Cinderella is Dead and so are my Hopes for the Book

Book Cover (for the edition that I have. Ive seen one other version, which I do think is prettier than mine)

In MY OPINION this book is

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

• Strong character development? No

• Loveable characters? No

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

My rating for this book was a 2.25 stars out of 5

I first want to thank my friend Larry Bolton for purchasing this book for me for my birth month celebrations!! Content/ Trigger Warnings:

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism Moderate: Adult/minor relationship (teen girls are chosen for marriage by older men at a ball), Domestic abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault (non-consensual kissing), Violence Minor: Kidnapping

Mood: adventurous, dark, mysterious, hopeful, inspiring, emotional, and tense Pace: Medium Recommendation: This book was recommended by Amandabb on YouTube. I love Amanda and her videoes on YouTube, and her show recommendations have never failed me. All of this is to say her taste in books is now tainted by her love and raving of this book for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCqh6LcP7Ig

Expectations: The book said it was going to give me LGBTQIA+, it was going to give me diverse POC, it was going to give me shocking, it’s going to give me surprise, and that it was going to give me drama. The book gave me barely any of those things. Also to the person who compared this to the hunger games, your moms a hoe. THERE ARE SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT. PLEASE DON’T READ PAST HERE IF YOU WANT ZERO SPOILERS.

Characters:

• Sophia: I strongly disliked Sophia,and it was because she was as bland as rock soup. She is the main character in our book, and I can’t tell you a single thing about her beside the fact that she hates society. To be fair, I can see why, but I wanted more from her. Katniss hated her society, but we got to see complexity from her. This fell flat.

• Luke: A round of applause for the fan favorite, because he gave me life almost every time he was on the page. He was honestly the only character who I enjoyed, Liv was cute and in second place. I want a whole book about Luke and his secret boy lover, and I want it to end in him creating a secret society of gays who married each other as a beard plan while they also planned to take down the king.

• Erin: She annoyed me, but also I could see where she was coming from. Erin was in an abusive relationship, and that relationship was society. She like many others way just going through the motions of life. She told Sophia that she didn’t want to be with her, and Sophia didn’t accept that.

• Manford: I saw a piece of paper today and it had more dimension than this character did. I mean he was the big bad, and apparently he was the root of all that was wrong in society. He wasn’t threatening in the least. I wanted to see him kill people. I wanted Game of Thrones level murder, but alas I didn’t even get a percentage of that. He just locked people in rooms and assaulted them with his rank breath.

• Amina: She was completely unnecessary, and her presence in this book was confusing. She was playing both sides and it didn’t make any sense at all. The surprise that she was charming mother did absolutely nothing for me. She spewed some good lines, but she left much to be desired.

• Constance: I wrote this whole review and almost didn’t notice that I didn’t write about this character. That’s how little I cared about her. She didn’t do much, but be there as a rebound.
  

Word building: This was so weak. My goodness it made me want to cry. The magic system was never explained. It was told that there were other magical people and we never saw it at all. The king was evil just to be evil, and every man apparently just jumped at that chance to be abusive and sexist.

Chemistry: There was no chemistry between Sophia and Erin or Constance and Sophia. It was like I was being gaslit into thinking the romance was there and it was not. It takes longer for ramen to cook than it did for Sophia to get over Erin and fall in love with Constance. I would’ve preferred a, I’m throw myself under you to get over the other person than them claiming it was love.

Other Problems: The writing was elementary at times. The book was giving beautiful gowns, but that was all.

The book was beating me over the head with it’s point to where I felt like it was an episode of Dora telling me where the clues were. The author wanted to speak on the topic of misogyny and homophobia and she didn’t say much of anything. How can 300+ pages of a book say so little. The book is around the length that I like my books to be, but it was slow then rushed to accomplish everything.I was so confused if Amina wanted Charming to die, because if not, she didn’t have to show up at the end. It was like she was spoon feeding the main two things about how to defeat Manford while also not wanting them to defeat him.