We all know the story of Cinderella. This tale has often been retold, and we generally know the original story or have heard it at some point in our lives. However, this tale was “twisted,” meaning something about the plot is different. Each author who takes on the assignment to rewrite the beloved story has a giant, unenviable hurdle to face.
How to give a satisfactory happily ever after to the princess, or in this case, the commoner, without taking away from the charming classic? This is a story that comes to grips with the realities that each of the characters must face and the consequences of certain choices that each of them makes.
Cinderella: How the Twist Changes the Plot
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An ever-so-brief summary of the original story is: girl finds boy, and boy and girl find true love at first sight. The girl loses the glass slipper when she runs away at midnight. Then, through a stroke of luck, the boy finds girl, and they marry and live happily ever after. Sounds just like Cinderella, right? But this story has one small caveat that elongates the main plot, as stated earlier.
As we know in the original story, Cinderella is locked in her room, but her mice friends act like regular mice and can’t help her steal the key from her wicked stepmother. Cinderella remains locked in her room and is unable to get out or call out to anyone. The caveat: Cinderella never tries on the slipper.
The duke leaves the house without ever knowing Cinderella was there and Cinderella breaks the other slipper so her stepfamily can’t get it and use it against her. The stepmother attempts to sell Cinderella, but she escapes from the man who is paid to essentially kidnap her. A kind seamstress finds Cinderella on her way to work, and she invites her to come with her to, of all places, the palace where she works.
Cinderella: A Complicated Plot
Cinderella is beside herself when she arrives at the palace. No stranger to serving, Cinderella seems to be thrown almost out of her league completely when she is assigned to Duchess Genevieve, the king’s sister and Prince Charles’ aunt. The Duchess is anything but easy to please, and Cinderella has been assigned to her, thinking she will fail and then have no place to go outside the palace.
One time, while Cinderella is in the hallway looking over pictures in her spare time, Prince Charles passes by her and acknowledges her. She thinks that he doesn’t recognize her and that the love they had that fateful night was nothing more than a dream. Aunt Genevieve also thinks that Charles was just infatuated or manipulated by a girl who knew what she was doing. Little does she know that Cinderella is that exact girl.
During this time, Cinderella has also been volunteered to spy on the Duchess by Duke Ferdinand, the king’s right-hand man. The power-hungry duke does everything for his own benefit. Even though he recruited Cinderella, she is reluctant to tell the Duke anything about the Duchess, sensing she is a good person.
The Duke also wants to ensure that Prince Charles marries a foreign princess instead of the mysterious girl at the ball. His reason: How would the kingdom react if it had a commoner for a princess?
Cinderella: A Happy and Joyous Ending
Cinderella eventually comes forth with the truth. She is only helped by her fairy godmother on the fateful night she first meets the prince and then at the end of the book. Magic had been banned from the Kingdom of Aurelia. Duke Ferdinand had, of course, banned it as a potential threat to his power, so the fairy godmother did not show up but a handful of times to help Cinderella throughout the book.
The end of the book is simple: The fairy Godmother replaces the missing glass slipper and the prince and Cinderella are happily married. But wait, wasn’t this a review? Yes, it was. It is also important to give you a brief summary of the book. This was a well-thought-out book by Elizabeth Lim. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Lim did a wonderful job with her characters, both old and new. They were fleshed out well.
The end was not rushed or ill-explained, as some stories have a tendency to do. Sometimes, characters make decisions that don’t seem to agree with their general demeanor. All in all, this book was an 8 out of 10, in my opinion. The end of the book brought everything together in a very satisfying way. We see more of Cinderella’s character and her struggles, and it is nice to see Cinderella as a flesh-and-blood human being with flaws.
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