Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

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.

Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published May 14, 2019

 by Scholastic Press

4/5 stars

Jennifer Donnelly is one of my auto-read authors. She writes both YA and adult fiction. Stepsister has been waiting patiently on my shelf and I’m so glad I finally got to it.

We all know how Cinderella ends: the glass slipper fits, the prince gets his bride and everyone lives happily ever after. Everyone except the stepsisters, that is. Donnelly picks up where the fairy tale leaves off and follows Isabelle, the 'ugly' stepsister who has to live with what she did to try to win the prince. With her family’s reputation in tatters, she has to figure out who she is when everyone has already decided she’s the villain. Meanwhile, Fate and Chance are watching, each betting on how her story will turn out.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s a clever twist on a story I thought I knew and it made me look at the 'wicked' stepsister in a whole new light. Isabelle isn’t easy to like at first, but I found myself cheering her on as she started questioning everything she’d been told about beauty and what a girl is supposed to be. Having Fate and Chance squabbling in the background added a fun, almost mythical layer to it all.

Stepsister is a story of family, change and courage. If you enjoy fairy tale retellings or you’ve ever wondered what happened to the stepsisters after the ball, this one is well worth picking up.

This book was part of my 2026 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge - #42