Published By: Tor
Pages: 144
Released On: 09/10/2025
You think you know Cinderella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her furious ghost is trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley Tor for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Amazon and NetGalley both described this as a “queer Gothic Cinderella retelling” which did raise alarm bells at first. Was it trying too hard? But I went in with an open mind and was highly surprised. It’s only a short book but it does work.
Freya has given us the traditional, familiar fairy tale, but given it an extra spark so it feels new and fresh.
My dislike for overly long books is quite clear, therefore I rarely want a book to be longer but I did want this one to be longer. What’s there is good, but I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it was spread out over a longer book, something to get my teeth into.
I do think there was a bit too much going on though. I think it would have been better if she’d picked a couple of things to develop. Keep the ghostly Ella of course, but by adding magic, sorcerers and fairies, it just makes it quite busy for such a short book.
One thing I will say, and maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t get the Queer aspect of it. Maybe it was just too subtle, but I was expecting something a bit more obvious considering it was important enough to be put in the synopsis, but that was lacking for me.
Overall, a very enjoyable book. Great characters, clever use of the traditional fairy tale merged with an extra spark, it’s short and quick to read, but there were a few elements I felt could be tidied up to make it a great book.
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