Syndrie
This book has everything I want from a fairy tale retelling — it keeps just enough of the source material to have some familiarity while breathing new life into the tale with new plot lines and characters. "Lady Tremaine" is not the magical and hopeful love-at-first-sight Cinderella story that many of us grew up on, instead it's a full revamp from the perspective of the (not-so-evil) stepmother that treads a darker and drearier path. This is no longer a story about one girl searching for her happily ever after. Now it's a story of a mother doing everything she can, in the face of many setbacks, to make sure her family is properly taken care of.
I've always been a fan of darker rewrites of fairy tales, but I'd have to say "Lady Tremaine" is the best one I've read to date. The decision to write it in the stepmother's perspective was absolutely the right choice and really makes it stand out in the crowd of other retellings that tend to keep the princess as the main focus. It also provides such a unique nuance to the story that would've been much more difficult (if not impossible) to tell if it has been from one of the daughter's, or stepdaughter's, perspectives instead.
Hochhauser's prose is smooth, appropriately detailed, and enjoyable to read. She also did a great job on the pacing with the story never feeling too rushed nor too slow. I'm especially impressed to learn this is her debut novel, because it reads as if it was done by a well-seasoned writer! I would absolutely recommend this book to anybody who's even a little bit interested in it, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any future works from Rachel Hochhauser.
(Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an advance review copy for free via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)
This book has everything I want from a fairy tale retelling — it keeps just enough of the source material to have some familiarity while breathing new life into the tale with new plot lines and characters. "Lady Tremaine" is not the magical and hopeful love-at-first-sight Cinderella story that many of us grew up on, instead it's a full revamp from the perspective of the (not-so-evil) stepmother that treads a darker and drearier path. This is no longer a story about one girl searching for her happily ever after. Now it's a story of a mother doing everything she can, in the face of many setbacks, to make sure her family is properly taken care of.
I've always been a fan of darker rewrites of fairy tales, but I'd have to say "Lady Tremaine" is the best one I've read to date. The decision to write it in the stepmother's perspective was absolutely the right choice and really makes it stand out in the crowd of other retellings that tend to keep the princess as the main focus. It also provides such a unique nuance to the story that would've been much more difficult (if not impossible) to tell if it has been from one of the daughter's, or stepdaughter's, perspectives instead.
Hochhauser's prose is smooth, appropriately detailed, and enjoyable to read. She also did a great job on the pacing with the story never feeling too rushed nor too slow. I'm especially impressed to learn this is her debut novel, because it reads as if it was done by a well-seasoned writer! I would absolutely recommend this book to anybody who's even a little bit interested in it, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any future works from Rachel Hochhauser.
(Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an advance review copy for free via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)