ARC Review: Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Okay, guys, I have had this book a few months and I am already well into a re-read because it is just such a perfect mix of empowering and heart-warming, so I may ramble more than usual in this review. All I can say now is go buy it! I usually put that at the end but I will say it now because it is seriously an amazingly powerful book, that I think everyone really needs to read it.

Here it is:

'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?

You will probably know by now that I love a good re-telling or re-imagining of the classics, and as soon as I saw this was a retelling of one of the Ugly Stepsisters I knew that I needed to read it. I was lucky enough to get given a free ARC copy for review by Hot Key Books, and I powered through the first read in a few days it was so good - I actually even went on to re-read the book within a month of my first read because it really resonated with me.

But, when you first open the book to a dedication that says: "To anyone who's ever felt that they're not enough.", you know that there is definitely going to be something interesting within the pages - and I was most definitely not disappointed.

I could actually speak about this book for ages, there were so many passages and so many quotes that just jumped out at me and really resonated with me, so much so that my book was covered in little sticky notes during my re-read (I'm current about 2/3 of the way through the re-read and so far there are 10 sticky notes). I've never actually sticky noted a book before, so you can tell how much I loved it just from that.

I really connected with Isabelle as a character - and I think anyone that ever thought they weren't enough, or who thought that they shouldn't/couldn't be who they really are, or even those that tried to fit into the box that they were put in growing up will connect with her too. Isabelle is strong, and slowly learns to believe in herself and who she really is through the book - you see her push through her problems and self-worth issues and decide she is no longer going to be who her mother wants her to be, instead she is going to be who she was supposed to be all along. It's such a powerful transformation and Jennifer writes about the struggle of the transformation beautifully, adding in one of my favourite characters of Tanaquill the Fairy Queen to help Isabelle find the missing pieces of her heart.

Okay, I have probably rambled enough - it's been a while since I've rambled so much for a book - but I don't want to have you reading forever, so I will sum up this book in one sentence: This is a beautiful story about learning to carve out your own path when everything is against you - even Fate.

(p.s I just have to say I have found a new book crush in Chance, and I think everyone who has read this will agree with me he's such a charming character)

Stepsister is out in a few days (May 15th) and I think you should all go buy a copy, this is going to be one book that I will definitely read again and again, and I think this is going to be one of my top reads of 2019! I give this: 5 Cats (and so many more if I could)