This incredible work from Kalynn Bayron takes the Cinderella tale and turns it into a resilient story of oppression, strength, survival, queer Black love, and feminist revolution.

I cannot recommend this young adult book enough. Feel free to continue to read my review but please know that you should just buy it now.

Sophia, a young Black woman, lives in Lille within Marseilles under the tyrant of King Manford. She has come of age and is now to report to the Ball: where all women of age come in their finest wares to be presented to the king and all eligible men. Any man of any age may choose a girl to become his wife (and property) and every girl gets just three chances at the Ball to find the happiness that Cinderella modeled 200 years prior. If they are failed to be picked for marriage, they are forfeited by their families and sent to work for the kingdom. Or so they are told.

Sophia does not want to go. She does not want to be trapped in the oppression of their kingdom and most of all, she wants to be with her best friend Erin. But they are forced to the ball and chaos reigns. Erin is picked to be someones wife and Sophia manages to escape the castle where she meets Constance. Constance is intriguing to Sophia: Constance is beautiful, smart, strong, and wearing pants. They team up to tear down the system and learn that the King, the story of Cinderella and the evil stepsisters, and the Fairy Godmother are not what they seem.

3.5 stars—I wanted to love this book based on the description and cover (5 stars there), but the whole first half of this book was kind of a mess. I felt like something, or some part of the story, was missing, and it all felt very rushed. It wasn’t until about halfway through that I actually started to like the book. As we start to learn more about Sophia and the history of Mersailles, the strangeness of King Mansford’s laws and the way they basically worshiped Cinderella, the story actually starts to make sense. Once you’re able to grasp the absurdity of how people could live this way, (yes, I know it is a fantasy world, but it still didn’t feel even a little realistic how complicit these people were) the underlying plot is actually pretty good. I loved the unique retelling of Cinderella and most of the characters (minus Erin, yuck!). Overall, I think the story just needed a little more development and detail up front. I’d still put this in my classroom because there is someone, somewhere that needs this f-the patriarchy version of Cinderella in their life!!

**Free E-ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I was originally drawn in by this cover and title, they gave me the impression that this was going to be the book for me. I am happy to report that I was 100% correct, and even before I finished the book I was already making my friends sick by talking about it so much (JK they are excited to read it too).

The story is about Sophia, a 16 year old girl who is preparing to attend the annual ball at the palace. While in most fairy tales, the young girls would be excited to get to dress up and attend the ball in hopes of finding love, in this story it is every girls nightmare. In their land, women are forced to be married by a certain age or else become a forfeit. What that actually means is unclear, as they are never seen or heard from again. All the Sophia wants is to run away to be with her bestfriend Erin, but her family, society and even Erin tell her it's impossible. On the night of the ball Sophia makes a desperate escape and ends up running into Constance, the great granddaughter of one of the Evil Stepsisters. As she gets to know more about this strange girl she learns that there is much more to the legend of Cinderella than palace approved story book has led everyone to believe.

I truly enjoyed this story and loved these characters Kalynn Bayron has created. My official rating for this book is 4.5 stars, but I have rounded up to 5. I would like to have seen a bit more depth to the characters, and I felt that the end was wrapped up a bit to neatly. I am looking to reading more work from this author in the future (keeping my fingers crossed for another fairy tale remix).

Cinderella is Dead breathes new life into a classic fairy tale that everyone thinks they already know. Kalynn Bayron completely flips the story and will keep readers engaged through every page of this book. Sophia lives in a post=Cinderella world where the fairy tale is used to control young women and marry them off. Bayron uses the classic story to create something entirely new and it works so well. The twist near the end of the book is perfectly pulled off and will catch readers off guard. Fans of Cinder and A Blade So Black will love this book!

Cinderella is Dead was a highly anticipated book for me, I absolutely love retellings and was quite excited when I was approved on NetGalley for an eARC. Well, it wasn't what I had hoped for, I thought the plot was very bland and reminded me of every other YA fantasy plot. I didn't see anything unique about the storyline and the main character drove me up the wall. Like, I get that she wants to over throw the patriarchy and I'm all for that, but it just wasn't believable and she was not that developed. I wasn't angry with her about what was going on like I should have been. I mean this world is super messed up, and the idea of women going to this ball to be picked by old men to marry is gross. It just didn't wow me though.

Another thing that immediately threw my off and made me roll my eyes was the insta love that goes on. I'm not for it and now I'm really irritated with the main character. I get that insta love is a thing and it's my opinion to love or hate it, but at least make it somewhat believable. Our main character loves her best friend and wants to run away with her before the ball happens, but the minute she meets another girl she is smitten with her. No thank you.

I really think a lot of people will like this book, I think after reading so many fantasy books, this one just fell flat. It needed so much more world building and characters being fleshed out. It also needed to be a little more believable throughout the story.

200 years ago, Cinderella fell for her Prince Charming at a ball, and their courtship was so romantic every girl in Lille is required to reenact it on pain of death. It's a horrible meetcute: financially ruinous, degrading, and generally resulting in abusive marriages. The whole country is a misogynistic nightmare. Everyone submits out of sheer terror, but sixteen-year-old Sophia's love for Erin is so great she will tear down a regime to be with her. Sophia is a painfully generic dystopia heroine compared to her revolutionary ally, the stabtastic warrior Constance.

Between the gorgeous cover and this pitch - “queer black girls team up to overthrow the patriarchy in the former kingdom of Cinderella" - I knew I had to read Cinderella is Dead. I’ve always been a fan of fairytales and retellings, and this one has made it onto my list of top favourites.

All the girls in the kingdom of Lille are forced to attend the annual ball, during which the goal is to be chosen for marriage. They have three chances, after which they’re considered undesirable and are often forfeited to the palace, never to be seen or heard from again. In Lille, women are little more than possessions, and men are allowed to treat them however they see fit, which is often with abuse and absolutely no respect. Sophia doesn’t want any part of that for herself or anyone else; she knows things should be different, and she wants to live a happy, free life with her girlfriend. Disgusted and disheartened, Sophia flees her first ball and ends up at Cinderella’s mausoleum, where she meets the only living descendent of Cinderella’s stepsisters, Constance, and begins to learn that the true tale of Cinderella is far different from the palace-approved version known to everyone in the land.

I loved so many things about this book. As I was reading, I saw countless parallels to today’s reality, and I loved how the story was a commentary on modern society and the issues many people face while also incorporating magical elements that managed to feel realistic. The world Sophia lived in was bleak and heartbreaking, but she was such a bright light. She wanted to live in a world where women weren’t possessions and couldn’t be forfeited for things beyond their control, where they were able to choose who and what they wanted to be - and who they wanted to be with. When she met Constance and saw how brave, tenacious, and determined she was, she realized it was possible for her to be like that too. Those things had been in her all along, despite being told she wasn’t entitled to happiness or freedom, and Constance helped her see it was possible to do more than just wish things were different.

I really loved how Cinderella is Dead turned the familiar tale on its head in so many ways. A lot of people have an issue with the Cinderella story because they don’t like the idea of the prince ‘saving’ her or the insta-love aspect, or, in the case of the live-action Disney remake, the fact Cinderella’s motto was “have courage and be kind” but it led to her being a pushover. Sophia and Constance knew courage was necessary, but they put actual action behind it too. They were a fierce pair, and I cheered them on every step of the way. Sophia challenged the status quo and knew things should be different and could be, and meeting Constance helped her see how she could act on that desire for change and equality.

Full of fierce, kickass characters, an engaging plot, and enough magic to completely enchant you, Cinderella is Dead is a hopeful, inspiring modern day fairytale that should be on everyone’s TBR.

Cinderella has been dead for 200 years. That might make you wonder how this story has anything to do with Cinderella, but JUST YOU WAIT.

It all starts with Sophia and the ball. Lots of girls in the kingdom are excited to go to the ball, but Sophia is dreading it. She doesn’t want to end up with some man she doesn’t know. She’s seen what women in the past have had to deal with when they are “chosen.” Abusive husbands are almost expected. Not to mention, she wants to be with her friend, Erin. But as Erin will not run away with Sophia and Sophia won’t leave all the girls in the kingdom to their fate, she lets her mother prepare her for the ball.

When the girls arrive, it’s worse than any of them could have imagined. Men leer and coerce and barter for the girls they want for themselves. But it’s the king himself who is the worst of them all.

By some stroke of luck, Sophia is able to get away from the party and ends up in Cinderella’s mausoleum. It’s there that she meets Constance, a girl who has been running from the King and his guards all of her life.

They make a plan to meet up and Sophia does something she never thought she’d do. She leaves Erin behind. She says one last goodbye to her parents and then finds Constance at the meeting place.

Who is Constance? She is a descendant of one of the original step-sisters. After Cinderella married Prince Charming, her stepmother and step-sisters had to run from the kingdom or risk being disappeared or killed. Why?

They weren’t like what we’ve been told all these years. They weren’t evil. They deeply cared for Cinderella and were helping her seek revenge.

Cinderella went to the palace that memorable night not to experience what it was like to be a royal or win the heart of the prince. She went there to kill someone (really trying with no spoilers here lol).

And her step-mother and step-sisters helped her with her plan! When the plan didn’t work out, they had to run.

It’s been 200 years, but the descendants of those three women are still in hiding, trying to escape the long arm of the palace and the King and Constance is one of them.

So, Sophia and Constance escape the kingdom and after some thought, decide they need to find Cinderella’s fairy godmother to figure out what exactly is going on.

What they find out on this journey and during their fight to free all the women of the kingdom will blow your mind. They do find the fairy godmother, but….you will not believe what happens next.

Ok…one spoiler: THEY BRING CINDERELLA BACK FROM THE DEAD!!

That’s all I’m saying and I’m not giving any context. If that doesn’t draw you in, I don’t know what to tell you.

Let’s talk Sophia and Constance. OMG I love their relationship. Sophia may start the book being madly in love with Erin, but as they spend more time together, Sophia and Constance form a almost unbreakable bond. Yes, this is a f/f book and it gives me life. The development of their relationship was one of my favorite parts of the whole book.

I also really liked the juxtaposition between how Erin treats Sophia versus how Constance treats her. Erin is very scared of breaking any rules and is not willing to run away with Sophia. It also seems like maybe Sophia’s love towards Erin is stronger than Erin’s is for Sophia.

With Constance and Sophia, their love for each other is strong and equal.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two romantic relationships presented in this way and the first relationship not shown as a bad thing or the person as a bad person. It’s made clear that Erin is a good person. We (the reader) never think of Erin as bad or wrong. She’s simply stuck in an impossible situation. Saying you’re strong enough to run away from all you’ve known and actually doing it can be really tough. Even when Erin ends up in an awful marriage, she still doesn’t see running away as an option. She doesn’t want any harm to come to her family. You can’t blame her.

In their situation, who knows if we would be Erin or Sophia?

But Erin isn’t the only character that is well-developed; all the characters are. While the evil characters are definitely full-on bad, the reveal of their secrets is done in such a way that they never seem boring or one note. Their secrets come out a little at a time and each time one is revealed…just picture me yelling WTF at my computer screen.

Trigger warnings: mentions of domestic abuse, sexism, misogyny

Cinderella is Dead is one of my favorite books of the year. I’ve read a lot of retellings of fairy tales and classic books and this is by far one of the best. Every time I think about what might’ve gone into thinking up the different parts of this book, I’m just even more in awe of it. I cannot wait to see what else Kaylnn Bayron creates.

I am giving Cinderella is Dead 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I received an e-arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

I was very intrigued by the idea of this story and turning the fairy tale of Cinderella on its head and creating something completely new from it. I don't believe that I have read any other Cinderella retellings in the past so I was very curious to see how the author, Kalynn Bayron, would go about it. The retelling aspects of the story were probably my favorite parts in the book.

Overall, I thought that the story was good. It was interesting enough to keep turning the pages but I never felt fully drawn into the story. I never really had that moment of connection with any of the characters in the story to truly feel compelled with the events that were happening. At the beginning of the story, the main character is in a secret relationship with another girl in her town and she seems to really care for her and wants to find a way that they can escape and be together. But after some events happen in the book and our main character manages to escape but not with the girl she loves, she ends up running into another girl and seems to have feelings for her almost immediately. While the main character doesn't forget about her old love interest, it still seemed like she moved on rather quickly and was not as heartbroken as I would've expected her to be.

I felt like the beginning of the book was a little more dragged out than it needed to be and that the ending could have used a little more action and been a little more drawn out to really feel the full impact of all of the events that happened. To me, the middle really seemed to be the strongest and most intriguing part of the book. I really enjoyed seeing as things were coming together and the plan was evolving. I was still mostly intrigued through the ending but I felt like the section that was meant to be the most action packed was just a lot of talking and very little action was actually done so the pay off for the end of the book didn't seem to be as climatic as it should've been.

I DEVOURED this book in 2 days, and it is a solid binge read. I loved the idea of the premise (basically a tyrannical society with the Cinderella story as a founding origin story for a patriarchal Handmaid's Tale-esc kingdom), and was pulled along with the story to see how it played out. There were some times when the story seemed to move almost too fast (like I needed more details), and Sophia is a bit of a Romeo (staring off terribly in love with one person but then falling for another), but I think how fast I read the book is indicative of how good it is. I also loved that it's a standalone, as it's really hard to find good standalone fantasies. It also had a truly lovely twist at the end of the book. This book would be perfect for a a long trip or to occupy a day of reading. It's also perfect for anyone who wants to read about a queer black girl smash the patriarchy and/or fans of the fairy tale remix.

I enjoyed this retelling very much. A new, original take on the classic story that will resonant with current times. The beginning was a little repetitive but overall
A exciting, fast-paced read.

DNF @ 57%

As is so often the case, I love the premise and the rep, but the writing just isn't working for me. So despite the immersive worldbuilding, I just couldn't get invested enough in the characters or the slow-build action to want to continue — though my only major critique, apart from personal disinterest, is the messiness and ethical dubiousness (not to get into spoilers) of the romantic subplot.

But with all that said, I want to point out that QPoC retellings are 100% something I'm here for, in principle. So I hope lots of people give this one a chance and enjoy it!

Cinderella is dead, but for two hundred years her story has been acted out by countless girls living under the thumb of King Manford of Mersailles in the city of Lille. Rather than being a magical event as is depicted in the story, girls are required to attend, their families going broke in order to provide the best dresses and to stand out in the crowd so their child can be chosen and married to any man who wishes to make a claim on them. They follow these rules or risk that same child being forfeit to the the king where they are never seen nor heard from again.

These are the rules that have been set down for the last 200 years. In Mersailles, women have very few choices and no independence. They are fully at the mercy of their husbands or fathers, but to survive is to give oneself over to it.

However, Sophia does not want to relent. She does not want to be wed unless she can choose her partner, and the only love she has ever known is the love she has for her best friend, Erin. Such a love is absolutely forbidden and is a forfeitable offense in Lille, if not executable. When the day of the ball comes, something horrible happens that forces Sophia to flee. As she runs from the palace, she comes across the abandoned–but not forgotten–tomb of the original Cinderella. Inside, her last remaining relative, Constance, has the answers that Sophia has been seeking. Together they plan to find a way to reveal the dark and horrifying secrets of the king and his rule and bring him to his knees.


I have a thing for retellings, and this checked so many of my boxes. Sophia, although a little reckless and selfish in the beginning, is a strong character with a drive to make things right for all of the oppressed people in the kingdom she grew up in. Women and LGBTQ oppression is a huge problem in Lille and Mersailles, and both affect Sophia and her friends. Spousal abuse runs rampant throughout the book and is another factor driving the story forward. A lot of what the story covers is all too real in our world, and I love that they acknowledge that it’s a long fight and won’t just be over by killing the king. It is a long battle the involves changing hearts and minds, especially with a 200 year long tyrannical patriarchy to disband.

The supporting characters were also described in such an amazing way and the places and people are fleshed out nicely. I could see every phase of the scenes with Amina, the horrible beauty of the palace, and feel the undercurrent of fear and instability of the town. Bayron did an AMAZING job and I can’t wait to see what she has for us next!

Thanks to Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley for an advanced galley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions in the above review are mine.

Predictable. Important. Frustrating.

I was so excited when I got approved for this ARC. It sounded like a book I'd absolutely love, but unfortunately this was not the case.

What I want to start by saying is how happy I am that a book like this was published in today's world. The representation for queer characters is something we do not see enough of in literature, especially within the fantasy genre. The themes of misogyny and starting a revolution are so important to read about, especially in this day and age. Alas, the execution of this story was something I simply could not get behind.

Too many of my personal reader pet peeves were in this book. Too much telling and not showing? Yup. A main character who is far too stubborn and doesn't bother to think before blindly trying to save the world because she's not like other girls? Yup. List like descriptions that blend and blur into each other and describe things you really couldn't care less about? Yup. A predictable plot to you but none of the characters seem smart enough to see what's obviously coming? Yup.

I understand that this book, in the end, was not for me. I ended up marking it as a DNF 20% through because I held zero interest in how things would shake out, and our main protagonist was simply too infuriating to follow along with. Since I never technically finished, it I can only hope Sophia ended up receiving some much needed character development.

Would I recommend this book? Actually, I possibly. It really does depend on the person. These gripes of mine are frustrating enough to drop a book immediately, but that may be a different case for someone else. I think this book is so important to be published into the world, and I love to imagine the light it might bring to some other reader.

I'm a sucker for retellings. This was such a twist on a classic. A lot of the issues mentioned in the book are modern day problems. Men thinking they're entitled to women. Telling us that we look prettier when we smile. Over all it was a good story with a good message.

Cinderella is Dead is a super freshest take on the Cinderella story that I've read in a long time! Themes from the original Cinderella are there, and the fairytale definitely provides a great setup, but in the end, CID is definitely a story about queer black girls overthrowing a dystopian patriarchal society, and I ATE IT UP! I loved the world Kalynn Bayron set up as it felt completely fleshed out and real (even though my stomach was twisting along with Sophia's about the whole ball/hope a man deems you good enough to marry tradition!!!!).

I'm so happy to have had an opportunity to read this book! I haven't read a lot of fantasy books outside of Harry Potter and this was a great book to get back into the genre. I thought the premise was a really cool idea - diving into a darker version of Cinderella and the repercussions that could have.on their society. I do think journey to save the kingdom was a little *too* easy for the protagonist - which I think means the book needed to be longer! Or have multiple books! I would love to spend more time in this world. I love the main character and I love seeing a young, black lesbian fall in love and take down the patriarchy! I will be recommending this book for sure and can't wait to read more from this author!

Cinderella has been dead for the past 200 years, but her legacy is being used to control the women who live in the kingdom of Lille. In a land where women hold no power and all are beholden to their husband, Sophia is forced to attend a ball where she will be selected to be someone’s wife. The girls who aren’t chosen disappear. When everything goes horribly wrong at the ball, Sophia is forced to flee and meets Constance: a descendant of one of the wicked stepsisters. They must work together to find out the real reason behind the balls and the sinister mystery of the king’s power, and discover what it means to fight when the world tells you that you should just give in.

I really enjoyed the story of Cinderella growing up, but I have to say that this is one of the best retellings of Cinderella that I’ve read. Also, what a gorgeous cover! Cinderella Is Dead has a compelling and important story to tell. This book pulls no punches, with poignant writing, and forces the reader to examine their own assumptions/beliefs about well-known stories. I would have liked to see a bit more world-building, but it didn’t impact my enjoyment as the core story here is always Sophia’s mission to defeat the king and save the women and girls of Lille.

Sophia is a strong and determined character, who refuses to give in against insurmountable odds. There was a little instalove when it came to Sophia and Constance, but I didn’t mind because I thought they were cute and it didn’t distract Sophia from her ultimate goal. No matter what, Sophia never forgot the women and girls that she was fighting for. An important and timely retelling of Cinderella, this story deftly re-examines stories we’ve always believed to be true, explores what it means to be brave, and why it is necessary to always use your voice. Cinderella Is Dead releases on July 7, 2020. Thank you to Kalynn Bayron, Bloomsbury YA, and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

***ARC received from Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

If I may, please allow me this confession. I really love the story of Cinderella but more importantly I love a retelling of Cinderella. Cinderella Is Dead is a unique retelling in that its not just retelling the core story that we know but expanding on what are the after affects of the story 200 years after it happened. How can a fairy tale shape the world?

Not well in this case. Not well at all.

The book starts out strong, we follow Sophia as she prepares for the ball now a requirement of all women to attend in order to find that perfect match. Sophie doesn’t want to find her perfect match believing she has already found it in her friend Erin. There is a great deal of diversity in this world. Sophia is a lesbian and refuses to be anything more than what she is. Even if it borders a little too much of selfishness when it comes to her finally interaction with Erin. The world is also racial diverse which is so nice seeing how so many of the fairy tales that we know are predominately white. Even in their retelling while the Prince or secondary character get to be diverse, the heroine is usually white. So to go through this story with Sophia as our heroine is refreshing.

The writing itself is nice, the writer does a great job of weaving the original fairy tale through her own story. How all the concepts of true love and fairy godmothers can be worked to suppress a people. The beginning we feel the helplessness of Sophia as her entire world is about to be turned upside down and that overwhelming want to be free.

Its unfortunate that after a strong start with both story and characters things starts to fall apart. We get bits and pieces of world building, which basically boils down to men are powerful and women are weak. The world doesn’t build up much past that point. This is the main problem I had with this book, everything it just surface level with very little depth underneath it. We needed to spend more time seeing the world with more complex characters. Most of the men we encounter are abusive and sexist, while the women are submissive and usually being beaten by their spouses. This heavy handed approach doesn’t really mesh with the end game idea that people will accept change without a full revolt. Its an ingrained belief within the people to follow the King’s rule and to see every day folks fighting against that in just little ways throughout the book would have added so much to the plot.

The book itself spends the middle chunk away from the city and really caused the plot to flounder. Constance and Sophia have no idea what they are doing what to do if what they seek isn’t there and just making it up as they go but there is no tension in trying to figure out what to do. They are safe outside of the city and spend more time developing an insta-romance (it is a fairy tale retelling after all) than actually focusing on how to overthrow 200 years of tyrannical rule and to get the people to follow along with it. It also didn’t help that during this stretch of time their characters became just the snarky one and the gentle one. Sophia had a lot of spark and made some really stupid decision but it was like that person was gone as soon as a second character came along and was able to take up that mantle.

The climax of the book was both good and bad, I found the villain so nonthreatening despite all the horrible things he had done and was fully capable of doing. If the book had spent more time in the middle part with him in how he became the monster he was before meeting Cinderella it might have been better. For a book that felt like it was trying really hard to break out of the mold of happily ever after the ending really didn’t pull any punches on this is a happily ever after cliché ending.

There is a lot of great parts of this book, the representation is amazing it just wasted what would have been a fascinating story.

The first description I ever heard about this book was something along the lines of “black Cinderella falls in love with Merida and fights the patriarchy” so obviously, I made it my mission to get my hands on the copy. THANK YOU to NetGalley for an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Just because they deny us doesn’t mean we cease to exist.”

(Still crying over this quote)

Cinderella is Dead is a retelling of the beloved fairy tale with a poignant feminist twist that is done well, something I find YA tries to do a lot but rarely hits the way this story did. 200 years after Cinderella died, the kingdom of Lille is being ruled by a cruel king who uses the story of Cinderella and her Prince Charming to force all the young women to participate in a ball and be “chosen” by a man the way Cinderella was chosen by Charming.

From the beginning, there’s a sense of urgency in our main character Sophia’s dialogue and choices, making it clear that she is unhappy with the state of her home under the King’s rein and that she wants to do something about it. She argues with her parents, her friends, and herself about her choice (and lack of choice) in what her future holds.

Sophia is also immediately established as a queer woman, quite literally on the first page, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen. Not only was it refreshing as a reader, but validating as a lesbian. Coming out and self-discovery stories are important, but stories where the main character is confident in their identity are desperately needed, especially in the YA genre. I loved seeing this girl, from beginning to end, never doubting her attraction to other girls.

The romance in this book was so fun and exciting. It’s tempting to make a “u-haul lesbians” joke regarding the speed of the relationship, I really didn’t mind how quickly things moved. Slow-burn can be fun (and frustrating), but wlw relationships can and do move at different speeds, and I adored these two.

The twists in this book had me gasping out loud and hunching closer to my kindle, as if I could fall into the pages if I tried hard enough. The nods to both the original Grimm story and the Disney version made me smile, and best of all, the book had a happy ending. I read the whole thing in one sitting, unmoving from my bed on a Sunday afternoon.

I would have liked to see the villain’s backstory a little more fleshed out, but also recognize that some people just do bad things for the power, and not everything needs to be spurred by tragic history.

Thank you, Kalynn Bayron, for Sophia and her story. I truly think this book, and especially its protagonist, is going to change lives.