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3.6 AVERAGE


great

Fairy tales adaptations have been popular for years, and the most popular thing to do is infuse feminist elements into classic stories to make them palatable for modern audiences. After all, these stories have been popular with young girls for years, particularly when they involve princesses. The most popular tale to revise has been Cinderella, which has gone through so many makeovers in recent years that I am skeptical if new stories can be wrung out of this old cloth.

Unfortunately, this feminist updating of Cinderella is so rarely done well. I have seen other stories updated in interesting and progressive ways, but this one is so rarely justified. Most of the attempts end up wallowing in undedicated attempts to keep the story grounded in its time period while having the heroine act and think in ways totally out of keeping with her time period and smothering all of it with heavy-handed "humor" that is often in direct opposition to its own feminist themes.

Cinderella, though a single girl who is legally owned by her stepmother and cannot escape the house without being married due to the laws of her time, is criticized by modern audiences for meekly obeying her stepmother's decrees and becoming a servant in her father's house. This has traditionally been painted as evidence of her inner beauty (which, in keeping with classical tradition, is reflected by her outer appearance) but modern audiences throw their hands up to see this bland whitebread character cheerfully going about her slavish duty as if none of her family's cruelties can touch her. We want to see her react and suffer and feel things.

Thus, these weird adaptations are born. Cinderella is given a personality, usually an angry, defiant one that is often accompanied by a concern for the poor and downtrodden (though notably not in this version; she shrugs indifferently when told of the plight of war refugees in her country and only gets involved when her love interest does.) This Cinderella, like many of her modern iterations, screams angrily at her stepmother, openly mocks her stepsisters for being ugly, fat, mean, and unable to catch husbands, and steals from them without remorse. She also at one point tells them, "I hope you all die in your own filth." Our heroine, everyone.

Though Cinderella looks with scorn on the aristocratic disdain of work and the standards of feminine beauty that require her to be near starvation (not historically accurate) to be attractive, she also snickers with her lover about her stepsister's weight and unappealing personality. Though she professes modern political opinions, she is also weighed down by the traditions of the time. Though the book tries to hold up those hallowed ancient laws to explain Ella's predicament, it also refuses to give her or the prince the historical power or political savvy that they would have possessed. Also, a prince would never have married a commoner, and it was quite common for him to resign himself to marry ugly foreign princesses in the interest of political alliances. He would have just taken Ella as his mistress if he wanted. What is this convoluted and unbelievable plot?

The story is also clumsily written and dull most of the time with the characters sleepwalking through their expected roles to support the didactic themes of the novel. It was like watching a third-grade play where everyone shouted their lines unfeelingly at the audience. Haddix even included, as a "subtle" threat to the heroine, a serial rapist jailer who had some sort of mental deficiency and spoke only in monosyllables. He pointed Cinderella and said, "That. I want that," and told Ella that he hated his childhood because, "Wanted women. Couldn't have them." This character is so crude and poorly drawn that it almost seems like a joke. Except who would joke about that? This character is unceremoniously dispatched by another character we don't like, and we are encouraged not to think about him again. What are you trying to say, Haddix? What did that scene mean? Are serial rapists bad? Thank you for that insightful moral precept. Are people with mental problems inherently dangerous? Are rapists comically stupid and are not to be taken seriously? Is it ok to kill rapists with swords? This book brings up serious topics that it is not at all interested in addressing. Just watch Cinderella resist the patriarchy and the aristocracy in an attempt to stay real, man.

In its favor, this book does tackle an interesting part of the story, namely Cinderella's adaptation to a royal lifestyle after living as a servant. That has some interesting ground to cover, and it could have made for a nice little novel in someone else's hands. Haddix also made the interesting decision to nix the fairy godmother and magic and instead make that a wild rumor that the servants spread about Cinderella's big night. That is a fun twist on the classic story. These are the only points in the novel's favor, however, and they are not used well enough to support the rest of the story. All of Haddix's good ideas are drowned under her clumsy writing and her weak themes that snap when pressed with only the weight of a feather.

I have enjoyed some of Haddix's works in the past, particularly her dystopians, but either they aren't nearly as good as I remember, or Haddix is writing well out of her comfort zone here. Either way, this is one of the worst Cinderella stories I have read. If you want better versions that have more mature themes, better thought-out plots, and better writing, read Gail Carson Levine, Gregory Maguire, or Marissa Meyer. This one is not worth it.

I love fairytale retellings and was a big fan of the author's scifi books as a kid, so I expected to like this book but I did not enjoy it at all. Ella comes of as very "not-like-other-girls," especially in the first half of the book. The descriptions of other women are often mean spirited, poking fun at weight and/or intelligence with one character literally being named Simpriana. The relationship between Ella and Jed is questionable with Jed being described as "perhaps a half decade older than [Ella]" with Ella being 15. Giving the benefit of the doubt you could say maybe he just looks older than he actually is, but that's the only bit of text about his age to go off of. Even if there is an appropriate age gap between them, they have virtually no chemistry - conversations between them are often told to have happened rather than shown. Halfway through the book it looks like things will finally get interesting when Ella is held captive, but then she is threatened with sexual violence in an almost comical way with a man named Quog watching and drooling over her.
I would mention things I liked in the book, but I can't think of anything.

3 1/2 stars, I think.
I still have mixed feelings.
I don't know. Something seemed off? I'm not sure. I loved Ella, and all the female characters were great, but I didn't really care for the love interest. I guess he just didn't get enough screen time for me to get to know him. I liked the lessons Ella learned though, and her spunk is great. The prince is repulsive. *pukes*
Of course, you shouldn't take my word for this. Go read it yourself! It's quick and fun and totally worth it, even if you have mixed feelings/aren't a big fan like me.

I read this awhile ago but forgot to add it here. This is another twist on the Cinderella story (that takes place after she has been chosen at the ball) -- a fun, light read.
adventurous fast-paced
adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

This one joins End of Ever After on the short list of Cinderella retellings I’ve read in which she realizes that agreeing to marry a man she barely knows is actually not the best idea.

Ella has succeeded: she has escaped her stepmother’s control and is living in the palace, about to marry the love of her life and live happily ever after! Except she’s not happy. Her “princess lessons” are boring and tedious, she’s not allowed to do anything for herself, and she barely gets any time to talk with her prince. The one bright spot in her days is the time she spends with Jed, one of her tutors, who actually treats her like a person instead of a fragile decorative ornament. 

Ella’s decision to break off the engagement could prove to be a far more dangerous undertaking than she expected.

This version of the tale has no magic, just determination on Ella’s part to take charge of her own life — we love to see it! And we also love to see that she learns to rely on friends for help instead of trying to do everything herself all the time. Both are good! 

Sweet retelling of what happens AFTER Cinderella captures the prince's heart. Ella is a really likeable heroine.
adventurous hopeful medium-paced
Loveable characters: Yes

celebrationofbooks's review

4.5
adventurous inspiring tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So far, only Ever After, the movie with Drew Barrymore, is a “true” Cinderella story that I like. Every other adaptation requires significant changes or “enhancements” (trolls, adventure, kidnapping, curses, etc) to hold my attention and Just Ella falls into the latter category – spoiler alert – Ella doesn’t end up with the Prince. But that’s pretty evident from the moment he enters the story.

Just Ella starts after the ball, after the supposed happily-ever-after, when Ella must adjust to life in the castle and how that differs from the, relative, freedom she experienced while living out in the community around the palace. She also must contend with the fact that she and the prince don’t exactly have compatible personalities. Ella is much more free thinking and more interested in helping people that asking her new servants to do things for her or simply nodding along with everything her etiquette instructor tells her she must do as a new princess. And then, when she tries to assert a little independence, when she figures out that this isn’t the life she wants to lead, she has to deal with a prince who has never been told “no,” by anyone. Ever.

Ella’s spunk and charisma is what made me read and reread Just Ella over and over again in middle school and even high school, and I was beyond delighted to discover, when I went to find a replacement copy in the bookstore after I started working there, that Margaret Peterson Haddix wrote two more books as companions!