Hi bookish friends!
On Saturday I asked you (on Twitter and Instagram) which of my recent reads you would like me to review on here next, since I'd finished four books in very quick succession over the course of moving house. Thank you to everyone who voted!
You can probably guess from the title of this post which book won, but here are the combined results:
1) Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
2) Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
3) The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
4) Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells
I'm planning to follow that order for my next few posts, make sure you subscribe if you want to be notified when the other reviews are posted!
Since Cinderella is Dead is a recent release, I've avoided major spoilers in this review.
Book Details
Title: Cinderella is Dead (goodreads)
Author: Kalynn Bayron (website)
Genre: YA dystopian fantasy
Pages: 389
Format: Paperback - I preordered it for £7.99 from The Portal Bookshop. Also available as an ebook (£5.11 on Hive).
Blurb (from author's website): It's 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl's display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella's mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all--and in the process, they learn that there's more to Cinderella's story than they ever knew . . .
This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they've been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
Content warnings: Domestic violence, misogyny (including misogynoir), homophobia, death
#ownvoices representation? Yes. Kalynn Bayron is Black and pansexual, the main character (Sophia) is Black and sapphic.
My review: ★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)
First off, because it has to be said - the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous. The illustration on the front of the UK cover (pictured here) is by Fernanda Suarez, with the design by Jet Purdie. The US cover has a beautiful drawing of Sophia, too - that one was designed by Manzi Jackson.
I also love that the blurb makes it explicitly clear that Sophia is sapphic. The blurb on my copy is a bit different to the one I pasted above, but it refers to "the girl she loves". How often do you see a book clearly marketed as being about a queer Black character? Not often enough!
The Portal Bookshop posted my copy on August 1st... Which happened to be the day I moved house! It was delivered on the 3rd, my mum dropped it over at our new place on the 4th, and I started to read it as soon as she left. I finished reading it on the morning of the 6th.
Cinderella is Dead obviously draws on the fairytale of Cinderella, but it is definitely still an original work. I think Kalynn Bayron did an excellent job at weaving the story we know into the history and mythology of the people of Lille. It also becomes apparent very early on that the story of Cinderella we know is the Palace Approved version - I don't know about you, but seeing that there was a version officially endorsed by the King immediately made me question what other versions of the story might be out there, and what they contained that the King wanted to hide.
The pacing starts quite slow as the setting and characters are introduced. I don't necessarily think that the slow pace is an issue, though; it helps to heighten the tension in the leadup to the Annual Ball. It's easy to see why Sophia is dreading the ball. Lille is the epitome of a patriarchal society, where women and girls have next to no rights, and where any girls who do not attend the balls (or who attend them but are not chosen by a man by the age of 18) are forfeit. Forfeits, much like the girls who have been going missing, are never seen again.
The pacing of the book picks up considerably after the ball, as Sophia meets Constance and they work together to overthrow King Manford and his kyriarchal system. Their plot involves dark magic, books, weapons, and plain old trickery.
As a queer woman I could really empathise with Sophia's hatred of this society. The struggle which she and other queer characters must face - whether to give in to the system and accept a miserable life of compulsory heterosexuality with a partner you haven't chosen, or rebel against the system and risk not only yourself but your family - is not one I would wish upon anybody, but it is one which is unfortunately far from fictional.
I think it's also important to note that Sophia faces additional discrimination and loss of autonomy as a Black girl. This is not a fantasy where racism magically doesn't exist, and it reflects the real experiences of Black women and girls. For example, when she is being prepared for the ball, her hair is forcibly straightened because "it will look prettier that way". Sophia says that she wants it to be left natural, the women all laugh. Since the story is written in first person we see exactly what Sophia thinks about that: "It isn't funny. It feels like another part of me is being changed to fit someone else's vision of what is pretty."
Without going into details, I did find some of the plot a little predictable. However, bearing in mind that I'm a 25 year old and this book is intended for teenagers, I don't think I can fault it for that! Obviously my students aren't representative of the whole target audience, but many of them would not have picked up on the hints I noticed so certain "big reveals" would have been more surprising for them. Besides, there were some plot twists which genuinely did surprise me!
The one thing I was left wishing for when I reached the last page was some kind of justice for a sapphic character who had chosen to abide by the rules of society and ended up in an extremely abusive marriage with a man who seems to have "chosen" her as his wife in order to spite Sophia. Nothing could make up for the suffering she experienced and obviously she wouldn't immediately be okay in the aftermath of the climax, but I do wish there was even a small update on her at the end of the book to show us as readers that she is in a safer place and on the path to recovering from her trauma.
I do also want to note that the main typeface used in this version of the paperback is not particularly accessible for dyslexic readers or those with visual stress, since it's a serif font and (I think) about a size 10. Some parts of the text are written in alternative fonts - e.g. any text which is supposed to be an extract from a book, or a handwritten note - which is an aesthetically pleasing choice but again, may not be accessible for all readers. I hope that a more dyslexia-friendly physical copy is published at some point (as well as an audiobook) so that it is accessible to more readers.
Overall, I think Cinderella is Dead is a very good book and one which I would definitely recommend. I'm looking forward to seeing Kalynn Bayron's future work, and really hope that more works like this (a.k.a. feminist YA with Black LGBT+ characters) are selected by publishers in the future. A great way to ensure that happens is by supporting this book!
Have you read Cinderella is Dead? Are you planning to read it? Let me know what you think!
I'll see you in my next post with a review of Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.
Happy reading,
Maisie Rose x
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