- The Good: Protagonist ghost; protagonist house; sexy without being graphic
- The Bad: The Cinderella tie-ins are the least interesting part of the story; not sapphic
- The Literary: An imaginative fairy tale retelling
Murdered at sixteen and trapped in her father’s house, Ella’s ghost is invisible to everyone except the other inhabitants of the house—her stepmother and stepsisters. But Ella isn’t just an untethered ghost, instead, she is the house too, and can feel through the carpets and wood paneling. When her stepmother realizes that hurting the house hurts Ella, she forces Ella to clean and keep house for them for free.
Cinder House is a Cinderella re-telling, and with all the current fashion for fairy tale retellings I’m surprised how much I enjoy this one. It quickly diverges from a Grimm or Disney-style interpretation, and makes the story feel fresh.
Ella soon discovers she can untether herself from the house, by carrying a roof tile with her. But, at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died. After several years of wandering her small town, a traveling merchant fairy asks her if she sees any charms she likes at her stall, and a tenuous friendship begins.
Being a Cinderella retelling, there’s a luxurious ball, a handsome prince, and magical shoes. Ella makes a bargain with the fairy for three nights of having a body. A body that she can use to eat, drink, dance, and be touched. You think you know this story, but it will surprise you. Ella and the prince’s honest friendship finds a way to break both their curses.
Even with a dose of polyamory and some surprisingly sexy ghost house intimacy, this story does lean cozy and wholesome, with a very happy ending. Not that happy endings are inherently bad, but they’re just so popular around right now. I’ll also mention that the book blurb describes this as sapphic, but that’s misleading, as much of the romances is in fact male/female, then poly.
Recommended for a refreshing fairy tale re-telling!