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A review by ghada_mohammed
Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly
5.0
“Strange, isn’t it, how stories that are never told are the ones we most need to hear,”
Maybe the real villain was not the evil stepsisters, but the stifling sexist society that taught girls that their most valuable asset is their beauty and the only achievement they could and should strive to was marrying well, but the people at Disney got lazy when they made Cinderella?
This is the story I wish I was told as a little girl, a story about girls being true to themselves, making wonders, and not taking “no, because girls can't” for an answer. Where being brave and passionate and honest mattered more than being pretty and pleasant. Where actions had consequences and each gift had a price. I quite enjoyed Isabelle's redemption arc and the diverse new set of characters. Especially the Marquis de la Chance and his troupe. The whole plot was intriguing. It starts slow, but then it quickly picks up pace and the stakes are the snowball rolling downhill: from a girl trying to please her empathy-lacking mother to a girl trying to survive the rapacious rebellion army endangering the entire kingdom. Chef's kiss.
Maybe the real villain was not the evil stepsisters, but the stifling sexist society that taught girls that their most valuable asset is their beauty and the only achievement they could and should strive to was marrying well, but the people at Disney got lazy when they made Cinderella?
This is the story I wish I was told as a little girl, a story about girls being true to themselves, making wonders, and not taking “no, because girls can't” for an answer. Where being brave and passionate and honest mattered more than being pretty and pleasant. Where actions had consequences and each gift had a price. I quite enjoyed Isabelle's redemption arc and the diverse new set of characters. Especially the Marquis de la Chance and his troupe. The whole plot was intriguing. It starts slow, but then it quickly picks up pace and the stakes are the snowball rolling downhill: from a girl trying to please her empathy-lacking mother to a girl trying to survive the rapacious rebellion army endangering the entire kingdom. Chef's kiss.