Fiction Reviews
Cinder House
(2025) Freya Marske, Tor, £16.99, hrdbk, 137pp, ISBN 978-1-035-03943-2
This is a variant on the Cinderella story. Of recent, I have come across several stories which are variants on other well-known stories and, generally speaking, I wish writers would resist the temptation. Think of your own ideas! Ask yourself if you really have anything especially extra to offer or are you just being lazy? Having said that, in this case I enjoyed the story (though I found it best to think of it as an original tale which had a few plot points in common with the classic).
Having lost her mother when she was very young, Ella is pleased when her father remarries, especially as she hopes that her new stepsisters will help create the full family which she has so hoped for. Ella will be disappointed - her stepsisters prove to be awful and her stepmother murders both her father and herself, inheriting the house and the family wealth. But Ella’s story does not end there; this is a world with magic and, at sixteen, she finds she is now the ghost of the house. Unfortunately, she is bound to the house and furthermore, whilst undetectable to most people, her stepmother and stepsisters can see her. Worse than that, they can control her, force her to their will, as being linked to the house means that she feels what it feels - if she disobeys them they have but to scratch the woodwork for her to feel the pain (and a jigsaw can inflict agony). Able to make simple things happen within the house of which she is now part, Ella becomes their downtrodden menial servant, trapped forever within the house and its garden.
After a few years she accidentally discovers a way of leaving the house at night and walking the streets of the city, unseen by everyone, though at midnight she always snaps back home from wherever she might be. She develops a taste for the ballet and is intrigued by a young man who frequently attends and watches with ravenous attention; if only she could discuss the intricacies of the ballet with him! One evening, wandering through a market, she is surprised to be addressed directly by a stallholder; this is no ordinary seller of trinkets, Quaint is a fairy and they have a magic of their own, and so a sort of friendship develops. Being able to manipulate simple things within the house, she finds she can write and read letters and starts a correspondence on magical matters with a learned scholar in the neighbouring country of Cajar and another sort of friendship blossoms.
The palace announces that the Prince is seeking to marry and all are invited to three nights of partying in the hopes that he will find a suitable bride from within his people (though most think it obvious that, come the end of the day, he will marry the princess from Cajar). The evil stepsisters do, of course, fancy their chances. The young prince once had a reputation for superb dancing, following a blessing at his naming ceremony, but these days people think that must have been mere gossip as he is clearly a terrible dancer. What they do not know is that the ‘blessing’ was in fact a curse from an evil fairy and he dare not dance properly in front of anyone because of the agonising affect his perfection will have on them.
Ella does a deal with Quaint in which, for a certain price, the fairy will create a pair of ‘magic’ shoes of dryad-raised willow heartwood; for the three nights these will make Ella both visible and solid. As Lady Ember, Ella will be able speak to others and enjoy all the music, the dancing, and especially the food and drink. And so Ella finds herself at the party and, because this is a fairy story, alone with the prince and talking at length - and they both have their secrets.
And so one thing leads to another, the various threads of the story come together, the evil stepmother and her daughters meet just ends, and Ella, the prince, and the princess achieve as suitable a happy ending as they can in this world of magic. But you guessed this already - you already knew the general storyline!Whilst the overall plot was obvious from the outset, the writing was good, the settings, characters, and ideas interesting, and the story ran nicely from beginning to end. At 137 pages it was a quick read and all the better for getting on with it. If you like a good fantasy, where good wins over evil and the ending is ‘happy’, then this ticks the boxes. A very enjoyable read.
Peter Tyers
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