My Thoughts on "Stepsister" By Jennifer Donnelly (And Content Review)

 Genre- Fantasy/ Fairy tale ----- Ages 13+

 

"Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe … which is now filling with blood. When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant.  Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow."

My thoughts:

This was actually a good, secular, YA.  I really enjoyed it once I got into it. As a reformed christian reader, it is really hard to find a YA book that I can read nowadays. "I have been reading in the YA genre for about a year now, and I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of the cleanest that I've found. I pick up so many that I have to put back down. This book follows Isabelle, Cinderella's ugly stepsister. She almost wins the prince, until.... well you know the rest. But not really.The story was really good, there was alot of adventure, mixed with some light romance, which makes for a good story. (In my opinion) The characters were very, very, good. I loved Felix. And Hugo. And Isabelle. And Tavi.....:)There was some content that I wanna point out though. First off, though there is no sex, there is some romance. Light, and enjoyable. The story really isn't a romance though. There was also just a mention of a man trying to  put his hand up a girl's skirt. This isn't described at all however. There was a little bit of language. Like 5-6 words maybe? The violence was very low also, which I personally loved because there was still action and intrigue, without blood and guts. So, this being said, i'm gonna give this one 4 stars, because I liked it. (forgetting to point out, that first I was kinda like "mhmmm.. not really my favorite." It turned out to be good. First chapters can be deceptive.)I recommend this sucker.