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| Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly |
"Don't just fracture the fairy tale. Shatter it.
Isabelle should be blissfully happy-she's about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn't the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince's heart. She's the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella's shoe...which is now filling with blood.
Isabelle tried to fit in. She cut away pieces of herself in order to become pretty. Sweet. More like Cinderella. But that only made her mean, jealous, and hollow. Now she has a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.
Evoking the darker, original version of the Cinderella story, Stepsister shows us that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and uses Jennifer Donnelly's trademark wit and wisdom to send an overlooked character on a journey toward empowerment, redemption...and a new definition of beauty."
This book was brilliantly conceived and beautifully written. It was eerie, dark, and deliciously twisted. As a general rule I don't like dark and twisty books, but this one was so incredibly well done that I couldn't help being fascinated by it. It begins with some pretty gruesome scenes of the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to try to get the glass slipper to fit - I hate gruesome, but it was so engrossing that I couldn't/didn't want to stop reading. Our poor heroine is fighting against some pretty big odds, but she never gives up and I loved..... I was going to say her redemption, but I think reclamation might be a better word. She found herself again. She became the person she was always meant to be, even though she lost her way for a long time.
“They cut away pieces of me," she whispered in the darkness. "But I handed them the knife.”
There was a lot of girl power in the book - in an amazingly great way. Repression turned into freedom and the chance to be who you wanted.
“This world, the people in it- my mother, Tantine- they sort us. Put us in crates. You are an egg. You are a potato. You are a cabbage. They tell us who we are. What we will do. What we will be."
"Because they're afraid. Afraid of what we could be." Tavi said.
"But we let them do it!" Hugo said angrily. "Why?"
"Tavi gave him a rueful smile. "Because we're afraid of what we could be, too.”
There is magic in this book, but it isn't a feel-good magic. This is not your Disney Cinderella story, it is based on the Brothers Grimm version, which is way darker. And I love the point that the author makes, which is that the magic lives in each of us.
“There is magic in this sad, hard world. A magic stronger than fate, stronger than chance. And it is seen in the unlikeliest of places....(spoilers I took out)....It lives inside every human being ready to redeem us. To transform us. To save us. If we can only find the courage to listen to it.
It is the magic of the human heart.”
It wasn't all dark, there were quite amusing parts as well as exciting and poignant parts. There are so many amazing quotes I could have used, but I'll finish this off with something the author had in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book:
“Fairy tales give it to us straight. They tell us something profound and essential - that the woods are real, and dark, and full of wolves. That we will, at times, find ourselves hopelessly lost in them. But these tales also tell us that we are all that we need, that we have all we need - guts, smarts, and maybe a pocketful of breadcrumbs - to find our way home.”
So, do I recommend this book? I hope I haven't talked anyone out of it with all of the talk of darkness because I would say I highly recommend it for 8th grade and up, but I am leery of having my younger students read it.
Areas of concern:
*The *b* word was used several times. I would say there were probably more than 10 but less than 20 cuss words in the whole book - no *f* word.
*The aforementioned self-inflicted maiming of two characters (which I didn't realize was in the Grimm's version).
*War violence which gets a little graphic in a couple of places.
*Sexual situations were rare - one story of a man putting his hand up a girl's skirt when they were seated at dinner.
*Extreme bullying of the main character.
“They cut away pieces of me," she whispered in the darkness. "But I handed them the knife.”
There was a lot of girl power in the book - in an amazingly great way. Repression turned into freedom and the chance to be who you wanted.
“This world, the people in it- my mother, Tantine- they sort us. Put us in crates. You are an egg. You are a potato. You are a cabbage. They tell us who we are. What we will do. What we will be."
"Because they're afraid. Afraid of what we could be." Tavi said.
"But we let them do it!" Hugo said angrily. "Why?"
"Tavi gave him a rueful smile. "Because we're afraid of what we could be, too.”
There is magic in this book, but it isn't a feel-good magic. This is not your Disney Cinderella story, it is based on the Brothers Grimm version, which is way darker. And I love the point that the author makes, which is that the magic lives in each of us.
“There is magic in this sad, hard world. A magic stronger than fate, stronger than chance. And it is seen in the unlikeliest of places....(spoilers I took out)....It lives inside every human being ready to redeem us. To transform us. To save us. If we can only find the courage to listen to it.
It is the magic of the human heart.”
It wasn't all dark, there were quite amusing parts as well as exciting and poignant parts. There are so many amazing quotes I could have used, but I'll finish this off with something the author had in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book:
“Fairy tales give it to us straight. They tell us something profound and essential - that the woods are real, and dark, and full of wolves. That we will, at times, find ourselves hopelessly lost in them. But these tales also tell us that we are all that we need, that we have all we need - guts, smarts, and maybe a pocketful of breadcrumbs - to find our way home.”
So, do I recommend this book? I hope I haven't talked anyone out of it with all of the talk of darkness because I would say I highly recommend it for 8th grade and up, but I am leery of having my younger students read it.
Areas of concern:
*The *b* word was used several times. I would say there were probably more than 10 but less than 20 cuss words in the whole book - no *f* word.
*The aforementioned self-inflicted maiming of two characters (which I didn't realize was in the Grimm's version).
*War violence which gets a little graphic in a couple of places.
*Sexual situations were rare - one story of a man putting his hand up a girl's skirt when they were seated at dinner.
*Extreme bullying of the main character.
Suggested Ages:
Publisher's Weekly - Ages 12+
School Library Journal - Grades 9+
