Cinderella is Dead Written by Kalynn Bayron. Reviewed by Martha, Age 14

Cinderella Is Dead is a re-telling of the classic fairy-tale, Cinderella. Set in the town Mersailles, where every girl lives in fear of the day she is chosen by the King to attend the ball, it follows a girl who is determined to destroy the cruel rules she’s been forced to follow called Sophia.

I enjoyed this story and think that Sophia as a character is well developed and lovable. The plot is very clever and the re-telling of the well known Cinderella tale is highly original.

The most important characters in the story of the rebellion are women, and the main figure is a Black, Queer woman (rarely placed as central protagonists and criminally under-represented in literature).  I don’t think it should matter that it is a gay love story to any reader, whatever their sexual orientation, it certainly didn’t matter to me.

On the contrary, I thought that it was good to see such a positive representation of queer people, especially women in a book, at a time when there are so many discussions regarding these important issues of equality.

In my view it is no different to reading a book about a man when you are a woman and vice versa; it can provide insight into another person’s perspective.

My favourite part of the book was definitely the end. I liked how every part of the story came together to make such a fantastic conclusion. My only criticism would be the pace of the book was quite slow at times and and therefore not as engaging as it might have been.

However, overall I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend to readers aged 12-13 years and older.