Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Back-of-the-Book Description: Haddix (Running Out of Time) puts a feminist spin on the Cinderella story, beginning her tongue-in-cheek novel where the traditional story ends. Ella Brown plans to live happily ever after when Prince Charming whisks her from her evil step-family. But when she arrives at the castle, she discovers that the prince is a dull dud, needlepoint is now her most strenuous activity and her ladies in waiting are abuzz with a concocted tale involving Ella, a fairy godmother and a pumpkin (in fact her own resourcefulness got Ella to the ball). When she refuses to marry "Charm," as she calls him, she is thrown in the dungeon to be held there until the wedding day. Making matters worse, Jed, her one kindred spirit, unaware of her imprisonment, leaves to start a refugee camp for victims of the castle's war with a neighboring kingdom. But luckily Ella is not a girl who needs magic or a man to save her. Haddix weaves in elements of fairy tale, with colorful characters such as Lord Reston, Ella's portly, pompous religious teacher; Quog, the ogre-ish jailer; and, of course, the cruel-to-the-core Step Evils. But Ella's modern sensibility seems jarring against a chivalric backdrop (e.g., "Don't that beat all?" Ella says, imitating a servant). Still, her straightforward, often gleefully glib narrative breathes fresh life into the tale.
My Description: Before I begin, I’d like to mention this book is a Cinderella Story.
Ella talks very… not crass, but bluntly, and sounds like someone from nowadays, rather than a medieval person. It’s a little odd to hear her talk like that in such an environment, but it’s also fresh and crisp. Still, her character was fun and outspoken and I enjoyed reading about her, and liked her quite a bit.
I read this book in less than a day. I started at the library around 5:50 and finished it by 9:45. So yes, it ‘hooked’ me. I enjoyed it, and there were some fun aspects to the story, but I did have some problems.
Let’s start at the beginning:
1: I understand the whole point of the castle people being dull and lifeless and limiting, but come on! No one can really be so 1-dimensional, and if even a little luster was expressed in Ella’s lifeless ladies-in-waiting I would have been happy. Sure, there was a bit with Madame Bisset, but Ms. Maddix didn’t go into it, and that’s only one out of I don’t know how many. Also, I don’t see how castle life could be so restricting… I think Ms. Maddix went a little over the top, but I suppose that was the point.
2: Ella should be enjoying the castle a bit more, even though I understand her being horrified at its limitations. She actually misses peasant food, which would make sense if it was for the overwhelming richness of castle food, but she describes the bread as ‘tasteless’. And the dresses… I thought that Ms. Haddix should have gone into her revelry in the finery she could now wear as well as her exasperation (and I must say that that bit was done pretty well—it’s just lack of the opposite. Castle life just can’t be that bad) with the limitations.
3: The prince goes from Prince Charming to a witless buffoon in a couple pages. When did that happen? At first he’s portrayed as perfect, and the next moment he can hardly speak without someone telling him what to say. I’d understand if there was ‘another side’ to him, or some other evil, but I feel that making him so utterly… empty was a mistake. The one bit where Ella tells him she doesn’t want to marry him was done well, I think. It made sense (if he was a witless buffoon) and all up to the tying-up bit was pretty good, but the last scene we’d seen him he was different, and that’s the problem I have.
4: The whole point of the Cinderella Story is that the people who were evil to Cinderella end up getting punished, and everyone knows what they did to her. Cinderella ends up on top and everyone knows what a great person she was.
In this version, that isn’t so. Ella ends up ‘happy’, I suppose, but the step-sisters and step-mother end up living in the castle, and Ella ends up running a refugee camp and the ‘Step-Evils’ really don’t deserve it. I, personally, need characters to know things, and I wanted the Kingdom to know what they had done to Ella. I wanted them to end up poor old maids, which might seem cruel, but they deserved it.
5: There are a couple things brought up in this book that are a little… uncomfortable. It’s probably best to be in your early teens when you read it or read it with the family.
6: The book didn’t end. It stopped. It gave you a vague idea of what is going to happen to Ella, but I generally like to read about the happy ending, not imagine it myself.
Of course there were lots of pros. It was interesting, Ella was a like able character, the story echoed itself lots of time near the end and that was really cool… but all in all the last bit ruined it for me.
Pages: 185
Recommendations: To people who'd like a retelling of Cinderella, but aren't attached to the conventional 'happily-ever-after', or the Step-Mother-and-Sisters getting the short end of the stick. Probably for early teens to adults.
Writing Rating: 8
Story Rating: 8
Overall Rating: 7, but it didn't leave me with a good feeling
Book #22 of '09, Book #72 of all
