Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly
Published by Scholastic Press on May 14th 2019
ISBN: 1338268465
Pages: 352
Goodreads

Recommending for cream of the crop consideration.  This is a dark, gruesome and riveting fairy tale based on Cinderella.  Isabelle is one of Ella’s hardened and bitter stepsisters who, coerced by her mother, cuts off her toes to try to fit into the glass slipper.  Octavia only cut off her heals, so her walking is not effected, but Isabelle is disabled.  As a battle rages over Isabelle’s life map between the Crone, who draw maps of a person’s destiny and Chance, no explanation needed, Tanaquill, the fairy queen aka Ella’s godmother, provides Isabelle choices that transcend the magical rules of the life map.  Isabella must work through the bitterness in her heart as her life circumstances profoundly mirror the harshness that Ella once lived under.  Her quest leads to the softening of heart and a freedom from the Fates and Chance.  Lovers of fairytales will revel in this one.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Springvale Public Library