In this retelling of Cinderella, “Ella” is murdered by her stepmother and becomes a ghost inhabiting the house that once belonged to her father. Unfortunately for Ella, even as a house she still can be persecuted by her stepmother and stepsisters, and forced to do all the housework. If you know the fairly tale of Cinderella, you know that eventually there will be a fairy godmother and a Royal Ball with a Prince on display. But, as it says on the cover copy, “You’re halfway right, and all the way wrong.”

This is one of the most inventive fairy tale retellings I’ve ever read. Like Cinderella, Ella spends very little time feeling sorry for herself. Unlike her fairy tale version, Ella is smart and intrepid and beginning to take charge of her own not-life well before the Royal Ball is rumored. The bargains she makes are her own, for her own reasons, which have nothing to do with being rescued by a Prince. But the truly wonderful thing about the book is that the other characters—including the woman-resembling-a-fairy-godmother, the step-trio, and the Prince—also have agency. This is a story that can only be told by a writer who is able to break away from the Prince/Princess narrative and forge a different sort of happy ending.