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Cinder House
Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske—a queer Gothic romance perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.
An instant USA Today bestseller!
Ella is a haunting.
Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
You think you know Ella's the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this debut novella from "the queen of romantic fantasy" (Polygon).
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
An instant USA Today bestseller!
Ella is a haunting.
Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
You think you know Ella's the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this debut novella from "the queen of romantic fantasy" (Polygon).
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
135 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2025
255 people are currently reading
25726 people want to read
About the author
Freya Marske
20 books3,258 followersFreya Marske lives in Australia, where she is yet to be killed by any form of wildlife. She writes stories full of magic, blood, and as much kissing as she can get away with, and she co-hosted the Hugo Award nominated podcast Be the Serpent. Her hobbies include figure skating and discovering new art galleries, and she is on a quest to try all the gin in the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 977 reviews
December 18, 2025
totally went into this under the impression it was a sapphic cinderella retelling (spoiler: it is not!!)
she does in fact lust after a man the entire novella and the only hint at a f/f relationship was due to the weird SEXUAL COERCION spell during their throuple(?) scene the last few pages- even that was not an explicit romantic relationship between two women and more so our fmc watching a husband and his wife hookup??? that was completely unnecessary 🫠 (please do better with the bi + “poly” rep, guys)
i received this arc from netgalley and tor
she does in fact lust after a man the entire novella and the only hint at a f/f relationship was due to the weird SEXUAL COERCION spell during their throuple(?) scene the last few pages- even that was not an explicit romantic relationship between two women and more so our fmc watching a husband and his wife hookup??? that was completely unnecessary 🫠 (please do better with the bi + “poly” rep, guys)
i received this arc from netgalley and tor
August 11, 2025
A Cinderella retelling where Cinderella is dead and a ghost and a ... house? I was intrigued when I heard that and in love when I read it. I'm not even that big on fairy tale retellings, but everything just worked for me here. The book opens with Ella and her father being murdered by Ella's stepmother and while her father simply perishes, Ella is "rescued" by their magical house and turned into a ghost. Ella wants to haunt her stepmother and her two daughters, but they aren't scared of her and just continue to treat her like the hired help, in life as in death. Ella also now happens to be the house – feeling every wall and every floor and every ceiling, every piece of furniture and the whole structure in general – so she more or less does all the housework to not be untidy herself. House magic and sentient houses are one of my favorite things in fantasy novels, so I was squealing over a main character who is also a house. Ella's perspective was so unique and interesting to read about. She of course hates her stepfamily, but she also can't stand it when the house is empty for a long time. She's longing for the world outside, for other people and for human connection, but she is trapped inside her own walls. Her situation may sound absurd but her character just made so much sense and Ella really delivered some first-class yearning. I almost blushed at the way she described how the delivery girl walks in and out of her. Only after years she finds a way to leave her house again, but she is still very much tethered to it and always snagged back by midnight. But she is able to meet a faerie who takes an interest in her and who gives her the opportunity to go to a ball and feel alive for three nights again. Remember, it's a Cinderella retelling. The familiar story is definitely there, but Cinder House adds so many new ideas that it's easily a compelling and refreshing read. At the ball, Ella meets a fairy-cursed dancing prince and they connect right away, and from that point onward the story kept me so invested in how the whole girl-ghost-house situation would be resolved in the end. The ending was great and surprisingly polyamorous, which made it even better in my opinion. Overall, this book was my thing entirely, and the only slightly negative point that I can come up with is that I would have loved to spent more time with these characters. It's only a short novella, but especially the second half of the story deserves a full-length novel. I guess I have to check out the other books by Freya Marske to get some more.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan / Tor for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan / Tor for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
October 9, 2025
Freya Marske’s reworking of Cinderella is a luscious, richly-imagined blend of fairy tale and ghost story. Set in a land of sorcerers and mermaids overlooked by imposing academies of magic. This is also a country at war threatened by pestilence and reeling from the aftermath of faraway atrocities. Teenage Ella lives with her father, stepmother Patrice and stepsisters Danica and Greta. But when she reaches sixteen her life abruptly ends, murdered by Patrice - along with her father. However, this isn’t the end of Ella’s existence, her ties to her home Cinder House hold her fast, even though she’s only visible to her immediate family. Unable to directly interact with people, Ella can manipulate objects, enough that Patrice assigns her all the housework. But this ability also makes Ella vulnerable, anything that harms the house or its contents causes her pain. Years pass; the increasingly-sadistic Greta gradually gains power through dabbling in magic. Greta delights in tormenting Ella, making Ella’s shrunken world even harder to navigate.
Change comes when Ella finds a way to briefly untether from the house, for brief periods she can wander the city. Ella attends the ballet and takes classes about magic and conjuring, gradually forming a bond with a professor of intangibility based in nearby Cajar, able to communicate through letters. In the city marketplace Ella meets Quaint who can see ghosts. Quaint is one of the fairy folk banished from Cajar. But not the sweet, fluttering Victorian kind, Quaint is a folkloric, supernatural being capable of treachery and malicious mischief. However, when eccentric Prince Jule announces a three-day festival of dancing Ella strikes a bargain with Quaint which will allow her to take on corporeal form and attend the royal parties. There Ella finds she’s not the only one who appears to be cursed.
Marske’s intricate, moving narrative partly draws on her own experience of chronic illness and what it’s like to be both confined and physically constricted. Her version of Cinderella incorporates the feelings arising from these constraints, as well as exploring emotional states from grief to the awakening of desire. There are echoes here of Angela Carter’s iconoclastic fairy tales as well as Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror and, for me, Hope Mirrlees’s seductive fantasy Lud-in-the-Mist. Marske deftly conveys a sense of both beauty and creeping menace as her story builds towards a satisfying climax complete with an unexpected, gloriously queer twist.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Tor for an ARC
Change comes when Ella finds a way to briefly untether from the house, for brief periods she can wander the city. Ella attends the ballet and takes classes about magic and conjuring, gradually forming a bond with a professor of intangibility based in nearby Cajar, able to communicate through letters. In the city marketplace Ella meets Quaint who can see ghosts. Quaint is one of the fairy folk banished from Cajar. But not the sweet, fluttering Victorian kind, Quaint is a folkloric, supernatural being capable of treachery and malicious mischief. However, when eccentric Prince Jule announces a three-day festival of dancing Ella strikes a bargain with Quaint which will allow her to take on corporeal form and attend the royal parties. There Ella finds she’s not the only one who appears to be cursed.
Marske’s intricate, moving narrative partly draws on her own experience of chronic illness and what it’s like to be both confined and physically constricted. Her version of Cinderella incorporates the feelings arising from these constraints, as well as exploring emotional states from grief to the awakening of desire. There are echoes here of Angela Carter’s iconoclastic fairy tales as well as Shirley Jackson’s gothic horror and, for me, Hope Mirrlees’s seductive fantasy Lud-in-the-Mist. Marske deftly conveys a sense of both beauty and creeping menace as her story builds towards a satisfying climax complete with an unexpected, gloriously queer twist.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Tor for an ARC
November 5, 2025
I am so over fairy tale retellings. I did not like the last Freya Marske book, Swordcrossed(even if I really wanted it beforehand and thought I was going to love it for sure). I do not like the cover of this book , and the blurb is uninspiring (and misleading but more on that later). I was not going to read this.
But I read the first paragraphs, andI got hooked, ended up reading all of it and loving it. Five starring it because yeah, I loved it (real rating 4.5 not that I can rationalize my ratings in any way).
It is a Cinderella retelling, but Cinderella dies on the first page, just after her father does, and becomes a ghost who is also her house, while still being a girl who wants to live and grow and experience life and be seen and rebels against the restrictions her body (or specifically in this case, the lack of it) imposes in what she wants to do and feel. And it's lovely throughout, surprising, interesting, full of charm, using the fairy tale as framework but for something totally different.
I find it hard to define what makes a book feel YA and what makes it feel adult, and despite this being a theme which inherently feels YA and the tone being light, the sexual content being moderate and not too explicit (though it is there) and I would totally recommend it to actual teens, there is a maturity to it that feels adult, that resonates to things you only learn with age. Adults react like adults, they think of what would be inevitable pragmatic or useful consequences, they decide to react undramatically sometimes. It's a mature work while at the same time I see this as being totally enjoyable for actual teens.
This was all she’d wanted: someone who would warmly squeeze her hand and could see her, could hear her, listening to her talk about something she loved.
I thought the writing was lovely, some great descriptions, the characters layered, the pace just right, the small details. The author says in an afterword she needed helped to rein it to novella length word count (ah, award reasons? But I will nominate it so it worked...) and it does not feel forced at all, but the pace perfectly timed, page turning but not rushed. Nitpicking, maybe the exposition of the prince's history felt a bit like a summary, but other just right very good, and with a satisfyingly detailed but not overlong finale. This is a lot shorter than the author's other works but she nailed this format/length.
Regarding the misleading blurb and marketing, I do think it is misleading, and generally not very appealing. I have joked before that "sapphic" and random tea drinking and cosy settings are tordotcom's house style for novellas and the blurb and other reviews make it sound like that, generic tordotcom novella, with a romance between two women, right? That is truly misleading - maybe if you squint really hard, kind of there is but it is complicated in an interesting way and any relationship between two women (not the other woman mentioned on the blurb!Ewhy?) is not the most central or the one that feels more important and I am not sure if I would call an eventual important relationship between Ella and another woman romantic or sexual - though it is lovely and it is important! This story is still a romance and I do not want to spoil and it is rewarding at giving nice people who fell odd an happy future within the restrictions imposed on them. But readers should start out with no expectations of it being "sapphic" or "queer" like the blurb mentions. Maybe it really is, readers should decide, just do not expect it to be quite as hinted.
This book was a good example of why I sometimes get and read books that I, from the outset, thought I would not like. I might just do not know what I really want to read. Or I might judge a book differently from outside information. I like taking chances, sometimes I am wrong, but sometimes it is rewarding and it always keeps my horizons wider... This was just lovely, just right.
But I read the first paragraphs, andI got hooked, ended up reading all of it and loving it. Five starring it because yeah, I loved it (real rating 4.5 not that I can rationalize my ratings in any way).
It is a Cinderella retelling, but Cinderella dies on the first page, just after her father does, and becomes a ghost who is also her house, while still being a girl who wants to live and grow and experience life and be seen and rebels against the restrictions her body (or specifically in this case, the lack of it) imposes in what she wants to do and feel. And it's lovely throughout, surprising, interesting, full of charm, using the fairy tale as framework but for something totally different.
I find it hard to define what makes a book feel YA and what makes it feel adult, and despite this being a theme which inherently feels YA and the tone being light, the sexual content being moderate and not too explicit (though it is there) and I would totally recommend it to actual teens, there is a maturity to it that feels adult, that resonates to things you only learn with age. Adults react like adults, they think of what would be inevitable pragmatic or useful consequences, they decide to react undramatically sometimes. It's a mature work while at the same time I see this as being totally enjoyable for actual teens.
This was all she’d wanted: someone who would warmly squeeze her hand and could see her, could hear her, listening to her talk about something she loved.
I thought the writing was lovely, some great descriptions, the characters layered, the pace just right, the small details. The author says in an afterword she needed helped to rein it to novella length word count (ah, award reasons? But I will nominate it so it worked...) and it does not feel forced at all, but the pace perfectly timed, page turning but not rushed. Nitpicking, maybe the exposition of the prince's history felt a bit like a summary, but other just right very good, and with a satisfyingly detailed but not overlong finale. This is a lot shorter than the author's other works but she nailed this format/length.
Regarding the misleading blurb and marketing, I do think it is misleading, and generally not very appealing. I have joked before that "sapphic" and random tea drinking and cosy settings are tordotcom's house style for novellas and the blurb and other reviews make it sound like that, generic tordotcom novella, with a romance between two women, right? That is truly misleading - maybe if you squint really hard, kind of there is but it is complicated in an interesting way and any relationship between two women (not the other woman mentioned on the blurb!Ewhy?) is not the most central or the one that feels more important and I am not sure if I would call an eventual important relationship between Ella and another woman romantic or sexual - though it is lovely and it is important! This story is still a romance and I do not want to spoil and it is rewarding at giving nice people who fell odd an happy future within the restrictions imposed on them. But readers should start out with no expectations of it being "sapphic" or "queer" like the blurb mentions. Maybe it really is, readers should decide, just do not expect it to be quite as hinted.
This book was a good example of why I sometimes get and read books that I, from the outset, thought I would not like. I might just do not know what I really want to read. Or I might judge a book differently from outside information. I like taking chances, sometimes I am wrong, but sometimes it is rewarding and it always keeps my horizons wider... This was just lovely, just right.
November 5, 2025
A unique and fresh Cinderella reimagining with a haunting and queer twist.
This novella packs a punch! I’m actually shocked it was only 144 pages! It feels so fleshed out and never lacking in depth of characters or story.
Whats to love…
- short, quick read and fabulous on audio
- a fresh reimagining that borrows while feeling original
- romantic subplot
- queer MCs & polyamorous relationships
- immersive and lush prose
- perfectly paced
Audio Narration: 5/5 Loved the narration for this one! Great pacing, pausing, inflection and voice variations! Will absolutely be keeping an eye out for more books narrated by Anna Burnett in the future!
5⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
This novella packs a punch! I’m actually shocked it was only 144 pages! It feels so fleshed out and never lacking in depth of characters or story.
Whats to love…
- short, quick read and fabulous on audio
- a fresh reimagining that borrows while feeling original
- romantic subplot
- queer MCs & polyamorous relationships
- immersive and lush prose
- perfectly paced
Audio Narration: 5/5 Loved the narration for this one! Great pacing, pausing, inflection and voice variations! Will absolutely be keeping an eye out for more books narrated by Anna Burnett in the future!
5⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
October 27, 2025
House ghost, but literally.
When her father was poisoned, sixteen year old Ella should have inherited everything, had she not promptly fallen down the stairs to her death. But Ella remained as a haunting, a ghost tethered to the house just corporeal enough to become her stepmother’s personal maid. As she ages, Ella learns she can leave the boundaries of the house, but only for short periods of time, and she is always returned to the house at midnight. One day she befriends a charm seller who offers her a chance to attend the three night celebration taking place at the palace. There she meets a prince, and her (after) life is transformed forever. Freya Marske takes the Cinderella bones and reconstructs them into a ghostly queer fairytale of house hauntings, mysterious correspondence, and of course, magic. It’s the story you always knew, but not quite. In Cinder House a house is its own living thing, tethered to the violence of several murders and reacting to any harm upon our resident ghost, Ella. The house is a ghost of its own, but it’s also Ella and it holds the sins of this family and its tumultuous past, making this novella positively gothic indeed. Yearning for the freedom ever denied her, Ella discovers an unconventional means at escape, finding community in those who also feel trapped. One such individual: a young man at the ballet who yearns to dance again, another a sorcerer and scholar from a bordering kingdom. Knowing Freya Marske this is not your standard Cinderella story, and that extends to the romance which is nothing short of queer brilliance. Enchantments, mirrored slippers, ghostly houses, and secret letters shape the surface of this narrative about autonomy and forging your own path. Cinder House is all around an unconventional fairy tale, highlighting how the real happily ever after is the family and love we make for ourselves—its own kind of home.
Read my review
When her father was poisoned, sixteen year old Ella should have inherited everything, had she not promptly fallen down the stairs to her death. But Ella remained as a haunting, a ghost tethered to the house just corporeal enough to become her stepmother’s personal maid. As she ages, Ella learns she can leave the boundaries of the house, but only for short periods of time, and she is always returned to the house at midnight. One day she befriends a charm seller who offers her a chance to attend the three night celebration taking place at the palace. There she meets a prince, and her (after) life is transformed forever. Freya Marske takes the Cinderella bones and reconstructs them into a ghostly queer fairytale of house hauntings, mysterious correspondence, and of course, magic. It’s the story you always knew, but not quite. In Cinder House a house is its own living thing, tethered to the violence of several murders and reacting to any harm upon our resident ghost, Ella. The house is a ghost of its own, but it’s also Ella and it holds the sins of this family and its tumultuous past, making this novella positively gothic indeed. Yearning for the freedom ever denied her, Ella discovers an unconventional means at escape, finding community in those who also feel trapped. One such individual: a young man at the ballet who yearns to dance again, another a sorcerer and scholar from a bordering kingdom. Knowing Freya Marske this is not your standard Cinderella story, and that extends to the romance which is nothing short of queer brilliance. Enchantments, mirrored slippers, ghostly houses, and secret letters shape the surface of this narrative about autonomy and forging your own path. Cinder House is all around an unconventional fairy tale, highlighting how the real happily ever after is the family and love we make for ourselves—its own kind of home.
Read my review
December 7, 2025
4.5
An excellent and deliciously compelling retelling of Cinderella, with other fairy tales mixed in throughout. Loved loved loved the magic, the characters’ relationships with each other, the way that the message of the Cinderella story was expanded upon in this rendition (i.e. kindness and resilience in the face of abuse, with the addition of accepting life for what it is with its constraints while also refusing to allow the world to walk all over you)… truly a delight and a good way to get out of a slump!!! And out of school nonsense so I can actually fucking read again!!!
An excellent and deliciously compelling retelling of Cinderella, with other fairy tales mixed in throughout. Loved loved loved the magic, the characters’ relationships with each other, the way that the message of the Cinderella story was expanded upon in this rendition (i.e. kindness and resilience in the face of abuse, with the addition of accepting life for what it is with its constraints while also refusing to allow the world to walk all over you)… truly a delight and a good way to get out of a slump!!! And out of school nonsense so I can actually fucking read again!!!
October 15, 2025
She would not spend her death as a drudge.
I liked the premise here - Ella is a haint who can't stop being at the beck and call of her stepmother and stepsisters.
Ella kept the house because the house kept her. Ella kept the house because it was unbearable not to.
She's also inexplicably tied to her house; she can sneak out, but must return home before midnight.
Things went south for me when she went to the ball and met the handsome prince. I'll wave my magic wand and award bonus points for a happily-ever-after that includes books and learning -but not enough to raise my rating, anyway.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for sharing.
I liked the premise here - Ella is a haint who can't stop being at the beck and call of her stepmother and stepsisters.
Ella kept the house because the house kept her. Ella kept the house because it was unbearable not to.
She's also inexplicably tied to her house; she can sneak out, but must return home before midnight.
Things went south for me when she went to the ball and met the handsome prince. I'll wave my magic wand and award bonus points for a happily-ever-after that includes books and learning -but not enough to raise my rating, anyway.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for sharing.
September 8, 2025
Hoping to get this done in one sitting, it’s a quick, sapphic, gothic Cinderella retelling✨🖤🏯👻
Want to read
March 31, 2025Queer gothic yearning 👀
June 26, 2025
A queer reimagining of Cinderella that puts a unique spin on the tale while keeping it unique and fresh as its own story.
Book Stats:
📖: 136 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: TorDotCom
Format: Physical Arc
Series: Standalone
Themes:
💫: Female Rage
💫: The power of a grudge
💫: Living with chronic illness and disability
Representation:
👠 : Family trauma
👠 : Queer characters
👠 : Polyamorous relationship
Tropes:
💗: Petty as a personality
💗: Sentient house
🥵: Spice: 🌶️
Potential Triggers: **check authors page/socials for full list.
Short Synopsis:
Murdered as a teenager, Ella is forced to stay bonded with the house in which she died. Exuding nothing but rage and a grudge over how she met her untimely demise, Ella is forced to take care of the house and therefore begrudgingly the family that executed her murder. When Ella meets a fairy who says she can give her a couple days of normalcy Ella jumps at the chance. But will it be everything I've ever hoped for? Or will it just highlight what she can never have again?
General Thoughts:
This unique and fresh story is supposed to be a reimagining of Cinderella. It was enough of its own story with the vibes of Cinderella to keep it fresh and unique while giving you the nostalgic feel.
The themes within this book most definitely touch on grudges and female rage. Ella is what Cinderella should've been in the original fairytale and happy with her circumstances and railing against what happened to her. Paired with the Gothic vibes and the sentient feel of the house, Cinder House gives a lush experience in the ways of description, imagery and overall feeling. I loved the way the author was able to convey real emotion from objects that are supposed to be "emotionless". It gave the story a lot of depth and feeling.
I tend to have a harder time with novella's because I always feel like something has to suffer in order to keep the story within the shorter page count. But in this novel, I felt like we got a lot of character development as well as world building. I don't feel like anything was really glossed over, making the story cohesive, and immersive.
The leading point of this novella is absolutely the fairytale storyline. Any romance within the novel is completely sub plot and doesn't come until later in the novel. The female rage is at the forefront. The parallels within the novel relating to long Covid chronic illness and disability are super well done, and do not necessarily jump out at you until you really look beneath the surface of the novel. It added so much depth to the characters and the overall storyline.
I hope the author continues to make reimagining of fairytales in this manner. I would absolutely read them all.
Disclaimer: I read this book as a physical arc from TorDotCom. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Book Stats:
📖: 136 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: TorDotCom
Format: Physical Arc
Series: Standalone
Themes:
💫: Female Rage
💫: The power of a grudge
💫: Living with chronic illness and disability
Representation:
👠 : Family trauma
👠 : Queer characters
👠 : Polyamorous relationship
Tropes:
💗: Petty as a personality
💗: Sentient house
🥵: Spice: 🌶️
Potential Triggers: **check authors page/socials for full list.
Short Synopsis:
Murdered as a teenager, Ella is forced to stay bonded with the house in which she died. Exuding nothing but rage and a grudge over how she met her untimely demise, Ella is forced to take care of the house and therefore begrudgingly the family that executed her murder. When Ella meets a fairy who says she can give her a couple days of normalcy Ella jumps at the chance. But will it be everything I've ever hoped for? Or will it just highlight what she can never have again?
General Thoughts:
This unique and fresh story is supposed to be a reimagining of Cinderella. It was enough of its own story with the vibes of Cinderella to keep it fresh and unique while giving you the nostalgic feel.
The themes within this book most definitely touch on grudges and female rage. Ella is what Cinderella should've been in the original fairytale and happy with her circumstances and railing against what happened to her. Paired with the Gothic vibes and the sentient feel of the house, Cinder House gives a lush experience in the ways of description, imagery and overall feeling. I loved the way the author was able to convey real emotion from objects that are supposed to be "emotionless". It gave the story a lot of depth and feeling.
I tend to have a harder time with novella's because I always feel like something has to suffer in order to keep the story within the shorter page count. But in this novel, I felt like we got a lot of character development as well as world building. I don't feel like anything was really glossed over, making the story cohesive, and immersive.
The leading point of this novella is absolutely the fairytale storyline. Any romance within the novel is completely sub plot and doesn't come until later in the novel. The female rage is at the forefront. The parallels within the novel relating to long Covid chronic illness and disability are super well done, and do not necessarily jump out at you until you really look beneath the surface of the novel. It added so much depth to the characters and the overall storyline.
I hope the author continues to make reimagining of fairytales in this manner. I would absolutely read them all.
Disclaimer: I read this book as a physical arc from TorDotCom. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.
October 8, 2025
A twist on the classic tale of Cinderella, where Ella is murdered and becomes a ghost doomed to haunt the halls of her childhood home, and forced to a become a housemaid to her stepmother and stepsisters. Damn poor girl just cannot catch a break even in death..💀
All the elements of the original story were present with some new additions all wrapped up in under 150 pages… The sapphic and queer tags initially had me intrigued and was what originally made me interested in reading this, but honestly it felt like a marketing ploy cause that element only came into play towards the very last couple of pages. Half the time, I thought Cinderella was STRIAGHT because she was clearly crushing on the Prince throughout the book T_T so that twist at the end was like surprise bitch! 😂😭 I still loved it but it would have been nice if it was hinted at earlier on.
Aside from that, I still enjoyed the majority of the novella. I enjoyed exploring Ella’s predicament as a ghost and her figuring out how to navigate this new aspect of her existence in the world. As she slowly learns to reshape her form, learn to separate herself from the house that is seemly holding her to this world and to be seen by others other than her step-family. I liked that this version of Ella had a personality outside of just meeting and marrying the prince. She had depth and layers, she wanted to be SEEN, remembered and to yearn for freedom.
Thank you Tor Publishing for this arc!
All the elements of the original story were present with some new additions all wrapped up in under 150 pages… The sapphic and queer tags initially had me intrigued and was what originally made me interested in reading this, but honestly it felt like a marketing ploy cause that element only came into play towards the very last couple of pages. Half the time, I thought Cinderella was STRIAGHT because she was clearly crushing on the Prince throughout the book T_T so that twist at the end was like surprise bitch! 😂😭 I still loved it but it would have been nice if it was hinted at earlier on.
Aside from that, I still enjoyed the majority of the novella. I enjoyed exploring Ella’s predicament as a ghost and her figuring out how to navigate this new aspect of her existence in the world. As she slowly learns to reshape her form, learn to separate herself from the house that is seemly holding her to this world and to be seen by others other than her step-family. I liked that this version of Ella had a personality outside of just meeting and marrying the prince. She had depth and layers, she wanted to be SEEN, remembered and to yearn for freedom.
Thank you Tor Publishing for this arc!
October 31, 2025
Listen, I was going to just leave this as a one star rating and walk away, but this book continues to nag at me so here we are. I swear on my life, the marketing for this novella led me to believe that it was a sapphic Cinderella retelling. And, sure, it had enough characteristics (our main character loses her father, her stepmother takes over the household, Ella is forced to tend to the household chores, there is a ball and something of a fairy godmother) that I'll let it have the "retelling" part to some degree. But the sapphic bit? No way.
And, marketing aside, whatever is going on in the short 144 pages of this novella is just... weird. Ella dies and becomes a ghost within the first 2 pages, and her connection to the physical house itself actually starts off as a really interesting world building element. But then, as we get further into how ghosts actually work, it starts to unravel. Ella is able to leave the house and visit basically any part of town she wants to (before midnight, I see you Cindy). She can touch tangible objects and physically write letters. But she is also invisible to most people and can later . And then she also physically ages. Which, okay, I guess? She's dead, and she's forced to wear the same dress she died in, and 99% of her town can't see her anyway, but sure, let her physically mature or else the latter half of this novella would probably be even worse than it already is.
Speaking of the latter half of the novella, let's circle back to the marketing of this book as queer in any sense of the word. While there are references to Ella finding other women attractive as she explores her town at night, she spends her time pining after a man she sees at the ballet, and then she spends pages upon pages fawning over the prince at the ball . While some characters gossip (in a definitely demeaning sort of way) about the prince's sexuality, it turns out his encounters with men were all sexual assault brought on by a pretty awful "gift" from a fairy. We round out this so-called representation with Ella watching a newly married couple have sex in possibly one of the oddest scenes I've read this year. So, cool, the queer representation here actually amounts to cute little glances, voyeurism, and heinous sexual assault. Just what I want from a queer book in 2025.
All in all, it shocks me that I'm rating a Freya Marske book as a one star, but here we are. Maybe we can leave retellings in 2025 and find something new to do.
And, marketing aside, whatever is going on in the short 144 pages of this novella is just... weird. Ella dies and becomes a ghost within the first 2 pages, and her connection to the physical house itself actually starts off as a really interesting world building element. But then, as we get further into how ghosts actually work, it starts to unravel. Ella is able to leave the house and visit basically any part of town she wants to (before midnight, I see you Cindy). She can touch tangible objects and physically write letters. But she is also invisible to most people and can later . And then she also physically ages. Which, okay, I guess? She's dead, and she's forced to wear the same dress she died in, and 99% of her town can't see her anyway, but sure, let her physically mature or else the latter half of this novella would probably be even worse than it already is.
Speaking of the latter half of the novella, let's circle back to the marketing of this book as queer in any sense of the word. While there are references to Ella finding other women attractive as she explores her town at night, she spends her time pining after a man she sees at the ballet, and then she spends pages upon pages fawning over the prince at the ball . While some characters gossip (in a definitely demeaning sort of way) about the prince's sexuality, it turns out his encounters with men were all sexual assault brought on by a pretty awful "gift" from a fairy. We round out this so-called representation with Ella watching a newly married couple have sex in possibly one of the oddest scenes I've read this year. So, cool, the queer representation here actually amounts to cute little glances, voyeurism, and heinous sexual assault. Just what I want from a queer book in 2025.
All in all, it shocks me that I'm rating a Freya Marske book as a one star, but here we are. Maybe we can leave retellings in 2025 and find something new to do.
September 15, 2025
An extremely unique Cinderella retelling that combines haunting and ballet.
Ella’s father died of the poison in his tea and she died soon after only to become the house’s ghost to obey every order of her step-mother and step-sisters.
She was a girl, she was Ella, she was not just the potential for horror.
Whilst Elle cannot be hit, the house can be wrecked which hurts her. No one but the owners of the house can see her. Until she meets a fae who strikes a bargain that ends at midnight.
This is a magical novella. The aching to be seen, known, to experience, resonated with me (no, I am not a ghost). Especially with the added magic (fantastical and real) of ballet in the latter half of the book (yes, I am an ex-dancer).
I will warn you that this is NOT primarily a queer romance.
It took me until the last few chapters to realise how the queer component came into play. I kept waiting for it due to the marketing, and felt slightly cheated that it felt like a fairy godmother's fix to everyone's problems at the end. It is queer, but I have gripes about it being marketed as a queer Cinderella retelling when it is vague and only truly so in the last pages.
This was still enjoyable and, had I gone in with the right expectations, might have given it a higher rating rather than rounded up 3.5 stars. 🌟
However, the queer marketing almost felt like click-bait.
I also didn’t truly feel the ‘gothic’ atmosphere, but I would want to explore this world more. In such a short time, I was transported away.
What is it that you’re seeing in the dance? she would ask. Does it hurt you the same way it hurts me? And does that hurt feel so sublime that it keeps drawing you back, like the opposite of a warding?
Read this on an Autumn or Winter night.
Arc gifted by Tor.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
Ella’s father died of the poison in his tea and she died soon after only to become the house’s ghost to obey every order of her step-mother and step-sisters.
She was a girl, she was Ella, she was not just the potential for horror.
Whilst Elle cannot be hit, the house can be wrecked which hurts her. No one but the owners of the house can see her. Until she meets a fae who strikes a bargain that ends at midnight.
This is a magical novella. The aching to be seen, known, to experience, resonated with me (no, I am not a ghost). Especially with the added magic (fantastical and real) of ballet in the latter half of the book (yes, I am an ex-dancer).
I will warn you that this is NOT primarily a queer romance.
It took me until the last few chapters to realise how the queer component came into play. I kept waiting for it due to the marketing, and felt slightly cheated that it felt like a fairy godmother's fix to everyone's problems at the end. It is queer, but I have gripes about it being marketed as a queer Cinderella retelling when it is vague and only truly so in the last pages.
This was still enjoyable and, had I gone in with the right expectations, might have given it a higher rating rather than rounded up 3.5 stars. 🌟
However, the queer marketing almost felt like click-bait.
I also didn’t truly feel the ‘gothic’ atmosphere, but I would want to explore this world more. In such a short time, I was transported away.
What is it that you’re seeing in the dance? she would ask. Does it hurt you the same way it hurts me? And does that hurt feel so sublime that it keeps drawing you back, like the opposite of a warding?
Read this on an Autumn or Winter night.
Arc gifted by Tor.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
September 21, 2025
beautiful story beautiful writing oh freya marske i will forever be desperate to read anything you write!!
August 2, 2025
i mean. who hasn't thought about fucking their bed?
September 17, 2025
(4.5 stars)
Would it be too “on the nose” to say Cinder House is an enchanting story? (Sorry, not sorry.) I’ve been wanting to try a Freya Marske book for a while and this short story/novella seemed the perfect way to dip into her writing. I am now looking forward to reading her backlist!
In Cinder House, Cinderella is a ghost… and a house. She was murdered right after her father in their house (by guess who) at 16 years old, and she is now a ghost tethered to the house. Actually she’s more than tethered to it, she IS the house. I know that sounds weird, but just go with the flow here. The only people who can see her or hear her are the people who live in the house: her stepmother and two stepsisters. To everyone else, she’s invisible. Her stepmother isn’t totally cruel and neither is one of the two stepsisters, but one, Greta, is downright terrible to Ella. She is extremely cruel and has been studying magic, which she wields with bad intentions for the most part. At one point, she takes a tiny knife and cuts into a window frame, which physically hurts Ella (because she IS the house). In general, since Ella has an innate sense of orderliness, the step-family uses her to clean the house and more. They can order her about and she is helpless to disobey.
Eventually Ella finds a way to get away from the house, at least for a short time (the old midnight problem!) and meets Quaint, who fulfills the “fairy godmother” role here. One of the things Ella loves to do is sneak in to the ballet (remember, she’s invisible) and watch from one of the back rows. There’s a young man there who also loves the ballet and she’d love to talk to him but of course he can’t see or hear her. And of course, there’s the ball for the prince. I loved all the changes that Marske makes to the traditional story while keeping the essence.
This is being marketed as a “queer Gothic romance” but I’m not sold on that description at all. There are some hints but it’s definitely a minor part of the story.
I listened to the audiobook version and Anna Burnett did a terrific job with all the voices.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.
Would it be too “on the nose” to say Cinder House is an enchanting story? (Sorry, not sorry.) I’ve been wanting to try a Freya Marske book for a while and this short story/novella seemed the perfect way to dip into her writing. I am now looking forward to reading her backlist!
In Cinder House, Cinderella is a ghost… and a house. She was murdered right after her father in their house (by guess who) at 16 years old, and she is now a ghost tethered to the house. Actually she’s more than tethered to it, she IS the house. I know that sounds weird, but just go with the flow here. The only people who can see her or hear her are the people who live in the house: her stepmother and two stepsisters. To everyone else, she’s invisible. Her stepmother isn’t totally cruel and neither is one of the two stepsisters, but one, Greta, is downright terrible to Ella. She is extremely cruel and has been studying magic, which she wields with bad intentions for the most part. At one point, she takes a tiny knife and cuts into a window frame, which physically hurts Ella (because she IS the house). In general, since Ella has an innate sense of orderliness, the step-family uses her to clean the house and more. They can order her about and she is helpless to disobey.
Eventually Ella finds a way to get away from the house, at least for a short time (the old midnight problem!) and meets Quaint, who fulfills the “fairy godmother” role here. One of the things Ella loves to do is sneak in to the ballet (remember, she’s invisible) and watch from one of the back rows. There’s a young man there who also loves the ballet and she’d love to talk to him but of course he can’t see or hear her. And of course, there’s the ball for the prince. I loved all the changes that Marske makes to the traditional story while keeping the essence.
This is being marketed as a “queer Gothic romance” but I’m not sold on that description at all. There are some hints but it’s definitely a minor part of the story.
I listened to the audiobook version and Anna Burnett did a terrific job with all the voices.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.
December 17, 2025
3.5
A lot of untapped potential in this novella but it was an entertaining read.
A lot of untapped potential in this novella but it was an entertaining read.
October 19, 2025
It is my current opinion that a queer character does not a queer retelling make.
This book is incorrectly tagged as sapphic and is marketed heavily as a queer gothic retelling of Cinderella. While the main character is bisexual, the book does not subvert the traditional narrative of MF romance as generally I would qualify a queer retelling by manipulating the expected gender roles (ex. WLW, MLM, trans or ace leads). There is in the last couple pages a potential throuple but the other woman is explicitly stated to be a friend throughout the book and it seems more about the engaged kink than a romantic connection. The main romantic focus of the novel is the prince and Cinderella the ghost. For such a short book this left me very disappointed as I went in with certain expectations of being given a story of queer love and that was not the case. I do know that publishers control the marketing, but I think it is really important to discuss this because this is the third incident I know this year alone of books being thought to be WLW, which end up instead being MF. We have a pattern emerging and it seems a bit sinister from the publishing side.
Outside of this, I also felt like there could have been more detail put into the ending. It felt rushed and the pacing didn't match the rest of the book. I ended the book questioning if that was it and how we got here.
Additionally, I think that the sexual content in the book could have used more metaphorical foreplay, if you would. The scenes often felt like suddenly someone had wrenched open a door onto someone having sex you were not expecting, like unnegotiated kink in a way. I don't know if that was the intent but it felt very different from other books by the author and not my fav, particularly the scene at the very end.
This book may just have not been for me (I have loved most of Freya Marske's books to date), but it may be for others just definitely make sure you go in knowing what to expect.
This book is incorrectly tagged as sapphic and is marketed heavily as a queer gothic retelling of Cinderella. While the main character is bisexual, the book does not subvert the traditional narrative of MF romance as generally I would qualify a queer retelling by manipulating the expected gender roles (ex. WLW, MLM, trans or ace leads). There is in the last couple pages a potential throuple but the other woman is explicitly stated to be a friend throughout the book and it seems more about the engaged kink than a romantic connection. The main romantic focus of the novel is the prince and Cinderella the ghost. For such a short book this left me very disappointed as I went in with certain expectations of being given a story of queer love and that was not the case. I do know that publishers control the marketing, but I think it is really important to discuss this because this is the third incident I know this year alone of books being thought to be WLW, which end up instead being MF. We have a pattern emerging and it seems a bit sinister from the publishing side.
Outside of this, I also felt like there could have been more detail put into the ending. It felt rushed and the pacing didn't match the rest of the book. I ended the book questioning if that was it and how we got here.
Additionally, I think that the sexual content in the book could have used more metaphorical foreplay, if you would. The scenes often felt like suddenly someone had wrenched open a door onto someone having sex you were not expecting, like unnegotiated kink in a way. I don't know if that was the intent but it felt very different from other books by the author and not my fav, particularly the scene at the very end.
This book may just have not been for me (I have loved most of Freya Marske's books to date), but it may be for others just definitely make sure you go in knowing what to expect.
August 31, 2025
What if Cinderella was a Queer ghost and also a house is absolutely a question more authors should be asking.
November 4, 2025
The only thing I can honestly say I liked was the cover.
November 8, 2025
my favourite throuple.
Goodreads Falls Challenge | September - December 2025 | Bite-Size Books
Goodreads Falls Challenge | September - December 2025 | Bite-Size Books
June 29, 2025
Cinder House was a wonderfully strange take on the classic Cinderella - a truly fresh interpretation that I thoroughly enjoyed. Ella is a ghost, and as a ghost, she is tied to the house in which she died. That alone was enough to hook me, and the underlying messages about trauma, rage, and chronic illness were handled with such care that it never felt over done. It was thought provoking in a way I didn’t expect from a Cinderella retelling.
My one qualm was the poly representation - the book was marketed as queer and it is, but that did feel added in as an afterthought without the work to make it believable. The pacing was good until the end, which felt extremely rushed and the queer elements were thrown in at the very last second. If you’re looking for a Cinderella retelling that centers a queer romance, you won’t find it here, though I would say this does handle other themes well - the romance is certainly a subplot at best. I’m sure the marketing as a queer romance was likely well-intentioned…it just felt like a very tiny part of the story that doesn’t play much significance in the plot until the last few pages.
My one qualm was the poly representation - the book was marketed as queer and it is, but that did feel added in as an afterthought without the work to make it believable. The pacing was good until the end, which felt extremely rushed and the queer elements were thrown in at the very last second. If you’re looking for a Cinderella retelling that centers a queer romance, you won’t find it here, though I would say this does handle other themes well - the romance is certainly a subplot at best. I’m sure the marketing as a queer romance was likely well-intentioned…it just felt like a very tiny part of the story that doesn’t play much significance in the plot until the last few pages.
June 23, 2025
Fun little take on a Cinderella retelling that was solidly fine.
Marske is a great writer and her technical skills and way with words meant I flew through this novella though it never quite managed to hook me. Her take on the story of Cinderella is interesting but the book still ended up leaving little impression.
Retellings and reimaginings of fairy tales and classics are having a resurgence these days and while I've seen a lot around, Cinder House is the first I've read and I'm not sure I'll be doing more. Fairy tales generally require archetypical heroes and villains and while that's part of the genre, it felt somewhat trite and lacking depth.
As an aside, promoting this book as poly felt a bit misleading but I don't care enough to be more than mildly annoyed about it
Marske is a great writer and her technical skills and way with words meant I flew through this novella though it never quite managed to hook me. Her take on the story of Cinderella is interesting but the book still ended up leaving little impression.
Retellings and reimaginings of fairy tales and classics are having a resurgence these days and while I've seen a lot around, Cinder House is the first I've read and I'm not sure I'll be doing more. Fairy tales generally require archetypical heroes and villains and while that's part of the genre, it felt somewhat trite and lacking depth.
As an aside, promoting this book as poly felt a bit misleading but I don't care enough to be more than mildly annoyed about it
November 12, 2025
A ghost is a grudge a house makes? That's an interesting take on an old fairy tale. I've read many (many!) Cinderella retellings over the decades, and Cinder House is the first one in which the main character is dead.
We meet Ella right after she and her father have been poisoned by his second wife. He dies immediately; she stumbles over to the stairs, falls down them, and then also dies. But then she comes back, not immediately, but eventually, as a ghost who is both Ella and the house. Only her stepmother and stepsisters can see her. The only things she can touch are of the house - no people. She can't leave. And it hurts her when the house is injured, so perhaps it's not surprising that Ella (even in death) is forced to serve the family who murdered her.
At 144 pages, this novella is very cleverly done with hardly a word to spare. There's a fairy bargain, a ball, a prince (and a princess), but not as you've ever seen them before. Even the wicked stepmother turns out to have more depth than expected. Ella's perspective is strangely beguiling, as someone who died as a teen before she'd gotten her fill of having flesh, and she's a hungry ghost, not for vengeance, but for life.
Weirdest coming of age ever! I could, perhaps, have done with a bit less lust overall, but I kept flipping pages anxiously, unsure how this was going to end at all well. But it does; not perfectly, but in a way that feels right yet follows its own rules.
4.5 stars, rounding down because I'm not sure I need to own it. Thanks to Hirondelle's lovely review for catching my attention. I'm out of town at the moment, otherwise I'd probably pick up my childhood favorite version of Cinderella Silver Woven in My Hair for a reread.
We meet Ella right after she and her father have been poisoned by his second wife. He dies immediately; she stumbles over to the stairs, falls down them, and then also dies. But then she comes back, not immediately, but eventually, as a ghost who is both Ella and the house. Only her stepmother and stepsisters can see her. The only things she can touch are of the house - no people. She can't leave. And it hurts her when the house is injured, so perhaps it's not surprising that Ella (even in death) is forced to serve the family who murdered her.
At 144 pages, this novella is very cleverly done with hardly a word to spare. There's a fairy bargain, a ball, a prince (and a princess), but not as you've ever seen them before. Even the wicked stepmother turns out to have more depth than expected. Ella's perspective is strangely beguiling, as someone who died as a teen before she'd gotten her fill of having flesh, and she's a hungry ghost, not for vengeance, but for life.
Now, distinct among the garden smells, she could smell him. Amazing, unfathomable, that living people walked around all day wearing themselves on their skin like they were being squeezed for it. Ella wanted to roll it around in her mouth.
Weirdest coming of age ever! I could, perhaps, have done with a bit less lust overall, but I kept flipping pages anxiously, unsure how this was going to end at all well. But it does; not perfectly, but in a way that feels right yet follows its own rules.
4.5 stars, rounding down because I'm not sure I need to own it. Thanks to Hirondelle's lovely review for catching my attention. I'm out of town at the moment, otherwise I'd probably pick up my childhood favorite version of Cinderella Silver Woven in My Hair for a reread.
October 21, 2025
3.5 (give us half points already , dang!)
Cinderella got ghosted—literally. Ella was sixteen, freshly murdered by her ice queen stepmother, and now years later she's stuck as this ethereal drudge, scrubbing floors while her stepsisters Danica and Greta treat her like yesterday's ectoplasm.
Ella is the house, or at least tethered to it like a bad lease. Clearly, she slammed a door too hard or something in life for her home to basically enslave her as the Ghost Help.
Soon, Ella realizes she can leave. At least for a few hours. Midnight and all, minus the pumpkins. She meets Quaint, a sly fairy charm peddler who's basically a supernatural pawn shop owner with a heart of (fools?) gold, offering Ella a bargain for three nights of "almost-living" to attend a ball. It's all yearning and fairy curses and the ache of being intangible in a world that's suddenly TOO tangible.
Chronic illness vibes hit sneaky hard while tying in with the Cinderella retelling, mirroring how Ella's "ghost rules" feel like invisible chains. She can't be seen by those outside the home, can't stay out past curfew, can't really spill the beans on her jailbreak.
The polyamorous curveball at the end added a half a point to me. I was pleasantly surprised (I do love a good thruple. Rip Freeform's Siren). It's like the book winked and said, "Why pick a prince when you can have both?" Queer as a three-dollar bill.
It does get bogged down at times. Greta's sadistic magic schtick is fun villain energy, but it fizzles into "evil for evil's sake" without enough bite. Pacing lurches too, like a ghost in need of knee surgery.
Still, if you're craving a retelling that's less pumpkin coach and more shaking the chandelier, this'll scratch that itch.
Cinderella got ghosted—literally. Ella was sixteen, freshly murdered by her ice queen stepmother, and now years later she's stuck as this ethereal drudge, scrubbing floors while her stepsisters Danica and Greta treat her like yesterday's ectoplasm.
Ella is the house, or at least tethered to it like a bad lease. Clearly, she slammed a door too hard or something in life for her home to basically enslave her as the Ghost Help.
Soon, Ella realizes she can leave. At least for a few hours. Midnight and all, minus the pumpkins. She meets Quaint, a sly fairy charm peddler who's basically a supernatural pawn shop owner with a heart of (fools?) gold, offering Ella a bargain for three nights of "almost-living" to attend a ball. It's all yearning and fairy curses and the ache of being intangible in a world that's suddenly TOO tangible.
Chronic illness vibes hit sneaky hard while tying in with the Cinderella retelling, mirroring how Ella's "ghost rules" feel like invisible chains. She can't be seen by those outside the home, can't stay out past curfew, can't really spill the beans on her jailbreak.
The polyamorous curveball at the end added a half a point to me. I was pleasantly surprised (I do love a good thruple. Rip Freeform's Siren). It's like the book winked and said, "Why pick a prince when you can have both?" Queer as a three-dollar bill.
It does get bogged down at times. Greta's sadistic magic schtick is fun villain energy, but it fizzles into "evil for evil's sake" without enough bite. Pacing lurches too, like a ghost in need of knee surgery.
Still, if you're craving a retelling that's less pumpkin coach and more shaking the chandelier, this'll scratch that itch.
Want to read
March 16, 2025Gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling —a queer Gothic romance
Yes, absolutely yes, of course.
Yes, absolutely yes, of course.
October 24, 2025
5+ stars and Freya can’t miss!!!
I love the idea of a retelling but I’ve read so many awful retellings so I’m wary. Either an author will just take a fairytale and make it “modern” and it doesn’t work, or they will start writing something interesting but then they try to make it fit into the mold of the fairytale they’re retelling and it also doesn’t work.
This book had neither of those problems. It was both very true to the story of Cinderella and also something COMPLETELY different. I don’t know how she did it but she did it, brava.
I’m also not much of a “holiday” reader but this is perfect for spooky season.
I love the idea of a retelling but I’ve read so many awful retellings so I’m wary. Either an author will just take a fairytale and make it “modern” and it doesn’t work, or they will start writing something interesting but then they try to make it fit into the mold of the fairytale they’re retelling and it also doesn’t work.
This book had neither of those problems. It was both very true to the story of Cinderella and also something COMPLETELY different. I don’t know how she did it but she did it, brava.
I’m also not much of a “holiday” reader but this is perfect for spooky season.
November 22, 2025
Ok waiiitttt this was so good! They first announced this book at Comic Con and I was so excited to read it - it did not dissapoint!
September 9, 2025
It kills me to give anything written by Freya Marske a 2-star rating, but Cinder House just didn't work for me in the way her previous stories have.
I do wonder if perhaps the marketing for this book contributed to my lessened enjoyment. I went into it expecting it to be more heavy-handed with the yearning and the romance than it ended up being. Calling this a sapphic book, as I have seen it referred to by some, also feels like a bit of a stretch; while Ella is bisexual, the main “romance” is M/F. There is something of a polyamory aspect that could be read as including an F/F romance, but it came across to me as more of an arrangement (with attraction on Ella’s part) than anything truly romantic.
Regardless, I love this author and will always read everything she publishes. I didn’t personally connect with this one, but I hope others do.
I do wonder if perhaps the marketing for this book contributed to my lessened enjoyment. I went into it expecting it to be more heavy-handed with the yearning and the romance than it ended up being. Calling this a sapphic book, as I have seen it referred to by some, also feels like a bit of a stretch; while Ella is bisexual, the main “romance” is M/F. There is something of a polyamory aspect that could be read as including an F/F romance, but it came across to me as more of an arrangement (with attraction on Ella’s part) than anything truly romantic.
Regardless, I love this author and will always read everything she publishes. I didn’t personally connect with this one, but I hope others do.
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