Freya Markse’s Cinder House came out last week and is a book I liked very much, thus writing it up while it’s timely and as an antidote to frustration posting!
This is a novella retelling of Cinderella in which Ella is a ghost embodied in her house, and is forced to labor for her stepmother and stepsisters because damage to the house pains her. To me, it was exactly the right length, which is a common difficulty with novellas. I can see that people might want more of various things, but I thought the book did an excellent job of conveying what was happening outside of Ella’s point of view; so while I wouldn’t have minded reading those conversations etc., it would have made it a much different book, and I’m happy to hope that people write them for Yuletide. And like Marske’s other books, the prose, characterization, and romance are all great.
With regard to the romance, I’m going to put something behind clickable text because it’s the kind of spoiler that is also an enticement.
This is a spoiler for the resolution of the romance portion of the book:
I absolutely delighted in the way that the book refuses for an instant to entertain a love triangle between Ella, the prince, and the princess he’s entering into an arranged marriage with. Nope! Straight to polyamory, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
I don’t want to say too much else about the book because it is short and I liked the experience of it unfolding, but I think it’s fair to say that it’s got a great angry protagonist and that it’s interested in exploring gender and abuse. If you like fairy tale retellings and/or Gothics and/or Marske’s other works, definitely check it out.