BOOK REVIEW: Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser is a buzzed-about book that deserves the hype (IMHO).

This re-imagining of Cinderella turns the tale inside out by taking the part of the evil stepmother. It turns out, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is not evil. She is a woman caught between two worlds. She is, first and foremost, a mother who wants what is best for her two daughters, but has blinders on as to what is truly best. And she is a stepmother who reaches out to her stepdaughter, who tries to be empathetic, but who can’t help resenting a girl who won’t meet her halfway. “Cinderella” is the one who rejects her new family, not the other way around.

The novel uses the framework of the old tale, but fleshes out the characters (Lady Tremaine, her two daughters, Mathilde and Rosamunde, and the Cinderella figure, Elin) so that they are far more complex than purely evil versus purely good. There is no magic, only hard work. Prince Charming’s charm is false. And a long-ago rivalry between Lady Tremaine and the queen (Prince Charming’s mother) has far-reaching implications.

The prose is beautiful. The imagery of the danger of the forest and the parallels between falconry and motherhood elevate the story beyond a simple retelling. And the tension woven throughout make it unputdownable.