As usual, Alice Ivinya has created a wonderful fairytale retelling while also creating something tantalizingly new and addictive. The setting is absolutely amazing. I love the portal fantasy world of Fae, which is both beautiful and utterly terrifying. The intrigue and the politics were really well done and I particularly appreciated some of the fantastic twists to the fairytale. Although there are recognizable hints to Cinderella, including all the expected moments from the fairytale, two important twists make it nothing at all like Cinderella and I appreciate the way Ivinya diverges from the classic fairytale once the three balls are over, in which the prince becomes the villain and the fairy godmother character takes on a whole new role. It's brilliant.
However, I have no intention of giving any of it away, so I'll be focusing the rest of this review on another aspect I totally adored.
Fenella is such a believable, flawed character. What Ivinya began with Queen Avan has now been perfected in Fen. The message is beautiful. We are all flawed human beings. When we are young, particularly, we do not believe in ourselves, we are still unsure about those who tug as this way and that, who we hope to please but feel ever so inadequate for pleasing. We try, do our best, and often fail. Fenella's character not only grows through these anxiety-ridden moments filled with a sense of worthlessness, but also has to confront her capacity for evil. This is another aspect of Ivinya's writing I always find so powerful. This author does not shy away from the truth. We all are capable of incredible evil or unimaginable good, but it is the choices we make that lead us down one or the other path. In her misguided attempts to please those around her, along with her striking naiveté, Fenella definitely shows her capacity for evil and has to confront that within herself. Fen's journey of becoming is one I appreciate because it is honest about the monster living inside all of us. Anger, hatred, jealousy and any number of other negative emotions accompanied by harmful negative thoughts can do so much damage. But Fen offers us the beauty of overcoming the negativity and actually achieving her potential in unexpected ways. This book is a powerful reminder of everything we are capable of and what our true potential could be if we gave ourselves a chance. A truly fantastic message for readers of all ages.
I really enjoyed the character Cathal as well. He was so tricksy, he definitely kept me on my toes. I didn't know what (or who) to believe and it took a while to figure things out. The twist to his character and how it played out in the Cinderella side of the story was brilliant. It also came together really well for the ending. Alick also surprised me and kept me guessing. So yeah, definite win on both potential love interests and how things developed with an epic ending involving an important choice.
There are moments when this novel really reminded me of the wonder and upliftment I felt with the first three books in the Chronicles of Narnia. There are several parallels, not least the beautiful portal world and the many references to hope, upliftment and belief. However, the one that has me most excited is the idea of four promised "queens" of Faery. When that moment came in Crown of Glass when that link to Narnia hit me, I totally had goosebumps. And I think it's wonderful Ivinya has decided to give each character her own story, as opposed to lumping them all together the way Lewis did. The religious undertones were well done and I appreciate the message of upliftment interwoven into the story. We are all flawed individuals, but that doesn't mean we cannot contribute to God's work. The Lord works through us all in mysterious ways, and even if that isn't stated in so many words, the message is there. We are part of something greater and Ivinya's reminder of this is poignant and very much needed in our anxiety-ridden, stress-burdened modern lives where the divine has taken a back seat while we try to do everything ourselves instead of accepting we cannot control it all.
I highly recommend this book for readers who love portal fantasy and tales of the fae, and for those who love flawed main characters who at first fail but then in their striving to do better achieve incredible things. There are no Mary Sues here and I for one love it that way. Fantastic story, wonderful characters and memorable, chill-inducing setting. Can't wait for the next one to release!
