Natalie Monroe's Reviews > Stepsister

3.5 stars

“Change is a kiss in the dark. A rose in the snow. A wild road on a windy night.”

Stepsister is a standard 300-page novel, but I can't help but feel it would've worked better as a novella/short story.

The premise and plot are very simple. Whatever ambiguous morality there is is Disney-like, which means Tavi and Isabella are about as morally grey as Elsa is for accidentally hurting Ana. Villains are villains, and good guys are good guys.

The prose has a strong fairy tale vibe, too. It's difficult to describe. But like, when you're reading Grimm Brothers' tales or Hans Anderson, you're absorbed in the story, but you feel emotionally distant from the characters at the same time. You're not meant to slip into the shoes of Cinderella or the Goose Girl. You experience their stories from the outside.

With that being said, it's immensely quotable.

“Isabelle had a strong will.

She did not know that this was a good thing for a girl to have, because everyone had always told her it was a terrible thing. Everyone said a girl with a strong will would come to a bad end. Everyone said a girl’s will must be bent to the wishes of those who know what’s best for her.

Isabelle was young, only sixteen; she had not yet learned that Everyone was a fool.”

Even though the characters lack moral complexity, I liked that the stepsisters' hatred and cruelty towards Ella was explained. They in a world where beauty is currency; it's understandable that they would envy their beautiful stepsister. They have other strengths. Tavi is clever af, and Isabella is a fierce fighter. Even the stepmother is shown in a sympathetic light rather than a straight-up malicious witch.

Stepsister is on the simplistic side but then again, aren’t all fairy tales?