A review by hello_ned
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Perhaps if I was younger, I'd have enjoyed this book more. Quite a shallow book about serious topics that just didn't hit hard for me.

The dislikes
  • The pacing was quite strange, although I admit that near the end, I just wanted to get this book over with
  • Shallow, one-dimensional characters. All you know about Sophia is she's lesbian and wants to overthrow the patriarchy. She's very outspoken, stubborn, and constantly speaks out- which is strange considering how many times you were told how dangerous it is to speak against the king and the system. She doesn't grow as a character at all. What she starts out with is what we finish with.
  • The confrontation scenes with her parents and Erin are disappointing, yet again reflections of their shallow characters.
  • I found the ending quite ironic,
    as their whole idea is to otherthrow the dictatorship, but then they placed themselves as the rulers, chose their own advisors "for the good of the people" and didn't change their laws despite the outcry from some people stuck in their ways. You can say it's good they made all those changes to strive for equality, but it was described to quickly and shallowly that it made me disappointed. No matyer how good their intentions were, in the end, they became dictators. Whicb really spoils the meaning of the story.
  • As a lesbian, i really did not enjoy this portrayal of romance. It was shallow, and immediately focused on physical attraction. There was a scene where they stripped naked, and although it was "necessary for the plot," it was tinged with weird vibes. 
  • The main plot twist was.. meh. Not particularly engaging. There was a "callback" from the middle ish of the story that I didnt remember. I looked back and it was mentioned in like one line.. felt a bit shoehorned it.
  • Very sad to see the only gay male character be absolutely infinitesimally unimportant to the story. He was present for like 10 pages total and might as well have not been in there, which is a shame.

The loves
  • Despite clearly aimed for pre-teen girls, there was a lot of violence. The mentions of domestic violence was handled well in a serious tone. The other violence in fighting/battle scenes where very well-written and downright shocking. There was a scene where
    they bring out this minor character,  that I for some reason really liked, and straight up chopped her head off.
    it was important to the story, and my jaw had dropped. I had to take a second to recuperate 
  • It had some humour I really enjoyed, some quite crude. There was a scene where they threatened this man with a dagger and he "pisses his pants." It genuinely made me laugh out loud.

Not much to this story, not spectacular. If this was a Wattpad book or a Netflix show it would have rated higher. This was really popular on booktok, which usually indicates general disappointment- especially with new-age writing.

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