obvious, and I couldn't believe how easily escaped a cell in the castle dungeon apparently is.

The twist with the fairy godmother was interesting, and I liked Luke even though he was only in the story for like ten seconds, but that's about all the good I can say about it.

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