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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother by Danielle Teller
2 reviews
leahegood's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Summary
This rambling novel reads like the memoir of Cinderella's stepmother as she looks back on her life and recounts her memories of how things really happened. She shares her own childhood: one of a clever but overlooked and ill-used servant girl. She explains, without self-pity, her journey to an early motherhood through a childish infatuation that teetered between love and abuse (leaning more towards abuse). She remembers raising children, building businesses, and clinging to every scrap of opportunity to care for herself and her beloved daughters. In the end, she muses that--though Ella was never the downtrodden orphan depicted in rumor--there are things she would do differently with the benefit of hindsight.
My Thoughts
This was almost a DNF for me due to the meandering pace of the narrative and the multiple depictions of SA. I was relieved the find that, though I found the book shelved as YA, this is not how the book is classified by the author/publisher.
Overall the concept is interesting. The POV of Cinderella's stepmother has a grounded, authentic flavor that is absent of the magical nostalgia I typicially associate with fairy tales. It's a well-written story that, unfortunately, failed to appeal to me.
Content
Romance: Virtually non-existent. Though Agnes is married twice, both unions are born of desperation, and the consumation of the first is open-door and non-consensual. There are several open door scenes. None are gratituous but all provide more description that I prefer to read.
Language: Minimal to non-existent.
Violence: Agnes is beaten as a young servant girl and endures various forms of SA.
Religion: Agnes and her daughters spend some of their formative years in a religious context. They quote scripture and sometimes fall back on Biblical principles for guidance.
This rambling novel reads like the memoir of Cinderella's stepmother as she looks back on her life and recounts her memories of how things really happened. She shares her own childhood: one of a clever but overlooked and ill-used servant girl. She explains, without self-pity, her journey to an early motherhood through a childish infatuation that teetered between love and abuse (leaning more towards abuse). She remembers raising children, building businesses, and clinging to every scrap of opportunity to care for herself and her beloved daughters. In the end, she muses that--though Ella was never the downtrodden orphan depicted in rumor--there are things she would do differently with the benefit of hindsight.
My Thoughts
This was almost a DNF for me due to the meandering pace of the narrative and the multiple depictions of SA. I was relieved the find that, though I found the book shelved as YA, this is not how the book is classified by the author/publisher.
Overall the concept is interesting. The POV of Cinderella's stepmother has a grounded, authentic flavor that is absent of the magical nostalgia I typicially associate with fairy tales. It's a well-written story that, unfortunately, failed to appeal to me.
Content
Romance: Virtually non-existent. Though Agnes is married twice, both unions are born of desperation, and the consumation of the first is open-door and non-consensual. There are several open door scenes. None are gratituous but all provide more description that I prefer to read.
Language: Minimal to non-existent.
Violence: Agnes is beaten as a young servant girl and endures various forms of SA.
Religion: Agnes and her daughters spend some of their formative years in a religious context. They quote scripture and sometimes fall back on Biblical principles for guidance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Child abuse, and Body shaming
Minor: Suicide and Death of parent
larkais's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Slow means insanely slow. I skipped a lot during the mid point since the writing was not interesting and it dragged on for ages. There were a lot of sad moments such as Agnes' abuse as a worker and all the deaths that she faced at the workplace. One person died of overwork and one died on the job. Agnes' rape scene was also very sad but the author seemed to play it off?? They got married, he was an absent husband and Agnes dreamed at the very end that she would see him again but it was just her daughters coming to meet her. It really rubbed me the wrong way. The whole Cinderella plot doesn't happen until the last 90% of the book. I like the perspective shifting sometimes. The book jumps from Agnes' youth to her current court life every so often and I just wish it was more compelling.
There are some clever moments like how Agnes accused someone else of being a witch by making use of the rumor mill.
Overall, I did not like this fairy tale retelling. The step mother's perspective or even time traveling back in time is very common in manga and webcomics. A Stepmother's fairytale did a lot better where they made her and the children she raised more sympathetic/understood the plight from both sides.
I've already started a Thousand Splendid Suns and I already feel like the female characters in that novel are stronger than this cast. The mother (Nana) was a mistress to a wealthy businessman and gave birth to Mariam (MC) out of wedlock. You could really feel Nana's pain where she really felt like the only thing she could do was endure until she couldn't anymore. Mariam's childhood trauma is palpable in a way that this novel's take on suffering was not.
There are some clever moments like how Agnes accused someone else of being a witch by making use of the rumor mill.
Overall, I did not like this fairy tale retelling. The step mother's perspective or even time traveling back in time is very common in manga and webcomics. A Stepmother's fairytale did a lot better where they made her and the children she raised more sympathetic/understood the plight from both sides.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Rape
Minor: Xenophobia
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