Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel by Gregory Maguire
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Book Reviews of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel
Book Review: A hybrid of mystery and fairy tale that is totally spellbinding!
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. This book is an adult-twist on the tale of Cinderella that is a fast and enjoyable read. It is completely bewitching.
If you loved or still love the tale of Cinderella or you are fed up with tales of beautiful blond maidens finding their prince charming and living happily ever after. Than this is the book for you.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, takes off the rose-colored glasses and gives you an honest look at Cinderella, known as Clara in this story, and her two stepsisters.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a sophisticated tale of love, passion, dreams, grief, and murder that will take you on a spellbinding roller coaster that will surely make your favorites list.
The story follows the young Iris, the ugly stepsister, through her youth, from her early encounter with the beautiful recluse, Clara, to the night of the infamous ball where Cinderella meets the prince. Though the traditional tale of Cinderella revolves around the beautiful blonde, this novel focuses on her stepsister Iris. Physically Iris is anything but beautiful, yet her life is filled with fantasy and adventure. Though she may be plain her life is anything but that. Iris is a vibrant young woman, with a lot of imagination, spunk, and a great sense of humor. Over the course of the novel we watch as Iris begins to discover herself and her own unique beauty.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, is a wonderful, clever, and ironic tale of deception and human foibles and weaknesses. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, mystery, and fantasy. This honest look at the old tale will certainly keep you captivated and will give you a whole different outlook on the traditional tale.
Book Review: Fractured Fairy Tale - Maguire Does It Again
Summary: 5 Stars
Gregory Maguire spellbinds in this Cinderella story where nothing is what it seems. Even better than his debut novel, Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is set in Haarlem, Holland (Netherlands) in the 1630's. Haarlem is known even today mostly for its flowers and flower related festivals. In Confessions, the tulip mania and subsequent crash that rocked the Netherlands in the 1630's play a large part. An even larger role is taken by oil painting. During this time, referred to as the Golden Age of Holland, Flemish masters vied for commissions of patrons, each one hoping to be recognized as great. Rembrandt was one such artist.
Maguire chose well to set his tale in the Netherlands. Unlike Wicked, which is set in a fantasy country, the harsh yet captivating winter scenery of Confession's Haarlem includes strange windmills, gray skies, and icy rivers. Anyone who has ever read the beloved story of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates will instantly be transported to Holland.
The story is told from the P.O.V. of one of "Cinderella's" ugly stepsisters. All the familiar characters are here: the widower father, the stepmother, the prince, the other stepsister, and of course, Cinderella. Her name in the book is Clara. Iris is an intelligent, kind-hearted, but undeniably ugly girl who befriends her strange stepsister. Clara is convinced she is a changeling. Her recounting of her experience will give the reader chills. Maguire is a master of mingling magic with reality, to produce eerie mystery. Iris tries to coax her out of her room and to see more of the world. This leads to more than either of them bargained for.
This book is a real treat for any man or woman. It is for adults, not children.
Book Review: Love it, Love it, Love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite books! I read Wicked about a year ago and enjoyed it, but found it hard to follow at times (unfortunately, I had to start and stop quite a bit while reading it and after awhile it was hard to remember everything). When I picked up this book, I made sure that I would be able to get through it within a reasonable amount of time. Like Wicked, I expected it to be a prequel and to end right as the traditional Cinderella story picks up. I was gladly mistaken though. If you haven't read Wicked, it is simply a prequel to Galina and the Wicked Witch's younger days. On the contrary, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is more of a twisted re-write of the traditional Cinderella. It paints Cinderella as a stuck up, self centered, young girl who grow up to shed her holier than thou persona and recreates herself as a common maid. As for the ugly stepsisters, it portrays them in a giving, 'charitable' (a theme that comes up more than once in the story), light and you really grow to love them. Margarethe, stepmother, maintains her traditional character in the sense of being ugly both inside and out, however unlike the traditional story she doesn't dote on her daughters and instead casts them as an 'ox' and women of poor features.
It is definitely a book that I would recommend, especially to anyone who wasn't that into Wicked. The characters are much easier to follow and although there is some reference to magical creatures and such I didn't find it as difficult to wade through the innuendo to understand the parallels Maguire was trying to draw.
Definitely a 5 star book!
Book Review: A testament to Gregory Maguire's talent
Summary: 5 Stars
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is far and away the best book I have read in a long time, and it's a more-than-worthy successor to Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Gregory Maguire established himself as an inventive reshaper of fairy tales and fantasy stories when he wrote Wicked in 1995; however, L. Frank Baum had already shaped the world of Oz, so Maguire had to maintain many aspects of it to keep Wicked credible and authentic. He definitely accomplished this with creativity to spare, but certain aspects of the world were just hard to reimagine, so ingrained were they into pop culture.
That's where Confessions surpassed Wicked for me: the seamless aplomb with which Maguire sculpts the Fisher family's world through our plucky and clever Iris, who I very much admired as the unlikely heroine. The added wiggle room allowed Maguire's imagination to do the heavy lifting instead of having to rely on so many conventions of a particular story, and the result is a mysterious, plausible, heart-rending world built on intriguing, blurred dichotomies (good/evil, beautiful/ugly, desire/obligation, childhood/adulthood, reality/fantasy) that are compellingly intertwined. If you like vivid, imaginative prose and fairy tales that are all grown up, definitely pick this one up.
Book Review: Once again, the Formula Works!
Summary: 5 Stars
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, plays upon a formula already used by Maguire in previous works, but it demonstrates the success and effectiveness of it. Cinderella is a fairy tale at once familiar and deeply ingrained into our western culture. As such, Maguire's retelling of the story from the perspective of one of the former "villains," presents opportunities to work with the story in such a way that most readers will pick up on the contrast with the original archetype and further be able to catch the irony and contrast with the "conventional wisdom" of the original.
Good and Evil, so clear in the fairy tale are not as clear here. In fact, the ultimate ending of "and they lived happily ever after" is not a foregone conclusion.
Maguire showcases his considerable writing talents and weaves his own political, social and philosphical commentary into the warp and woof of the novel. This reader was absolutely delighted and enjoyed the work throughly.
In contrast to some of his other popular works, this one plays less upon sexual imagery and themes and so this, probably more than others of Maguire's works is appropriate as a first read to get a sense of what all the commotion is about with Maguire's books.