Cinderella is Dead
Kalynn Bayron
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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.
Fairytale is history in this story. Cinderella is the story of this kingdom, however others have different tales. I enjoyed that the story was also a play of the history being written by the victor, and altered to change the narrative favourably towards himself. The changes to the story were fun, and I liked that the author set up multiple sources of information rather than one which throws everything at you.
Let’s first talk about the bad guy… I’m still unsure of the why and his motivations. His plan took a LOT of effort, and we only saw his means to an end, but never saw his end game. However, I liked how he was portrayed and how he reacted throughout the book. He defintely thought out his plans and as said by Sophia he’s “a monster not a fool”. I enjoyed him as a villain overall, especially as part of the Cinderella retelling.
Another switch up from the retelling was the Fairy Godmother. Instead of being a fairy, very early on our characters realise she’s a witch and not too different to other witches. She also has a secret past but is the only way for Constance and Sophia to find out some things about the Cinderella story. I loved the storyline of meeting and beginning to understand the fairy godmother.
Our main character is a non-Cinderella character and is completely new to the tale. I thought maybe Constance or even Amina would have been a better main character though. Unfortunately, Sophia doesn’t feel like she has any link to the story… except she meets Constance at the right time. Plus, she’s not the brightest character, for example at the start of the book another character offers her an out and she ignores it and then is surprised when he acts on it. Whilst she is angry against the sytem and king, she doesn’t quite have the same stakes as Constance or Amina in the overall story.
I love Constance as a character, and I figure she actually has a much bigger story to tell. We don’t find out much about what she was doing before this book, but her family history leaves a lot to be discovered. I would love a spin off where we follow the adventures of Gabrielle and the other stepsister. Plus, finding out about how Constance has been trying to defeat the king over the years just sounds more badass.
The forest and town were the perfect fairytale backdrop. People canntot leave without the king’s permission so they can’t escape to another kingdom (this is questionable… but I’m glad they included this explaination). There’s also mention of other kingdoms and similar fairytale like stories to basically use as life guidebook. I loved the change up of the kingdom from the orginal tale, and it’s even said they changed locations for Cinderella’s house in this book to hide the real history.
In Cinderella is Dead women are to be owned and not heard. If they’re not married before they’re 20 they are forfeit and often never seen again. There’s a lot of themes in this book about women as they’re unable to speak out or act by themselves. Women are forcing other women to conform, from mothers to friends and fairy godmothers. I like that as the world starts changing for the better, men tried to get involved saying they should get an opinion and the response was that they don’t get an opinion when they were the ones participating and allowing the awful treatment to continue.
Overall, Cinderella is Dead has a great cast of characters, a fun plot line and it truly gripped me the entire time I read it. I ended up finishing the book in a day which is almost unheard of for me. I’d recommend it as a quick fantasy read,
Positives of Cinderella is Dead
- Feels fairytale like still
- Female empowerment
Negatives of Cinderella is Dead
- Main character
I received Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron as part of a book tour ran by Faye Rogers for Sourcebooks Fire. This is an unbiased and honest review
