Showing posts with label Cinderella. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinderella. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire (#TheCollaborators)

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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
by Gregory Maguire

368 pages
William Morrow, 1999
fantasy
Finished in 10 days

Rating: ★★★★

"The wind being fierce and the tides unobliging, the ship from Harwich has a slow time of it."

#TheCollaborators Review: It's my first time writing this kind of review. Basically I'll just be briefly interjecting tweets my fellow collaborator (Alaina of That's What She Read) and I shared back and forth about the book. Of course I'll get into more detail here and there but for the most part the sequence of tweets speak for themselves I think.

And what better place to start than with...

I actually did like this book more than I thought I would initially. After reading the first two Wicked books I was a bit apprehensive to delve into another Maguire world, afraid it wouldn't be as good. I'm glad this collaboration has made me change my mind and look forward to reading his other non-Wicked books! But what was so important to the story (which is a different take on Cinderella if you hadn't guessed already) is the characters. There are quite a few and I could go on and on about each one. In fact, Alaina and I got pretty in depth on a few of the characters, peeling away layers. I'm sure if we had been reviewing this book in person it would have been worth "vlogging" as well.
I found the character of Iris fascinating. Especially (and here is a bit of a spoiler so skip this paragraph to avoid it) the confusion I had right at the end of the book. Instinctively I assumed the "confession of an Ugly Stepsister" was referencing Iris. For all intents and purposes she appears to be the main character, aside from Clara (Cinderella) of course. But I knew (and predicted) early on that Ruth was going to play a big role in this book. Then I finished it and had that Homer Simpson "D'Oh" moment because while Iris is described as being plain throughout the book, Ruth is the sister who is described as being really ugly.
Moving right along we touched upon Margarethe, the "evil" stepmother, who, in my opinion, wasn't evil so much as doing what a mother had to do in order to keep her daughters clothed and fed. Unfortunately, that entailed doing a few questionable things that Alaina found unreasonable. Just one of many aspects of the book we differed on.
Then there's Clara! What an interesting take on "Cinderella" who is always depicted as the good person who is a victim of circumstance. Not in this book. In fact she is very withdrawn and dark inside. At first she acts bratty but when her mother dies she changes drastically and wants to be a recluse, no contact with the outside world at all. Just leave her in her own little corner in her own little chair in the kitchen. The way she is talked into going to the Ball and her fairy godmother in-fact being Iris with the help of Caspar is ingenious!
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I've left out a few important male characters like the Master who impresses Iris with his painters eye. His apprentice Caspar is hinted at being a homosexual living a life of sin with the Master, but is that Margarethe's way of getting Iris to stop pining for him? There's also Van den Meer, Clara's father who ends up plagued with guilt, unable to care for his family. Every moment is vital to the continuation of the story. Alaina picked up on one major aspect of the story that I didn't give much attention to...


I finally leave you with some "food for thought" if you have the book but haven't read it yet or you're debating picking it up and reading it. One of the last points (there were many others I didn't delve into here) my collaborator and I touched on was the cover. I think all of Maguire's books are done similarly, where there are two covers. The first having a little window showing a characters face and then you open the book and you see an image that differs from the cover involving that characters face in a different scene. I love book covers. They are one of the main reasons why I'll pick up a book to read.


Want to see the complete twitter conversation we had about this book (and future books)? Search #TheCollaborators

Summary: Is this new land a place where magics really happen?

From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.

In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....

We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?

Extreme beauty is an affliction

Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.

Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?

While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household—and the treacherous truth of her former life.

God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!

Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed—and love unveiled—in the most unexpected of places.

To learn more about Gregory Maguire visit his website here.
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Friday, August 24, 2012

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (Book Review)

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The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell
by Chris Colfer

438 pages
Little Brown Books, July 2012
fairy tale/fantasy/magic
Read In: 3 ½ days

My Rating: ★★★★

My Review: Even though this book is geared towards young adults ranging from 8 - 12 years old, I read this 400+ page book for two reasons: 1. Chris Colfer wrote it & 2. Who doesn’t like a good fairy tale? You’re never too old to read fairy tales.

I found this book to be rather inventive. How he was able to intertwine all those fairy tales and still manage to leave himself room for several follow-up books in this made-for trilogy opener. While I feel the editing could have gone a bit deeper than I imagine it did considering it was left at over 400 pages! Then again, after Harry Potter I suppose there is no reason to shorten a book meant to be read by a younger audience. These kids devour books so quickly now!

The twins and main characters of the story are believable in their dialogue, except for the range of emotions the female character, Alex, goes through. I can’t say I remember what it was like when I was 12 but this girl would tear up over the littlest thing! The brother - sister relationship was spot on and I found a little bit of myself in each other them. There were lessons to be learned, as with any good fairy tale, and morals to be remembered. All in all, it’s a book any parent could and should read with their child and discuss as they go along.

I hear rumors of a possible movie being made out of this book? If so, I hope it’s completely animated. Some things are better depicted drawn and come off too corny when you take a children’s book and portray it with real people. Or if not completely then let it start with real people and when they fall into the book they become animated, like The Page Master or Rock-a-doodle.

Synopsis: Alex and Conner Bailey’s world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Book Review)

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Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)
by Marissa Meyer

387 pages
Macmillan Publishers, January 2012
young adult/romance/science fiction/dystopian
Read in 4 days

My Rating: ★★★★1/2


My Review: Very few people don’t know the story of Cinderella. If you’re like me, you’ve seen several movie versions of the movie growing up as well. Not only that, but being a fairytale, it’s easy to see aspects of this story in other, more modern tales. The classic (and oft times tragic) story of girl who likes boy but due to some societal or financial reason she does not feel worthy of his affection. Similar to that of Romeo & Juliet, only not as tragic because in Cinderella it’s one of those “and they lived happily ever after” kind of endings. This book is the story of Cinderella but told in the future and in Beijing, China. I think that location would never have entered my mind for a Cinderella remake but I must say, for the larger story she’s looking to tell in the continuation of this series, it works.

If you like the fairytale and are not open for huge change from that idea this book will not interest you. Otherwise, read on, because there is something for everyone in this story. Cinder is a cyborg (meaning certain parts of her anatomy and internal organs are robotic) and as such is looked down upon by some people, including, of course, her wicked step-mother Adri, and her two step-sisters. I was happy to see that one of the step-sisters actually befriends Cinder and they get along rather well until tragedy hits. I’ll try not to give any spoilers but let’s just say there is SO much more to this story that some stupid ball and fairy godmother. There are no pumpkins (unless you count the orange car she finds in the junkyard) or midnight bells to listen for. There is a greater danger in this story than losing ones slipper too. Try losing ones mechanical foot!

One criticism I had with the book was the humor. I found it VERY dry, but I suspect that is because the culture where it takes place is different from what I’m used to here. If that is the case then I get two thumbs up to the writer for being so thorough in her research on this book that she was able to perfectly capture the way the Chinese communicate to each other in dialogue.

Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

To learn more about Marissa Meyer please visit her site.
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