It took a fairy godmother to get Cinderella to the ball but, in Freya Marske’s take on the classic tale, Cinder House, it’s going to take a lot more to bring her protagonist into the prince’s orbit. Not only is Markse’s Ella an orphan, abused by her callous stepmother and stepsisters, she’s also very, very dead.
Ella wasn’t supposed to die. It really was an accident. Her stepmother only meant to kill Ella’s father. It was entirely a fluke of fate or magic that saved Ella’s spirit by tying it to the house she shared with her family. Ella isn’t gone entirely, but she cannot travel beyond the bounds of the house and yard and she cannot disobey the orders of the living owners of her house. One of the stepsisters is a true horror; creative villains give me the willies. If it weren’t for Ella’s cleverness and a few more flukes of fate, she might’ve been trapped in her awful afterlife forever.
That cleverness leads Ella to experiment endlessly. From the very beginning, she tests the bounds of her situation. Which chores set by her appalling step-family can she ignore? Is it possible to communicate with anyone outside the house? Her most successful experiment involves a broken roof tool which, if tucked into her pocket, finally allows her to leave the house (albeit invisible to humans). Ella never gives up, but she can’t do everything alone. On one of her excursions to the city, she meets and eventually befriends a fairy who admires the cut of Ella’s jib. Fairy magic is far from predictable in this kingdom, and Ella is justifiably wary of making any deals. That said, she’d give much to be able to, for a few nights, attend the prince’s ball and engagement party.
I love a good fairy tale retelling and Cinder House is one of the best I’ve read in a long time. The characters in this book are absolutely incredible, from the sinister stepsister who torments Ella, to the fairy masquerading as a hedge witch, to the prince who is cursed by what was supposed to be a blessing, to Ella herself. It’s astonishing that Cinder House is a novella just shy of 150 pages, given how much Marske is able to pack into it. This book is a wonderful way to wile away an afternoon.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.