I received an advance reader’s copy (ARC) of Cinder House by Freya Marske. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.

Cinder House is a novella that retells the story of Cinderella. In this version, Ella died at age sixteen and has been a ghost in her family home ever since. Visible to her stepmother and stepsisters, she’s forced to keep the place clean and her family fed, because otherwise they’ll harm her—because when things are destroyed in the house, Ella feels pain. Eventually, she discovers how to leave the property, but always must return at midnight. She befriends a local fairy, with whom she strikes a deal to have a corporeal form again for three nights. She goes to the prince’s ball, desiring to feel alive just one more time. But the turn that the nights at the ball take isn’t at all what Ella expects.

Surely this is the fairy tale with the most retellings. There’s no way any other one has surpassed it. So obviously, this is a really familiar story, but I quite like how Marske gave it a twist. The basic format of Cinderella is still present, but the form that it takes here is original and clever.

I liked Ella. In fact, I liked all the characters, who are full of personalities both good and bad, but all feel like solid fairy tale characters. Ella herself is strong and determined, but due to her circumstances is constrained in several ways, which makes her easy to root for. The prince also gets some excellent moments, and more development and personality than a lot of versions. And the queer romance elements are pretty good too; I haven’t seen that twist on this fairy tale before (though I’m sure it’s been done).

Naturally, this is a pretty dark story—it’s based on the Brothers Grimm, not Disney, after all. So there are times when Ella is in some serious danger, either from magic or simply from the abuse of her relatives. And there are some mildly sexual elements, which all combined make this probably not a retelling to give to a kid. But if you like fairy tales with a dose of darkness and maturity, you’ll like this!

However, I have a couple small critiques. Firstly, I wish that we’d had more scenes that provided context for what Ella’s father was like. As in the original, he dies before the events of the story take place, but the things alluded to about him make me want to know more. Yet we never learned more, and I felt that some of the moments between Ella and the stepmother kind of suffered for it. Secondly, there was a certain element that didn’t get resolved that I’d been wondering about for the entire story. Speaking vaguely, Ella locates something in the attic of the house, and unless I missed something, she never learns its origin or significance, and I really wanted it. (This book is short enough; I might have to reread it sometime to see if I somehow overlooked an explanation, because I was left pretty dissatisfied on that front.)

That said, in the end, I quite enjoyed Cinder House. It’s my favorite book by Marske that I’ve read so far! The atmosphere, the pacing, the character development—all excellent. It’s a quick and thrilling read, with some great new twists on a story we all know so well. Is this my favorite Cinderella retelling? No; the StarKid musical wears that crown. But this one is still worth your time.

Cinder House will be published on October 7th, 2025!