'In an ancient city by the sea, three sisters - a maiden, a mother, and a crone - are drawing maps by candlelight. Sombre, with piercing grey eyes, they are the three Fates, and every map is a human life . . .' Stepsister takes up where Cinderella's tale ends. We meet Isabelle, the younger of Cinderella's two stepsisters. Ella is considered beautiful; stepsister Isabelle is not. Isabelle is fearless, brave, and strong-willed. She fences better than any boy, and takes her stallion over jumps that grown men fear to attempt. ...
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'In an ancient city by the sea, three sisters - a maiden, a mother, and a crone - are drawing maps by candlelight. Sombre, with piercing grey eyes, they are the three Fates, and every map is a human life . . .' Stepsister takes up where Cinderella's tale ends. We meet Isabelle, the younger of Cinderella's two stepsisters. Ella is considered beautiful; stepsister Isabelle is not. Isabelle is fearless, brave, and strong-willed. She fences better than any boy, and takes her stallion over jumps that grown men fear to attempt. It doesn't matter, though; these qualities are not valued in a girl. Others have determined what is beautiful, and Isabelle does not fit their definition. Isabelle must face down the demons that drove her cruel treatment of Ella, challenge her own fate and maybe even redefine the very notion of beauty . . . Cinderella is about a girl who was bullied; Stepsister is about the bully. We all root for the victims, we want to see them triumph. But what about the bullies? Is there hope for them? Can a mean girl change? Can she find her own happily ever after?
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"Stop burdening the gods. Stop cursing the devil. They will make no path for you. They gave you their dark gifts: reason and will. Now you must make your own way.
What's done is done. Whether to you, or by you, and you cannot change it.
But what's not done is not done.
And there, both hope and hazard lie. Believe that you can make your way. Or don't. Either way you are right. Every war is different, yet each battle is the same. The enemy is only a distraction. The thing you are fighting against, always, is yourself."
Long ago, in a small town in France named St Michel, there lived a beautiful girl and her two ugly stepsisters. We have all heard her story a thousand times, and fallen in love with the lovely downtrodden girl, always kind and hopeful despite all of the terrible things that have happened to her. When she wins her prince and all of her dreams come true, her story finds it's happily-ever-after, but Isabelle, her stepsister's story is only just beginning. She may have chosen to be mean in the past, but how much of what has happened was Chance, and how much was Fate?
This story picks up as Cinderella ends. What ever became of the ugly stepsisters and their tyrannical mother? Jennifer Donnelly spins a delightful tale of magic, fear, love, penance and bravery. The characters that were always 2 dimensional are suddenly larger than life, and leave you wondering if we were right to judge them by their covers for all these years. These stepsisters are not truly wicked even from the start - they feel remorse and fear, and every human emotion you might expect if you took a moment to humanise them. This story brings to light the choices they made and the things Fate threw at them which made them the way that they are today.
This is one of the best feminist books I think I have read to date. Isabelle turns slowly into a gloriously strong and independent woman, and the story is all about how women can be every bit as fierce as men, and every bit as clever. I loved that there were still brilliant male characters in the story as well, which lends truth to the message instead of becoming anti-man as much as pro-female. I am in love with the replacement Donnelly made for the typical kindly fairy-godmother. Tannaquil the fairy queen is ferocious and earthy and savage, and I think it fits the tone of the story beautifully. Doing what it takes to make your dreams come true is not a clean and easy business, it can take perseverance and questioning what you believe in, and ultimately questioning what it is you really want. The trio of Chance, Fate and Tannaquil was beautiful, I love how they balance each other out, each of them working for what they believe to be the best future.
I also adored the role of the mice, which was true to the Disney cartoon we all love. They were sweet and caring, and very very cute.
I absolutely love the mix of historical setting and outright fairytale, and the darker tone is mysterious and true to the nature of the original tale. I would definitely recommend this book to fairytale lovers, even ones that don't typically enjoy a retelling or twisted tale. It's good fun, and it doesn't change or ruin the nature of the original story in the least; it is it's own narrative with wonderful characters and some very inspiring messages.
One of my favourite things about the prose is the way that the author sometimes speaks directly to the reader - I found those passages to be some of the most interesting and impactful pieces of writing.
Ultimately I think that Jennifer Donnelly did a fantastic job with Stepsister, both carefully stewarding the integrity of a classic fairytale we all love, whilst simultaneously creating her own ingenious twists and fairytale elements with a professional hand.
