Stepsister.

☆☆☆

stepsister.
Jennifer donnelly.

Publisher  Scholastic Press.

Publication Date:May 14,2019.

Genre: YA Fantasy.

Format|Pages: Hardcover|352.

 Source:  Goodreads|Library.

3.5 STARS 

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe ... which is now filling with blood.



When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant.



Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow.



Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl 

 ☂

Dark, captivating retelling.



It is no surprise to you that I am big fairy tale fan. I love any type of fairy tale retelling and I have read few through the years. Cinderella is one of my favorite fairy tales. For as long as I remember, whenever I read the story to the kids when I used be a preschool teacher, I wondered about the stepsisters, I wonder what they were thinking, feeling. When I found out about STEPSISTER, I was curious and excited to finally reading about the stepsister story. I enjoyed the story and liked the way that it was written, which was different from any other retelling that I have read in the past. I liked Isabelle, she was my favorite character in the story and I felt bad for her, how she was treated after Ella left. I understand why she was treated that way, but felt that nobody deserved to be treated the way that she was. As the story progressed, I saw the change in Isabelle and I hoped that everyone else would see that she was not a bad person.



I liked the fact that this was retelling of darker version of Cinderella and told from the stepsister point of view instead. It starts dark, and it will keep on reader on reading, to see what is going to happen next. Isabelle is one of characters that you cannot help but fall in love with as you keep on reading. However, this book did not capture my attention the way that I thought it would. I enjoyed the book and there were lot parts of my books that kept my attention. On the other hand, there were parts in the book that felt rushed and kind of dragged on. The parts that made me want to skim past them. I felt, as this book was a bit too long as well, the ending seemed a bit too long for me. It was the reason that I only gave the book 3.5 stars. STEPSISTER was not what I was expecting to be.



I did enjoy the adventures aspects of the story, and Isabelle’s point of view captured my attention more than Fate and Chance, which did not capture my attention as much. However, if you enjoy fairy tale retelling STEPSISTER is worth giving a chance to. There quite few things in story that will have you on edge of your seat, and will keep you on reading.