I love a modern fairytale retelling, and this one was great! Between the hardcore feminist message, a queer main character, and all the plot twists, I found this one hard to put down (don't be deterred by the length -- it reads quite fast. Personally I finished it in one sitting, which I don't manage very often). My only criticism is that some of the early relationships we're introduced to felt a bit forced, and some of the plot points occurred a little too conveniently. However, as someone who reads a decent amount of YA, this didn't really bother me since this tends to occur quite often in this genre (and it does get better as the book progresses). Overall, if you're looking for a darker and more sinister take on the classic Cinderella story, definitely check this one out.

Dnfed 20% I think I will coke back to this one. It reads more like a 3 star book for me. My problem is with the odd world building and the basic main character. Sadly, I wasn't feeling it all too much.

This book is beautifully written feministic version of the fairy tale of Cinderella.

I loved how our main character Sophia just couldn't fit into the world the way every other girl her age tried to. Sophia has known for a while that she is different, she doesn't want a prince to marry she wants a princess. In this world though that is not something you are allowed to feel or want since every year you have to try and find a husband at the King's ceremonial ball. When it comes to Sophia's first ball even though she tries she isn't able to stop herself and she breaks free. In breaking free she finds out what is truly going on with the king, her kingdom, what happened to Cinderella, and so much more! She decides that regardless of what she has to give up she will make sure to expose all the lies and help to free him community from the magic that currently traps them.

a not-so-quick summary!!
Cinderella is Dead centers around Sophia, a teen girl who is not into men, but forced to go to the ball because all girls must go when they turn sixteen. She really isn’t into the idea, as you would assume, because she loves her best friend, Erin (yes, Erin is a girl).

In this society, everything is extremely patriarchal. Women can’t go out alone, there’s a curfew, every household must own a copy of Cinderella’s story, approved by the castle. Yes, everything sucks.

Before the day of the ball, Sophia also becomes friends with Luke, her neighbor who is not into girls. Luke is gay and that is not allowed in this society, but it’s easier for men than women in this society. Men can choose which year they want to go to the ball, women must go as soon as they’re old enough. Once again, everything really does suck.

The day of the ball, Sophia shares one last moment with Erin, who doesn’t want to run away with Sophia. She wants to get married and please her parents and conform. Erin up until this point had been continuously saying this already, but I guess Sophia really was hoping Erin would change her mind.

At the ball, Sophia is surprised to see Luke, who tells her he’ll choose her so neither of them have to suffer with anyone else. Unfortunately for him, his childhood bullies are also at the ball, and since they’re ranked higher than him, they have more claim over Sophia than he does. Gross, but that’s how messed up this society is. Luke gets beaten up and dragged away by palace guards shortly after and Sophia decides she’s had enough.

She makes her quick escape and finds herself in an unfamiliar place, where she meets a girl named Constance. Constance tells her that she’s in Cinderella’s mausoleum, and the story they all know about Cinderella and Prince Charming and the fairy godmother isn’t the full truth. Together, they decide they need to do something about the oppressive rule of the king and his predecessors.

worldbuilding!
I love the casual worldbuilding! It doesn’t feel convoluted and very natural as they just casually drop more details about their world into the story.

The name of the kingdom is called Mersailles and the capital city, where the king’s castle resides, is called Lille. To a side of the town is a forest that nobody ever goes into, because of the guards but also because of fear of what’s inside.

Later on in the novel, Constance mentions that she’s heard of a witch with a magic mirror in a far away kingdom. Since nobody ever leaves Mersailles, it’s interesting to see the possibilities of the rest of the fairy tales existing in this world.

Overall, a great book about (quite literally) smashing the patriarchy, with wlw romance, a Black main character, and a healthy amount of suspense. 5/5.

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. The story is great and I really enjoyed the overall shape of events. The idea of subverting fairytales is something that I love, and this idea, of having the Cinderella story be used to create a world and a society that controls women is interesting. But the worldbuilding isn't as strong as it could be, and neither is the character development. The novel seems to rest more on a general sense of unease rather than nuance and character development. We don't get to see the protagonist change or develop in a real or meaningful way (although the fact that she is able to be who she is by the end of the novel is positive). The pacing of much of the novel felt off - parts were rushed (like the ending) while other parts seemed to drag on (much of the beginning/establishing the world). Although I didn't see them coming, some of the twists once revealed didn't feel new or exciting. The novel was a fun read, and I can see my students enjoying it, but I don't think I'll be returning to it for rereading.

Cinderella's ball was 200 years ago, but the tradition continues. Young girls are required to attend the annual ball for a choosing ceremony so that they, too, can find their happily-ever-after. But what if they don't want to be chosen? And who decides what will make them happy? The kingdom has become a place of fear and silence for women and girls, and Sophia is determined to change that. I felt that there was a lot of repeating and overemphasis on a few key points at the beginning, but the end is worth it.

Cinderella is probably the fairy tale that gets retold most frequently. In part, this is due to our familiarity with the tale. It's low hanging fruit. Sometimes, as in this book, its because we question the message it sends to impressionable children. Byron has taken this story farther, darker than most retellings. She imagines a world in which girls are forced to replay the Cinderella story every year, where girls must emulate the "perfect" femininity of Cinderella and no deviation is tolerated. Where men are the absolute arbiters of everything that happens in the home and in business. Unsurprisingly, our protagonist does not fit that mold and can't help but push boundaries, no matter the threat it poses. It's an exploration of misogyny run rampant and the destructive nature of restricting women too much. The set up is solid, the resolution a bit shaky. What I like about it is that tend is not clean. It's not wrapped up tidy. It's merely a step in the right direction.

I was sucked into Cinderella is Dead from the very first page. Bayron’s writing was engaging and the plot was a clever twist on the story we all know well. In Cinderella is Dead, women must be obedient to their heads of households, hope that their Fairy Godmother blesses them with beautiful finery, and marry whomever showed an interest.

Sophia had a quiet resistance to this way of life and wanted nothing more than to marry her childhood friend who didn’t want to make any waves. While Erin was ultimately not the love interest, I was surprised by how quickly Sophia moved on from her. One night she was begging Erin to run away with her, then the next day she was making eyes at Constance, a descendant from Cinderella’s family. I enjoyed Sophia and Constance’s journey to uncover Cinderella’s true story and the final twist was surprising. There were a few weak links in this story that nagged at me, but they can be easily overlooked. If you enjoyed The Grace Year, I recommend adding this debut to your TBR.

3.5 stars

I have to admit that the 1950’s animated version of Cinderella was one of my favorite movies as a little girl. I could probably still sing every song. I honestly don’t know exactly what I liked about it. It might have been the mice. Anyway, I don’t think I will ever be able to watch the movie in the same way again after reading Kalynn Bayron’s new book Cinderella is Dead. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Great books can inspire us to view media with a critical lens and this is definitely a great book.

Cinderella is not the main character in Cinderella is Dead. In fact, the book takes place 200 years after her death. Her story, however, plays an inescapable role in the world depicted in this book. King Manford of Mersailles still holds an annual ball which all the young ladies must attend. At this ball, men choose their brides. If a young woman has not been chosen after three balls, she is “forfeit” and must leave her family and friends behind. Of course, being chosen as a bride is not always the better option. Especially for young women with violent husbands or young women who do not want husbands at all.

Sophia wants to find her happily ever after with Erin, who she believes feels the same way about her. But Erin is much less willing to try to escape Mersailles. They have no guarantee that things will be better elsewhere. Sophia, though, refuses to be handed off as a prize to an undeserving suitor and flees. She is joined by Constance, a descendant of the “Ugly Stepsisters” and is schooled in the real story of Cinderella; a very different version than the one she had been forced to read over and over again. On their journey together to meet the fairy godmother and stop King Manford, Sophia and Constance develop a deep connection to one another. It really couldn’t be a Cinderella story without some romance.

Mersailles is a brutal world and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this text for students in the upper elementary grades who might be reading different versions of the Cinderella story. Of course, the Brothers Grimm version isn’t exactly Disney material either. Bayron does an excellent job of contrasting the traditional Cinderella story with the one that she has created for Cinderella is Dead, and readers in high school might find a dive into the gender issues of traditional fairy tales to be a fascinating quest. Another one of the many fabulous elements of the book is that Sophia is a Black heroine in a book that does not explicitly address race. As Nic Stone wrote in an opinion piece for Cosmopolitan, “I can’t help but wonder how different the world would look if we’d all grown up seeing Black people do the stuff white people did in books.”

There have been many books that have presented an alternative view of fairy tales. What is special about Bayron’s work is that it looks at the repercussions that these tales can have centuries after they are originally told. Cinderella is Dead might be fiction, but there are certainly elements of Mersailles in current society. Fairy tales have been part of our shared experiences for generations. Books like Cinderella is Dead help us to question the lessons we take from repeated exposures to traditional fairy tales and to read more critically in general.

Sixteen year old Sophia lives in Lille. In this kingdom, people live by the book & lessons of Cinderella.
Cinderella died over 200 years ago but the kings since then have established laws that dictate the way the people in the kingdom, particularly the women, should live. Teen girls are required to attend a royal ball where they can be claimed by a man. If they attend 3 balls and aren't claimed they are forfeited and disappear.

Sophia is dreading attending the ball. She is in love with her best friend Erin and isn't interested in being claimed by a man. In a spur of the moment decision, Sophia leaves and winds up hiding in Cinderella's mausoleum. There she meets a girl around her age named Constance. Constance claims to be part of a resistance that fights against the king's laws.

This was a fun twist on the classic Cinderella story. While the character Cinderella is long dead in this version, her influence is definitely there. This is a female-empowerment story that also brings up the right of LGBTQ+ folks to love who they want to love. I loved all of the inclusivity messages in this book. I highly recommend it!

I love the cover for this and I thought this concept was super interesting but I did not find the execution engaging at all. Nothing ever felt fully fleshed out; not the characters or the world building. The writing felt very “tell not show.” There’s a lot of great diversity in this but it was not a win for me.

This sounded incredibly promising, especially when I saw it pitched as Cinderella meets Merida, with black queer girls who take down the patriarchy. Also the cover? Absolutely gorgeous.

I really love retellings because I’m always interested in seeing what elements of the original are used and built upon, or twisted. I don’t think I’ve read many Cinderella retellings, but there’s definitely a lot of room for creative interpretation—so I was excited to see what might happen.

That said, I really struggled with this story. There really isn’t a lot of context given. Basically, Prince Charming decreed that women have no rights, men can do whatever they like, and Cinderella is worshipped as some ideal among girls. The patriarchal structure of society is brought up so often, with a frequently repeated line that men are terrible. It never sat well with me that readers had to be constantly reminded of this, or that almost every male character had to fit this image.

I really didn’t care for the main character, Sophia. I definitely understood her struggle against society, especially since she has no interest marrying a man. But I found it incredibly frustrating when she would say or do things with the knowledge that it could get her in deep trouble, or worse. She acted without thinking of her own safety or that of others, which is not a very endearing quality.

I made it about 50% through, but found the writing and story overall to be rather bland. Unfortunately, a pass from me.

I really wanted to love this story. A Cinderella retelling with a dark, mysterious twist? Not to mention a gay black heroine. I felt like this would be a dead ringer of winner. However, this just didn’t work for me and I struggled with finishing it.

While as a whole this is a really unique concept, I just had a hard time grasping the world and the characters within the pages. I never fully understood Sophia. I get that she doesn’t want to be forced into this awful system of going to a ball only to become someone’s chosen bride. Especially given the fact that women are viewed as second class citizens. However, that’s all I got from her. I never truly felt like I knew who she was as a person. We meet her and she’s in love with her best friend who clearly wants to follow protocol and find a husband. Then she meets another girl, who she seems to immediately fall in love with, and the two of them team up to overthrow the king. I also didn’t understand the king and his motives. Actually, I don’t think he even had any motives other than he could, so he did. I just felt like a lot of the development was focused more on the misogamy and Sophie’s sexual preference, rather than the fantasy world and the characters themselves. Which is a shame because I think I would have enjoyed this story so much more if it focused on the fantasy aspect and dove deeper in character development.

I was so looking forward to this story. I immediately bumped it up on my reading list when I got it. However, I just found myself bored during it and could never fully latch onto the characters or their motives. Even though this was a miss for me, I could see a lot of people liking this story.

Cinderella is Dead is a new fantasy standalone. Love that of course! Everything starts and finishes in one book. It's a Cinderella retelling that deals with how history can be twisted to help those in power. So in this world, it's been 200 years since Cinderella has died, so 200 years since she found her prince charming. Everywhere you look, everything is about Cinderella. and the magic of the ball, the magic of the fairy godmother. It's almost like the religion of this land leading it to being a very patriarchal society. Men are heads of the households, they have the last word. Women are second class citizens. They have to be home by 8 pm every night! Lame, right?

So when girls turn 16, they're required to go to the annual ball to find a husband and the men of the kingdom tend to find wives. If the girls don't attend, it's bad for their families and themselves. They literally get 3 shots to do this and if not, they disappear. Sophie our main character has just turned 16 and she's getting ready to attend the ball but she does not want to go. There are a few other characters who are very important but I do want you to experience them as organically as possible. This story really focuses on girls who want to create their own fairy tale ending. I really enjoyed the voice in this. I was immediately drawn to the story because of the representation.

This is a very fast paced novel. At times it really feels like the author hops through it a little bit but all in all she gets straight to the point and I recommend very much.

This story will be a great one to add to the classroom library. It is a clever and diverse retelling that tells an adventure for the world today.

Wow. Just everything I thought of Cinderella is gone. what a scary thought to think of, that as a girl you go to a ball to find a future husband when it a man does select you, then you vanish. Or is it banished? Read to find out more!

I am proud to say that this book is a page turner. I can’t stop reading until the final page. The twisty drama inside the book got me goosebumps. I’ve read dystopian retellings before but this book has a tremendous impact on my love on fairytale and princesses. Though, some instalove scenes didn’t convince me more to believe, but the friendship love in this is an actual gem. I can’t stop thinking now if Cinderella is a living princess with more to tell but now gone, or is there really something in every pages of Cinderella’s story? I didn’t expect that plot twist to be so good. I was literally shock when I read it and it didn’t imagine it to be so surreal. The collaboration of Cinderella’s ancient story to our present struggles bring this book to my top-tier.

Retellings are always a hit or miss for me but I can't help but read them because... well, fairy tales... and who doesn't love a darker version? Definitely not this reader. Here we get a world where men rule maniacally and women must comply. At a certain age, girls must attend a ball in Cinderella's honor in hopes of being chosen. And if they're not, they're forfeited... and can also be forfeited for any other reason if they go against the rules.

"People who don't fit nicely into the boxes the kinds of Mersailles have defined are simply erased, as if our lives don't matter."

There are so many things I love about this book. We get a queer Black girl as the lead who discovers she'd rather have the princess rather than the prince. And we get to see her fight against the patriarchy of Charming's legacy that is oppressive. We see a completely different view of Cinderella and her story. (And yes for some humor.... pockets, we do love them!) My absolute favorite part was the reimagining of the fairy godmother, Amina, and the important lessons strewn into the storyline.

However, there were things that also just didn't work for me here. I just couldn't with the instalove - especially in the whiplash way it was presented. Also, I would've loved to see a bit more depth in general with the characters and a bit more world building. To see Sophia's disenchantment as she grew would've really brought her character a little more to life. But I will state that while this is pretty predictable, there was one part that did surprise me and I absolutely loved it!

The author touches on homophobia, domestic abuse and rampant misogyny (to name a few). And I was here for all of this and truly was enthralled with the storyline. Much respect to the author for this unique take and portraying more of what we need in books these days.

5 🌟 An absolute delight to sink into. Cinderella meets the lesbian feminist revolution, and I'm so here for it. While this is a YA novel, I'm confident in recommending it for all ages! The writing is phenomenal.

3.5/5 stars

I will start by saying I really enjoyed my time reading this. While the entire Cinderella trope for me has been played out, this was an original take of sorts on the story. I will also admit that while reading I got angry often at how the townspeople for being so compliant ( I know it's part of the commentary) I just didn't enjoy that part. Overall I would definitely recommend giving this unique spin on a classic tale a chance.