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A review by thebookishfeminist
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
5.0
CINDERELLA IS DEAD is very nearly a masterpiece. I absolutely *love* reimagining of fairy tales, mostly because fairy tales have such a complex history and it's nice to see how people reclaim them as forms of revolution. A story about queer Black girls overthrowing the patriarchy set within the backdrop of Cinderella's kingdom? Ummm, yes, please. And, for the most part, CINDERELLA IS DEAD and Kalynn Bayron's work did not disappoint.
Plot summaries are everywhere, so I don't think I need to go into a whole lot. A queer 16-year-old girl named Sophia struggles to accept the kingdom's rules that every girl must be presented to a potential suitor, so she's prepared to fight back, not just to resist this oppressive patriarchal custom but also to preserve her chances of being able to spend her life with her childhood best friend-cum-love interest. And revolt they do. The journey is beautiful, empowering, heartbreaking, enraging, and full of truths that YA audiences desperately need to be immersed in.
The world building was almost perfectly there, although I do wish we'd be immersed in the world all the time, rather than the descriptive world-building Bayron sometimes relied on. This was not enough to derail the book, though, and I know that subsequent works will just get more and more refined. I think the reader gets a very vivid sense of Sophia's world and what she's fighting against, and I continue to have images in my head of what I imagine that world looks like.
It's important to remember that this is YA book, and it is a SUBSTANTIVE YA book at that. The prose isn't flowery or overly complex, but I actually think that's quite important. The subject matter is able to come to the forefront if younger readers aren't struggling to decipher the meaning of phrases and conversations. It seems like a useful tool that Bayron employed to keep the prose relatively straightforward so that the reality of Sophia's world can be digested, understood, and thought deeply about. The fact of the matter is that the world in which Sophia is growing up is, unfortunately, not vastly different from the world today's youth are growing up in, and it's imperative that young readers are exposed to stories featuring these realities so they can understand, through literature and through diverse perspectives, what we are up against, the work we need to do, and why they, as youth, are so incredibly valuable.
I am excited to purchase this for my collection and to gift it to YA readers in my life. This is a powerful testament to the power of youth. It is a testament to Bayron's skill as a storyteller and her ability to imagine new worlds and reimagine classic texts. Youth matter. Youth with all identities matter. No one will question that after reading CINDERELLA IS DEAD, and the people who most need and deserve to see themselves represented, amplified, and celebrated in literature will feel empowered by Bayron's newest release.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance copy. My review is entirely unbiased.
Plot summaries are everywhere, so I don't think I need to go into a whole lot. A queer 16-year-old girl named Sophia struggles to accept the kingdom's rules that every girl must be presented to a potential suitor, so she's prepared to fight back, not just to resist this oppressive patriarchal custom but also to preserve her chances of being able to spend her life with her childhood best friend-cum-love interest. And revolt they do. The journey is beautiful, empowering, heartbreaking, enraging, and full of truths that YA audiences desperately need to be immersed in.
The world building was almost perfectly there, although I do wish we'd be immersed in the world all the time, rather than the descriptive world-building Bayron sometimes relied on. This was not enough to derail the book, though, and I know that subsequent works will just get more and more refined. I think the reader gets a very vivid sense of Sophia's world and what she's fighting against, and I continue to have images in my head of what I imagine that world looks like.
It's important to remember that this is YA book, and it is a SUBSTANTIVE YA book at that. The prose isn't flowery or overly complex, but I actually think that's quite important. The subject matter is able to come to the forefront if younger readers aren't struggling to decipher the meaning of phrases and conversations. It seems like a useful tool that Bayron employed to keep the prose relatively straightforward so that the reality of Sophia's world can be digested, understood, and thought deeply about. The fact of the matter is that the world in which Sophia is growing up is, unfortunately, not vastly different from the world today's youth are growing up in, and it's imperative that young readers are exposed to stories featuring these realities so they can understand, through literature and through diverse perspectives, what we are up against, the work we need to do, and why they, as youth, are so incredibly valuable.
I am excited to purchase this for my collection and to gift it to YA readers in my life. This is a powerful testament to the power of youth. It is a testament to Bayron's skill as a storyteller and her ability to imagine new worlds and reimagine classic texts. Youth matter. Youth with all identities matter. No one will question that after reading CINDERELLA IS DEAD, and the people who most need and deserve to see themselves represented, amplified, and celebrated in literature will feel empowered by Bayron's newest release.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance copy. My review is entirely unbiased.