Fishbone Cinderella

by Elizabeth Lim

A mother and daughter must break their family’s curse through trials of war and immigration, love, loss, and redemption in this “enchanting multi-generational tale” (People) with a shimmer of magic, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate.

★“Lim dazzles in her dark and deftly woven adult debut. . . . Blending the historically grounded and complex mother-daughter narratives of Amy Tan with the rich fantasy of Yangsze Choo, this stunning tale will delight. . . . This is a gem.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

1940s Hong Kong
When Japanese soldiers invade her hometown, Ha Yut Ying makes an unlikely escape—by turning invisible. But her miraculous survival is only the beginning. After the war is over, she’s sent to Hong Kong to live with her distant father and glamorous stepmother, who end her dreams of becoming a singer and turn her into the family’s servant. As the years pass, Yut Ying learns the hard truths of betrayal and ambition, of forbidden love and devastating loss, and discovers that sometimes the only way to endure is to disappear.

1960s San Francisco
Marigold has always had a knack for uncovering secrets, but nothing prepares her for the day she accidentally witnesses her mother vanish before her eyes. The moment fractures their bond, leaving questions that shadow her entire childhood. But when her mother’s condition suddenly deteriorates, Marigold is convinced she’s the only person who can save her. To do so, she must journey into the secrets her mother never shared and uncover the tragic, fairytale-tinged history their family has fought to forget.

A story of mothers and daughters, the scars they inherit and the magic that binds them, Fishbone Cinderella is a tender and enchanting exploration of what it means, at last, to be seen.

★ “[Elizabeth Lim’s] heart-wrenching and magical first adult novel is a multi-generational story that adapts a foundational fairy tale and creates a story of mothers, daughters, and a past that haunts their futures.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Historical, Fiction, Romance, Magical Realism

Audible Audio

First published July 23, 2026

About the author

Elizabeth Lim grew up on a hearty staple of fairy tales, myths, and songs. Her passion for storytelling began around age 10, when she started writing fanfics for Sailor Moon, Sweet Valley, and Star Wars, and posted them online to discover, "Wow, people actually read my stuff. And that's kinda cool!" But after one of her teachers told her she had "too much voice" in her essays, Elizabeth took a break from creative writing to focus on not flunking English.

Over the years, Elizabeth became a film and video game composer, and even went so far as to get a doctorate in music composition. But she always missed writing, and turned to penning stories when she needed a breather from grad school. One day, she decided to write and finish a novel -- for kicks, at first, then things became serious -- and she hasn't looked back since.

Elizabeth loves classic film scores, books with a good romance, food (she currently has a soft spot for arepas and Ethiopian food), the color turquoise, overcast skies, English muffins, cycling, and baking. She lives in New York City with her husband.

Reviews

[Saranya · Rating 5 out of 5]

IT'S RELEASE DAY!


infinite stars!

It is easy to forget that the rights women hold today were not gifts freely given, but battles fought against centuries of resignation. When a mother tells her child that it is "common" for men to take more than one wife, what she is really saying is that women have been trained to endure indignity as ordinary. That quiet acceptance is precisely why feminism was and remains necessary. It insists that women’s pain is not inevitable and demands that dignity be non-negotiable. To take feminism for granted is to risk returning to a world where injustice is explained away as custom, where rage is silenced into resignation. Rage, in this context, is not destructive but it is this spark that reminds us that what is "common" should never be confused with what is just.

I have never felt such a deep connection to a story like this before. I could not stop shedding tears. Knowing the historical atrocities committed during World War II where simply existing as a woman could feel like a curse, made the whole story feel all the more haunting. It is a terrifying reminder of a cruelty that history must never be allowed to forget.

Beyond anything, this book was incredibly emotional. The story starts with Yut Ying as a child facing the dangers of the Japanese invasion. As we move forward, we see the hardships she faced in her childhood. It is absolutely devastating and I believe no one should ever go through something like that. Every page- every line made me cry so bad. This felt so realistic despite the theme of Magic Realism. The fantasy aspect felt so minimal that the whole story felt very real.

ᯓ★ 𝐅𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 follows the parallel journeys of Helen(Yut Ying) and Marigold(her daughter) that knits their lives together. Shifting through time and memory, the story shows the grim realities of war and the crushing weight of traditions and gives an intimate look at how love and loss reshape the soul across decades of upheaval.

Yut Ying- the mc had such an emotional and heartbreaking background while growing up that I was crying my heart out throughout. Watching her navigate such cruelty was extremely heartbreaking.

.☘︎ ݁˖ The 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 is extremely beautiful & exquisite. It was so immersive that it was as if I was going through the same pain as the characters were.

The novel contains 4 parts and the first part was incredibly emotional- so devastating that it felt physically suffocating. The prose is so heavy with heartbreak that it left me breathless as if the air itself had been pulled from my lungs.

ᡣ𐭩 •｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅
𑣲⋆｡˚There were a very few 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 I had grown to love while I hated most of them. This was crueller than the story of Cinderella. The Chinese have their own version of it and it made me want to learn more about Chinese Literature.

˚⟡˖ ࣪Nothing could have prepared me for the emotional weight of the sibling dynamics.
Lily and Helen's sisterly bond was so beautifully presented that I wanted to keep them with me forever. This novel excelled at finding the 'extraordinary in the ordinary.' Helen's regret over a simple, unreturned smile from her brother was somehow so devastating.

The bond between Yut Ying and this guy 'A' is portrayed with such tenderness that it makes the reality of her journey impossible to stomach. I was consumed by a sense of foreboding for them- a mental 'sear' that would not fade. It is a haunting realization that what we see on the page is likely only just the top of an iceberg.

𓂃۶ৎ I loved how this novel showed the relation and its complexity between a mother and daughter. Be it Yut Ying and her mom or she and her daughter, Marigold, it was really heartbreaking and touching.
ᡣ𐭩 •｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅

Despite the barriers between them, the connection between Helen and Marigold is deeply touching. Helen is a pillar of maternal strength and Marigold is a remarkably intuitive daughter. I hated how different Yut Ying had turned into after becoming a mother. She had turned into a ghost. But upon reading her perspective, I realized that it was far beyond that. At times, yes, I wanted her to be softer but then I realized how circumstances change a person. Their relationship proves that we do not need constant proximity to have a perfect, silent comprehension of one another’s hearts.

Kenji was such a sweet guy. I was so happy that in the middle of all the chaos, there was something to root for.

This is a book that will stay with me till the very day I take my last breath. This soul-stirring book is now my most favourite book of all time and I would just request everyone to read this masterpiece once in their lifetime.
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────
┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊
┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚★⋆｡˚ ⋆
┊ ┊ ┊ ⋆
┊ ┊ ★⋆
┊ ◦
★⋆ ┊ . ˚
˚★
𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝

"Why are you crying so much? It's just a book!"

Hello? JuSt A bOoK?!!"

ꫂ❁ ˖᯽ ݁˖𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: 🦋

OMG! I got the ARC!! Isn't the cover just stunning? This is my first time reading something by Elizabeth Lim. I'm so ready to get my heart ripped open!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: 28 July 2026

[levi]

The cover is so pretty (let’s hope my arc req doesn’t get rejected)😭
I got rejected 😔

[Esta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has experienced Elizabeth Lim’s past works such as Six Crimson Cranes and A Forgery of Fate won’t be a stranger to her whimsical, beautiful, achingly romantic and effortless YA storytelling abilities which occasionally comes with talking animals (or chatty paper cranes named Kiki) and a happily ever after (HEA).

However, Fishbone Cinderella swept the rug out from me with my expectations vs. reality.

To my whimsical fairytale-retelling enthusiasts, I’d recommend adjusting your expectations. There are no talking animals, paper cranes or shapeshifting dragons in Fishbone Cinderella. (I mean, technically there is a cat named Prince Cannonball, but he doesn’t talk. Still really endearing though).

Beautiful, bittersweet, melancholic, yep. Devastating, oh my goodness me, yes. Hopeful, thankfully yes. Whimsical? Fook no. Ol’ mate whimsy has left the building and disappeared into a deep dark void of nothingness. (iykyk)

In case you didn’t get the memo (like yours truly, I went into it without reading the blurb), Fishbone Cinderella is an epic multi-generational family saga embedded in a Cinderella-inspired historical fiction with a healthy dose of magical realism fantasy. It spans across Hong Kong and San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1980s, and is narrated from both Yut Ying and Marigold’s POVs in a non linear timeline format that eventually converges to bring together a bigger picture.

Had I known this beforehand, would I have requested an advanced copy to read? Nah, probably not. I usually steer away from historical fiction and family drama-trauma because I prefer escaping from reality. Do I regret reading it? Not in the slightest. I really loved and appreciated this, even though it gratuitously made me leak from my tear ducts. I'm still not okay.

For me, it was as stunning as it was heartbreaking AF, exploring how war, colonialism and immigration shape generations of people through grief, sisterhood, motherhood, love, intergenerational trauma, patriarchal oppression, racism, classism and ultimately healing.

Anyhow, I do think it’s important for any Lim fans to not expect romance to be the focal point of Fishbone Cinderella, nor to expect neat tidy HEA bows to wrap up this loosely-inspired retelling, unlike its folkloric fairytale counterpart. However, the open-ended ending did leave me with enough of a sense of peace, closure and hope, thankfully. In other words, expect your heart to be ripped out of your chest, stomped on and left bleeding on the floor, but then Lim will also patch it up tentatively with a couple of stitches and a bandaid. Uh, thanks I think?

I’m guessing if you like multigenerational family sagas + historical fiction, such as Pachinko by Min Jin Lee or The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (both fab books!), magical realism historical fantasy such as The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, or even a certain Nicholas Sparks novel (not saying which to avoid spoilery territory) then you will like this too. Make no mistake, I’m not comparing Fishbone Cinderella to ANY of those books, it’s its own kettle of fish entirely, just that those are somewhat the genre vibes.

Anyway, you may or may not develop a craving for soy milk, ngau lam and egg tarts after reading this.

Thanks so much to Del Rey and Netgalley for the ARC, highly recommend.

﹏﹏﹏﹏

From Six Crimson Cranes to A Forgery of Fate, Elizabeth Lim has a 2/2 five-star average with me. no pressure but will the trajectory continue 🔬

[yuvi (hiatus)]

Dnf @20%
this is not what i'm looking for rn. maybe sometime in the future? But not now ugh. I was forcing myself to read this book and ngl, that generally takes the joy out of reading ugh. And I was afraid that it would put me in a reading slump. nuh uh🙅‍♀️ now that i'm FINALLY done w my exams, i rlly can't risk that hehe

━━━━━
❀pre-read❀
━━━━━
i got approved for the arc days ago. okayyy that's it. ig it's finally time for me to start it. sigh. it's now or never (lowk scared atm😭😭😭) not me being dramatic ash. but honestly, im scared lol
long story short basically everyone and their mother is losing their ever loving mind over it. i've only read 2 books by elizabeth lim and as far as i rmbr i really liked those. suffice to say, my expectations are sky high rn. this better deliver or i'll srsly cry

[ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

✶ fishbone cinderella ౨ৎ 3 stars

“fishbone Cinderella” follows mother, yut ying (Helen), and daughter, marigold while they share a curse that has been passed down from ancestor to ancestor and, mainly, how they both go through the vicissitudes of life. elizabeth lim covers so many details of their lives, including romantic relationships, toxic family members, grief, misogyny, racism, immigration, fame, etc. and it is imperative to go into this book mindful of everything that is going to be thrown your way.
⤿ i feel so conflicted about this book because the last 20% was amazing, but the other 80% was a rollercoaster of “i’m bored” and “this is enchanting”. it also details so many sensitive topics, so it’s hard to give this book a low rating (the good was SO good, but the bad was bad, too).

the characters ꩜｡⋆.

⊹ yut ying (Helen) ᝰ⋆ authors need to collectively get together and decide to write more Sino-Japenese War representation, because this book covered yut ying’s life from (basically) beginning to end, and it was almost depressing to see how the war changed the course of her life & China forever. yut ying is an extremely complex character — when she becomes a parent to marigold, peony, and rosie, we see her become a completely different person than what we thought she was from the past, and I had to constantly remind myself of what she went through and what she sacrificed for her children. i loved her, though. she was compassionate, caring, giving, selflesss, and reasonable. she deserves so much more than what she got at the end.. the end was a resolution, but it was almost bittersweet. all the people who have read this already know i wanted her to meet a specific person again 🥲💔

⊹ marigold yuen ᝰ⋆ i will forever wish that we got to read more about her — we got cute tidbits of her and someone else in the second part of the book, but we never got to know marigold. it’s almost like the curse defined her; we constantly read about how the curse affected her social, personal, and romantic relationships, but we never got to read about what she is really like as a person. i did like her, though! she was sweet and and the epitome of an immigration daughter, and i’m sure many of us can relate to her.

⊹ kenji yamamoto ᝰ⋆ SDJFSDFJS THIS MAN!!!!! oh my gosh, he was so sweet <3 we only got a few chapters of him, but he was nothing short of endearing 😭💗

my issues with this book ⋆˚ꕤ࿔:
i. the pacing was alllll over the place. one second i would be completely emotionally invested, and the other, i would be wanting to put this book down because it was boring me. i don’t think this book needed to be this long, it could’ve definitely worked more if it was 50~75 pages shorter and focused more on the characters’ relationships and tribulations.
ii. the ending was SO unsatisfying. honestly, this was my main reason for not rating this book higher because i desperately wanted to see the reunion between two specific couples

𖧷˖ ── overall, despite my gripes with this book, i did mostly enjoy it, which is why i’m rating it 3 stars.

࿔₊ ࣪˖ ofc, the best part of reading this book was rating with my dear friend & ranting to her about absolutely everything 💐 ily my girl <3

⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹ ﹒ ⁺ ﹒ ⊹

✉️⌇pre-read ⊹
time to read more asian lit 🙂‍↕️ and this takes place in sf?!

⭒ꕤ࿔ buddy reading with the prettiest girl in the world, ananya 🩵

[Nancy •͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩ͯ (semi hiatus till 2027) · Rating 4 out of 5]

──⟡⋆˙✩ 4 stars ✩ ⋆˙⟡──

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ 𝙒𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔 βօօҟͲąցʂ 𓍯𓂃

➽ multi-generational curse
➽ chinese cinderella inspired
➽ magical realism
➽ mother and daughter POV

Cσɳƚҽɳƚ Wαɾɳιɳɠʂ

➽ MEN (sorry I had to XD)

This was so depressing. If you enjoy ruining your mood for no reason whatsoever, I’d recommend giving this a try.

“𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙃𝙬𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙞, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤.”
“𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙪𝙥.”

ೃ⁀➷ The story follows the lives of two women, a mother and her daughter, Helen and Marigold, spanning 40 years. It’s about a generational curse that targets the women of the family. It explores war and its devastating consequences, how it is women who suffer the most. It brings to light how terribly shackled women were back then, how despite all their hopes and dreams, their talents and skills, in the end the world would wear them down and reduce them to nothing but a man’s possession.

     “𝙄’𝙢 𝙖 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙤𝙧," 𝙄 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙. “𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙢𝙖.”

The highlight of this book was the women.

ೃ⁀➷ Helen. My precious precious Helen. She went through every bad thing you can possibly think of. Watching the light in her eyes dim bit by bit, there was no greater torture. Yet I was helpless, a barrier of two worlds between us. I could only read on and hope for a better future for her.

     𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙪𝙥𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙, 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚.

She was so determined not to end up like her mother. She had her own plans. Her own dreams. Oh, if only the world wasn’t so hard on women. How many talented women were suppressed? Had their lights snuffed out? All because women weren’t considered human enough to have their own rights?

     𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚.

ೃ⁀➷ And her daughter, Marigold. Listen, if I mention every single woman in this book and talk about how much I loved them, we’d be here forever. But just know that she’s so precious to me. Marigold and Helen did not have the best relationship. Something between them was always strained.

     “𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚.”

Marigold’s mother and her grandmother, they all accepted their lot in life. Their curse. But she refused to. She knew she needed to find a way to fix whatever was wrong. She needed to fix her mother. Even when Helen was barely there, Marigold held on tight. She wanted to know more about her mother, about the demons that plagued her, but Helen wanted to shield her daughter from the same horrors that had befallen her.

ೃ⁀➷ On an unserious note, this is also the story of how men are the 𖥔OG TRASH𖥔. No, really. I can count on ONE hand the number of men who were actually somewhat useful in this book. Even then, I wouldn’t run out of fingers. Anytime a man appeared, I was side-eyeing him. I just KNEW he would be a bitch. Soon.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.



⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨ᰔ୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹
        Pre-Read
⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊୨ᰔ୧₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

I requested (and received) an ARC of this when I saw a fellow mutual of mine love it. Tears will be shed if I read this, apparently. Well I'm itching to shed some tears. Plus, it's a mother-daughter story! I love those!

[emma]

4.5 average rating with 500+ reviews and it doesn't come out for 2 weeks? this must be magic

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[jessica yeung · Rating 5 out of 5]

its such a unique reading experience when you live in the city a story takes place in. it was quite exciting seeing how ELs hong kong overlapped with mine. i loved the familiarity of the setting and it made an already immersive narrative even more engaging for me.

EL has a great track record at writing fantasy stories, but i particularly loved how she incorporated magic into the seemingly ordinary life of a girl. i enjoyed how the story portrayed 20th century china with some ancient mythology sprinkled in. it never felt out of place and was a great vehicle for driving the plot.

so im really quite pleased with this and can see myself picking this back up whenever i want to fall in love with hong kong just a little bit more.

↠ 4.5 stars

[vxmpslibrary [hiatus] · Rating 5 out of 5]

.5 stars.
⤿ 💌 ⌗ publishing date: 28 July 2026 i.e release date today! grab your copies now

.my thoughts.
Fishbone Cinderella is a story about love, loss, hope and curses. The sweet passing down generational curses. [And not the mental ones.]

After finishing this book I cried for an hour straight knowing I had school the very next but I had a hard time sleeping without thinking about this book. I became a cold hearted person because this book made me cry😔

This is what we call a masterpiece, a phenomenon, the intense emotions, everything was done beautifully. And I may just hate the author a little bit for that ending. [jk love you author]

I have always liked Elizabeth Lim books, whether it's Six Crimson Cranes or A Forgery of Fate, if she writes it, I would most definitely read it. I was hesitant to pick this book up because I was scared if I would be the same person afterwards or I would be a changed one.... I'm a depressed one now if you are wondering. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

The story is been told from dual perspectives following Helen in her younger years and Marigold who notices her mother disappearing every then and so. Sensing something is wrong, she tries to help her mother, and find the very shadow that she left behind.

Helen, has went through a lot, it makes me sad, it makes me angry so much that I want to throw things. It makes me want to cry a lot. A girl who just wanted to be a singer, and it kills me, it would always kill me that the younger Helen's photo when she fell in love, she would never able to depict that picture again. Whenever I think of the picture that was taken her looking at him, it makes me so emotional. And the results that happened made me cry even harder.

The writing was lyrically beautiful, the first perspective from Helen still drew me in, from the start there was something about this book that told me to keep going till the very end. And so I finished it in one setting.

The siblings bonding hit me hard. No one could have prepared me for the moment with different people. When Helen talks about how she saw his sick brother smile at her and how she wished she had smiled back because the connection was strayed. They never got to talk every again and never would.

But the other brother! I disliked him quite in the starting with the way he used to behave. But there was something quiet about him when he would do the bare minimum for her sister and I would just wish there was something more. And you are supposed to tell me they also don't meet again.

Lily, for a second I thought she was going to be rude all the time, but beneath all these layers of facade, was a girl insecure and wanting to get noticed by her mother just by being herself. It made me cry so much the way Helen would act as a real mother than the actual mother ever did. Am I supposed to be okay now Elizabeth Lim? Because my heart broke in multiple pieces.

I will just say this book broke me but forgot to put the pieces back together, they are now lying down somewhere far, hoping another story would heal them and they would move on.

Sometimes when we watch and read about love, a thought of a character doing loveless marriage after being in love with someone else sounds abnormal.

The reason I cried so much, was because of this. Am I supposed to start reading fanfictions about them meeting now? Am I to make the fake scenarios about it huh? Or am I supposed to take it like a woman matured.

No, I cannot. I rooted for them, and the idea of what would happen seared at the back of my head. I brushed it off, I wish. He waitedd!! A part of me desperate wanted her to meet him! I still wonder after those 20 years what he would be doing, or if he remarried someone else. Or if he stayed waiting for her. This made me stay awake at night for an hour straight.

Marigold was such an academic achiever, I loved her so much! The way she was focused on grades, the middle daughter of the family. And the way she saved her mother.

But maybe I loved Kenji more, he was such a great man!! He wrote letters for her! And he waited for her!! He had a crush on her back then and then when they were rivals like when she would be first and he would be second. But they would debate about topics like 'Romeo and Juliet' if selected in class or if it's about history. Or the way when they became best friends he taught her driving, and maybe when he drew her in secret. AHHH <33.

I hated some characters while I loved the others. I rooted for some and watched something happen the opposite. I watched and cried almost 6 times while reading. The what if's would always, make me drown.

Elizabeth Lim please:
1. Pay for my therapy bills.
2. Give Kenji as an compensation.
3. Maybe a few more scenes some day.

Sometimes I would wonder how Helen could actually hide the letters [maybe not hide but] the way it was done to her it was like it happened to Marigold too.

Overall, yes, do read this book! This will change your life tbh, atleast mine did, I wish I could go back to the person I was before I read the book. Now I am so solemn and sad that I wonder if I would be able to move on.

💌 Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for this beautiful arc in exchange for an honest review <3.

.preread.
I got the arc! I'm so excited for this book because the cover is genuinely so beautiful anddd I might read it after my exams or before my exams who knows sometimes temptation wins😔🫶 [bleh😝]

[Mai ༊*·˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75 ★— Why does it feel like this book tore my heart to pieces, but in the most gentle and loving way possible?

I naively went into this expecting a more traditional Cinderella retelling, and while the story (specifically, the Chinese version called Ye-Shen) does play a role here, this book is about so much more, proceeding to rip me apart emotionally as its storytelling spans two generations, tracing a familial story of mothers and daughters, of women cursed by mysterious powers.

The novel begins by introducing its two main characters, the mother-daughter pair Ha Yut Ying and Marigold, and from there we follow chapters devoted to each of their lives.

I will say that Yut Ying’s story was the one that truly held me and stayed with me the longest. Lim does such a beautiful job portraying her beginnings as a girl from a rural Chinese village and depicting her experiences during Japan’s invasion of her country. The famine, the injuries, the death, and the long-lasting trauma ground this narrative so deeply that the war itself almost feels like an ever-present third character.

From the beginning through roughly the midpoint, I was completely absorbed, barely feeling like I was able to come up for air as I followed everything she endured on her path into adulthood.
There were so many moments where I wished I could simply linger longer within certain parts of her life, especially during her time as an adult in Hong Kong. Masterfully, Lim made me feel the full spectrum of human emotion, from quiet joy to bittersweet regret, along with painful loss and the aching sense of unrealised futures. I felt so much while reading.

Marigold, the story's other main character, is crafted with equal care, but I will freely admit that once the focus shifted more fully to her, the story lost a little momentum for me, making me miss Yut Ying’s life and voice.

After finishing this, I’m left feeling… a lot. A sense of peace and calm, but also a deep desire to go back and change how certain moments unfold, which speaks to one of the novel’s central themes and how intentionally it evokes that emotion.

This book explores so much: the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, generational trauma, immigration and the isolation it can create even within family, and the lasting ways war shapes people, all this while the atmosphere and writing are stunning throughout!

I just know that Fishbone Cinderella will stay with me for a long time.

_______________

Thank you to Del Rey for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[vaishnavi ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠* · Rating 4 out of 5]

book #2 of m(arc)h challenge, where I try to read ALL the arcs I have in the month of March!

reading this book hurt because it felt so real - the way mothers hide their hurt from their daughters to prevent passing down the regret or the hardships they faced. they bury their disappointments, lock away their memories, conceal the sharpest edges of the past so that their children might inherit something gentler, but pain has a way of travelling through generations regardless.

we are, in many ways, echoes of the people who raised us. no matter how insistently we claim independence, pieces of our parents live within us: sometimes it is our resilience and sometimes it is wounds we cannot quite trace to their origin.

I quite liked how the novel scattered small but unsettling reminders of patriarchal expectations throughout the story. the casual preference for sons, the untold assumptions about a girl’s place, the time when a girl child was treated as expendable, the way the matriarch becomes the most vigilant enforcer of those same structures, it all felt painfully real.

the atrocities committed by japanese soldiers during their occupation of many asian countries remain absent from mainstream historical narratives, it is often hidden away or softened in public discourse. yet the reality was horrific, particularly for women, and the violence and cruelty were so widespread that the incidents have been referred to as the "rape of asia". while this book does not show the war crimes to this effect, knowing it deepens our understanding of the characters, especially Philip's reaction towards Kenji.

I do wish we had spent more time with Marigold. Helen I could connect to easily, but Marigold remained slightly out of reach in comparison. and because of that distance, the ending felt somewhat restrained after such a long emotional buildup. I kept hoping for something larger, or at least a moment of reunion between certain characters. Marigold & Kenji, not Tommy & Helen. for these reasons, this wasn't a full five-star read for me.

I wish the book had included footnotes. I understand the intention behind leaving certain words in their original language, but having to pause just to google translations ended up breaking the flow of reading far more than a footnote would have.

── .✦ pre-read 𖹭.ᐟ
I applied for the arc on a whim and I got it!! I've been seeing so many reviews from you guys mentioning it made you cry, so naturally, I'm super excited to get into it 🤭
but I've learned my lesson with Never Ever After though! I'm not going in with high expectations 🫣

[Maeghan &#x1f98b; · Rating 5 out of 5]

HUGE thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for a chance to review this arc! You made a girl so happy 😭 one of my favourite authors

Elizabeth Lim has a way with words. Her ideas & writing always makes me deeply care for the characters and the storyline.

I expected a traditional Cinderella retelling ; what was served was a Historical Asian retelling that had a focal point on war, PTSD, hunger, poverty/social classes, racism, generational trauma, motherhood and how upbringing deeply shapes who we are.

« Things would go back to the way they were. But what did that even mean? »

We follow a mother (Yut Ying) and her daughter Marigold. The povs shifts between past & present in a way that is effortlessly fluent, and sometimes feel like a diary.
I started crying early on and couldn’t stop myself. It was raw and poignant. It was beautiful and somewhat saddening to see that love really does make a difference ; when all else feels lost. My heart was breaking for Yut Ying every step of the way… I have chills just thinking about it.
And I kept thinking… you went through all of this and still have to endure so much. It was heartbreaking. I just wanted her to be happy, safe and well taken care of.

« Heavens help me, I would get the two of us out of here. I just had to grow up first. »

When I was younger I also had a step mother who hated me. Thankfully, I only went there one weekend per month but she’d lock me in my room the whole time ; I wasn’t allowed to play or talk because it would annoy her. She would limit the things I could eat because I didn’t live there full time so I wasn’t allowed everything they bought. I was 5 years old and she’d tell me I looked too much like my mother but I didn’t understand why that made it okay for her to treat me this way.
Fishbone Cinderella reminded me of some of the things she put me through but also made me realize that none of it was okay.

« Anything tastes good when you have nothing. »

I highly recommend this story. In fact, I highly recommend everything that Elizabeth Lim writes.

« Give me all the books ever written, and my favourite line would still be the one between your lips, my favourite world the one where you exist next to me. »

Like every other book this author has written… Fishbone Cinderella will stay with me for a long time.

[elise ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

‧˚꒰🎐୭ ˚. fishbone cinderella ౿ 3.75 stars

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀°‧ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ·。


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀જ⁀➴ ⌗ 🪭┆thoughts

this book hits you straight in the heart and leaves you feeling empty for days after. it encompassed so many important themes such as death, war, racism, abuse, motherhood, grief, immigration, and much more. at its core, it shows how war shapes and breaks apart families, how dreams get sacrificed under necessity, and how one can find meaning even in the bleakest of environments.

the book follows yut ying's life from childhood to old age, bringing us with her as she navigates a life defined by war, turmoil, and migration. you can tell elizabeth lim put so much time and care into these characters and the story, and how she put so much effort into making ying's struggles feel very realistic to the ones immigrants often face.

as the daughter of a chinese immigrant (from hong kong), i grew up hearing stories from my mother and grandparents about the struggles of leaving home and starting a new life, of trying to make a place feel like home when it's so far from it. these stories are incredibly similar to the ones detailed in ying's life throughout this book. that similarity had me very impressed and proud of the way nothing was sugarcoated or romanticized. it accurately depicted the struggle to make a livelihood, only finding community in pockets of cities, learning which parts of yourself to let go of in order to survive in a new place, figuring out how to not take up too much space, the sacrifices mothers make so their daughters can have the freedom of choice that they never did, and how love can ultimately manifest as distance.

this book would've worked even without the fantasy aspect, but having that added piece made the story have a magical touch, and added even more complexity to the characters and the relationships between them. i loved how it incorporated chinese folklore, the way it was interwoven with the story, and how the ending of it changed depending on which character you asked. however, i do wish the genres were better meshed together, as the first half was heavily historical fiction without much fantasy, and the latter half was almost strictly fantasy. the imbalance made the parts feel a bit disjointed.

the main issues i had lay in the pacing and the conclusion of the novel. i found the beginning to be veeerrry slow, and didn't hook me until around 40% in. after that point, the pace started to pick up a lot, but it wasn't consistent throughout the remaining parts of the book. there were highs and lulls, which made the book feel a bit tiresome to pick up. there would be some parts where i couldn't stop reading, and others where i was so bored that i almost fell asleep.

i also found the ending to be rather underwhelming. for all the buildup it had, i thought there would be more to it. mainly, i wish we got to see reunions between two couples.


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀જ⁀➴ ⌗ 🚢┆characters ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀


₊ 𖦹﹕ha yut ying (helen) ₊˚꒰🎶꒱‧

she is one of the strongest female characters i have ever read about. as the book progresses, we see just how much her life has changed due to the war and the toxic family she's surrounded by. i felt so close to her after seeing how her life played out. we witnessed her first love, her first heartbreak, her first experience with grief and war. she is a character who became very near to my heart and felt so familiar to many of my relatives who have gone through similar experiences as she. it broke my heart to see her turn into someone she vowed to never be, but it just goes to show how dreams and ambition can all get sacrificed under the weight of necessity and survival. she's so different from the way she was back then, but she doesn't regret the way her life unfolded. it's powerful to see her persist throughout all the struggles she's gone through, whether that was in mainland china, hong kong, or the states. in the end, she deserved much better than she got, and i will always want more for her. i really wished she reunited with a certain someone, but i understand why the author chose not to include that.


₊ 𖦹﹕marigold yuen ₊˚꒰🩺꒱‧

we didn't see much of her until the last half of the book, so i didn't connect with her as much, but she was still such a lovely character to read about, and i found myself relating to her in a lot of ways. growing up, she was very shy and faced a lot of racism for being chinese, causing her to feel like an outsider and wishing to fit in. she was the quiet one, the overachiever, the least favorite. her relationship with helen illustrates how complex mother-daughter relationships can be, and how love isn't always shown through words and touch; it can also be through the sacrifices one makes to protect the other. unfortunately, when not combined with communication and understanding, that sacrifice gets misconstrued and causes pain and distance. overall, i really wish we got to see more of her because i deeply enjoyed her chapters. her relationship with kenji was SO precious!! i love that man so much.


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀જ⁀➴ ⌗ 🏮┆overall

this story is not merely a work of fiction, but one that reflects the experiences of many immigrants. perhaps that's what makes this book so special—its ability to resonate with those who have a personal connection or history with the events that take place. it helped me understand that parents, especially mothers, have made sacrifices that we wouldn't even be able to comprehend. i truly believe anyone who is a child of immigrants will feel a deep connection to it.

although the book had its flaws, i still enjoyed it a lot, and will carry pieces of it in my heart forever.



⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀જ⁀➴ ⌗ ❝ ┆ quotes ❞⠀


ᰋ ˓ to be added after publication



— ୨୧₊˚ 💌 thank you to netgalley, del rey, random house worlds, and ink lore for this arc in exchange for an honest review!


— ˗ˏˋ ꒰ pre-read ꒱ ˎˊ˗ 🎐

AHHHH I GOT THE ARC!!! my first one!! i'm so happy 🥹🥹🥹 many of my relatives live in hong kong, so i'm extra excited knowing it takes place there 🙌🏼 💌 i’m about 20% in already and it’s moving a bit slow, but i have hope it’ll get better!!

[molly lou (I’m back!!)]

pre-read ♡₊ ⊹

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎⤿ Eeeek I am so excited for this one (but also so disgustingly, embarrassingly, terrifyingly petrified 😀!!!). I’ve been wanting to read a book by Elizabeth Lim for a long time now and I feel so fortunate to have my first be an arc! 🥹 I may end up having to buy the physical copy too though because that cover is blessing my eyeballs.

Will be reading this asap <3

[jenny reads a lot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtaking masterpiece and SLAM DUNK for Elizabeth Lim’s adult debut.

I stayed up till 2:30am absolutely devouring the first 60% of this book in a single sitting, couldn’t stop thinking about it all day, then staying up till 2am again to finish.

Absolutely stunning imagery (duh it’s Elizabeth Lim), a multigenerational story of love, loss, and the complicated dynamics of family.

This was magical, but easy to consume if you’re not usually a fantasy reader. Think historical fiction with magical realism?

For fantasy fans, for historical fiction fans, for litfic fans, this is genre-bending in all the best ways.

Run, don’t walk, to read this book.

Wow. Perfection.

⭐️| IG | TikTok |

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

STUNNING. the perfect blend of history and fantasy🤌

full review to come.

Bookstagram | Blog

[har · Rating 5 out of 5]

┆ ⤿ 🎏 ⌗ started: july 27, finished: august 5

4.5 stars 𓂃˖ ࣪⊹
⤿ review with SOME spoilers.

“give me all the books ever written, and my favourite line would still be the one between your lips, my favourite world, the one where you exist next to me"

⋆.˚ ★— thank you del rey, random house worlds, inklore & netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for a honest review

──★ ˙🌁 !! tropes/taglines
.ᐟ historical fantasy
.ᐟ cinderella retelling
.ᐟ multi-generational family saga
.ᐟ magical realism
.ᐟ mother & daughter relationship
.ᐟ family curse
.ᐟ forbidden love
.ᐟ evil stepmother
.ᐟ chinese mythology & folklore
.ᐟ wartime hong kong

summary:⋆˚࿔

fishbone cinderella follows three generations of women—ha yut ying (helen), her mother, and later her daughter, marigold—as they live under a family curse that has been passed down for generations. set between wartime guangdong and post-war hong kong, the story blends chinese folklore with historical fiction, following each woman's journey through love, loss, sacrifice, and the hardships of life. along the way, they face toxic family relationships, misogyny, racism, immigration, and the search for identity, all while discovering the strength to break free from the burdens they've inherited.

thoughts:⋆˚࿔

i went into this expecting a magical cinderella retelling, but it turned out to be so much more than that. elizabeth lim doesn't just focus on the family curse—she tells the stories of three generations of women, exploring themes of romance, grief, toxic family relationships, misogyny, racism, immigration, identity, and the pressures that come with chasing success. every generation faces their own struggles, yet they're all connected by the same curse and the sacrifices they have to make.

what i loved most was how the fantasy never took away from the emotional depth of the story. instead, it made every hardship and sacrifice feel even more meaningful. i especially enjoyed following ha yut ying's story. i could really feel her pain, heartbreak, and betrayal, and i found myself rooting for her throughout the book.

the only reason this wasn't a full 5 stars for me was because i occasionally found the timeline a little difficult to follow. with the story moving between different generations and points in time, there were moments where i felt a bit confused and had to stop to figure out where i was in the story. aside from that, this was such a beautifully written family saga that felt so much bigger than a simple fairy tale retelling.

──★ ˙🥠 !! characters

ha yut ying: ⋆˚࿔

i felt so heartbroken reading her story. from the very beginning, she was burdened with responsibilities that no child should have had to carry. she grew up listening to her grandmother's warnings, was taught that her only purpose was to become a good wife, and never even had the chance to go to school. when she moved to hong kong, she dreamed of a fresh start and a better life, but things only became worse because of her stepmother. every time it felt like she had finally found happiness, it was taken away from her. seeing her lose both lily and tommy completely broke my heart.

despite everything she went through, she continued to love deeply and kept moving forward, which made me admire her even more. her story, her curse, and everything that was passed down to marigold were so upsetting to read. i understood that she was terrified of the curse and believed distancing herself would protect her daughter, but the way she treated marigold at times was so difficult to read. you could feel that she loved her, yet her fear often got in the way, making their relationship one of the most heartbreaking parts of the book.

tommy yeung: ⋆˚࿔

i was rooting for him from the moment he met ha yut ying. i truly believed they were going to get their happy ending, so i was so upset when he chose to marry for the sake of the family business instead. as much as it broke my heart, i think it showed the reality of family expectations during that time. he was torn between following his heart and fulfilling his responsibilities to his parents and grandparents, and in the end, duty won. i was frustrated with his decision, but i also understood the pressure he was under, which made his character feel so realistic.

marigold yuen: ⋆˚࿔

i wish we had gotten more of her story because i felt like there was still so much left to explore. what we did learn about her life was incredibly heartbreaking. not knowing about the family curse, she threw herself into her studies instead of building friendships or letting people get close to her. she spent so much of her life trying to be perfect academically, only to realize there were things happening that she couldn't explain. i really felt for her because she was carrying so much without ever understanding why. i just wish we had more time with her and could have seen her story develop even further.

kenji yamamoto: ⋆˚࿔

even though we only had him for a few chapters, i knew he cared about marigold so deeply. their story felt so unfinished, and i couldn't help but wish we had gotten more of them together. i genuinely believe that if they had been given more time, they would've found their way back to each other somehow. the way he cared for her felt so genuine that i just can't imagine him ever truly forgetting marigold. i really wish we could have seen how their story continued because i wasn't ready to let them go.

[rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

‎ ‎ ੭୧‎ ‎ 4 stars‎ ‎ . ۫

‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ “ I wanted to go home. But I didn't know where home was. ”

Ha Yut Ying discovers she can turn invisible while fleeing Japanese soldiers in 1940s Guangdong. After the war, Yut Ying is sent to Hong Kong to live with her father and stepmother, and we follow her story from there. The POV switches between Yut Ying and her daughter, Marigold.

overall thoughts — This is very much a quintessential Asian historical fiction diaspora novel. It is centered on war, migration, marriage, and motherhood. I really liked this book. It was emotional, sad, and profound. Thematically, it absolutely succeeds. Lim perfectly captures how war shapes family history. It fractures families. It relocates them. It forces children into adulthood. I also really enjoyed how she explores the cycle of trauma. Mothers wound daughters even when they love them. Daughters swear they will do better, and then life corners them into repeating the same patterns. I shed a tear or two multiple times ☹ I love Elizabeth Lim and her works dearly, and I can tell this story is very meaningful and personal to her ❤‍🩹

That being said, I do have a few gripes. Where the book struggles is in plot. It often reads like a diary, heavy on reflection and internal thought. There is a lot of showing rather than telling, which can be beautiful, but sometimes made me lose interest. I don't necessarily mind the storytelling, but I went in expecting something more fantastical (which it is marketed as), and instead, this reads more like historical fiction with light fantasy elements.

My biggest issue is that it does not fully feel like an adult novel. I have read all of Elizabeth Lim's previous novels and love her writing; however, I do not feel that her prose has significantly matured from her earlier novels. The style feels similar, even though the subject matter is heavier. There is one fade-to-black sexual scene and infrequent cursing - but beyond that, it does not feel markedly different from Lim's previous works in tone.

As an immigrant daughter myself, I connected with this story in ways that actually surprised me. Switching between Yut Ying's past life in China/Hong Kong and Marigold's life in California made me come to the unsettling realization that your parents were whole people before you existed. They survived things you will never fully understand, and those experiences shaped the version of them that raised you.

There's a specific kind of distance that comes from knowing your parent grew up somewhere else, in a different language, under different pressures. Fishbone Cinderella captures that feeling well. The romance also definitely got me 💔 I was bawling my eyes out.

‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ “ Give me all the books ever written, and my favorite line would still be the one between your lips, my favorite world the one where you exist next to me. ”

final thoughts — Despite my critiques, I did enjoy this book. It is moving, vulnerable, and touched all the deepest crevices of my heart. I think anyone who is a child of immigrant parents will really enjoy this story and feel connected and seen in many ways.

thank you to the author and publisher for the arc!

CW: death, war, child abuse, addiction, misogyny, xenophobia

────

finished: 02/20/26 𖥻𓈒 ꒱ ੭
this was beautiful 🥹

pre read: 02/15/26 𖥻𓈒 ꒱ ੭
was supposed to prioritize my arcs that are due next month, but i finally have some respite from school and don't know when i'll have time again to read this one 🤍 also...elizabeth lim's adult debut, i am beyond excited 🤗

[Aanz ꪆৎ ( burnout hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ──★ !!

↳ ┆ .✦゛ 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍 : february 3 ˎˊ˗
↳ ┆ .✦ ゛𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 : february 20 ˎˊ˗

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

⋮ 🪼┆ 𐔌 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 ౨ৎ
⟢ In 1940s China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ha Yut Ying survives invasion in a way by being invisible. It saves her life. But what starts as magic becomes a pattern. After the war, she’s sent to Hong Kong, where her father is emotionally distant and her evil stepmother slowly erodes her identity. Her dream of becoming a singer is chipped away. She learns that being quiet keeps the peace. Hiding keeps you safe. Being invisible keeps you alive.Then we move to 1960s San Francisco.Marigold grows up sensing that her mother is carrying something unspoken,something heavy. But as a child, she experiences something shattering,she watches her mother vanish. The disappearance isn’t just physical. It becomes emotional. A fracture in their bond.As her mother’s health declines, Marigold starts digging into the past. What she uncovers isn’t just war history. It’s immigration trauma. It’s the emotional aftermath of displacement.And she is determined to help her.

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

⋮ 🪼┆ 𐔌 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 ౨ৎ
⟢ This review is gonna be a very unpopular opinion, because everyone is going feral about this book but I didn’t seem to like it. 80% of the book was building up the plot , so I was like okay the end is gonna be EPIC.But sadly it didn’t happen and the end felt rushed to me, and I was underwhelmed. The only thing I’m giving 3 star is for the beginning of the book. The biggest let down for me is this being more of a fantasy read than a historical fiction, and the historical fiction part of the book was chefs kiss. It should’ve stayed with that. I really like reading Helen’s time in Hong Kong and it kinda felt like The Thousand Splendid Sun. But then the focus shifted from historical fiction to more of a fantasy Fairytale. Maybe if Marigold’s story wouldve gotten more time it would’ve worked out. But I wasn’t able to connect with marigold’s character which made me not care about the ending or whatever but I’m happy for Helen! So here’s the things I liked: The writing was amazing. Helen as a character is really brave and I really liked her. Seeing her struggle in Hong Kong made me feel sad, and I’m happy for her in the ending. Kenji is also a really sweet guy and deserved to have more chapters about him. I loved seeing the character growth of the characters.


⟢ The relation and complexity of the relation between a mother and daughter portrayed in this book is very touching, be it Helen’s mom and Helen or Helen and marigold. Marigold was such a great and thoughtful daughter, and Helen is a wonderful mother. Even though they weren’t that close , they understood each other so well. Lily and Helen ‘s sisterly bond was actually so cute r.I’ve never really readabout the Japan and china war except for the Poppy war, so I think I’ll dive more into this genre. When I saw everyone crying about this book I was like YESYESYES IM SO READY TO BE TRAUMATISED, but maybe I missed the part where we were supposed to cry.. Not a SINGLE tear shed.


⟢ So in a nutshell, if you are a historical fiction enthusiast like me don’t read this book thinking it’ll all be about the war ( it was actually about the war but you won’t find the mention after half of the book) it’s is actually more of a light fantasy novel.

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

↳ ┆ .✦゛𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 : July 28 ˎˊ
⤷ Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for this arc in exchange for an honest review! 💓

[ananya ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

꣑ৎ⋆˙⟡⋮ 3.5 stars ☆ 🩵

mini review & no spoilers!
this book felt like a 20th-century fairytale, and it was so enchanting! the narrative was split between two different time periods—following ha yut ying in 1940s hong kong & her daughter marigold in 1980s san francisco—and it reminded me, in many ways, of the joy luck club. it was a complex exploration of love, of family ties, of intergenerational divides, of the sino-japanese war, of the experience of living as an immigrant and as a minority in america, and so much more.

compared to elizabeth lim’s other books, this was undoubtedly quite different, but i loved seeing how she tackled the historical fiction genre while retaining her vivid writing style and a touch of her signature magic (it is primarily a historical fiction novel, but there is a crucial fantasy element woven in!) i especially appreciated the representation of the sino-japanese war and the exploration of westernization in hong kong during that time period.

yut ying (helen) was such a complex character! in fact, it was difficult for me to reconcile young yut ying and present-day yut ying at first, but as the story progressed, i came to see why. this woman went through the most, i swear. she was so strong.

the book did feel a tad dull at times due to plot & pacing issues. i didn’t always know exactly where the plot was headed and the stakes were somewhat unclear at times, which was in large part due to the fact that it undertook the challenging task of trying to cover a huge swath of time (the novel pretty much spans yut ying’s entire life) and doing so within an alternating-timeline format. also, the narration style made it feel as though yut ying was recounting the events of her life far in the future (eg. from the perspective of her present-day/1980s self)—i do think this was another factor in me not being as invested as i’d have liked, because it felt like i wasn’t entirely in the moment with her during the story. i think some books can pull off this style, but i don’t think it was the most effective choice here.

i also have to say that the ending was so unsatisfying. there were a few natural directions for the story to go that i really wanted to see, and we just didn’t get those scenes :(

—but despite these few issues i had with it, this was overall an enchanting novel, and one that i would for sure recommend. go read it when it comes out on july 23rd!

thank you so much to del rey, random house worlds, inklore, netgalley, and elizabeth lim for the arc! + to my bff ivy for reading this with me! i had the best time ever getting to yap with you about this. our first br of many more to come, i love you endlessly 😚

꣑ৎ⋆˙⟡⋮ pre-read
one of my most anticipated releases for 2026 and fave authors ever so i couldn't be more excited to get the arc 🥹 and to make it even better, i'm reading this with my bff ivy! i'm soso excited for our first br and and i hope we adore this world and characters! i love you so much ⭐️

[andreea ᥫ᭡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

𐔌 . ⋮ fishbone cinderella 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱

release date : july 28th, 2026.

some books shimmer, some ache, some quietly rearrange something inside you. but Fishbone Cinderella does all three.

this is a story woven with longing, legacy, magic, and memory, and i am still trying to gather the pieces of my heart it gently pulled apart.


𐔌 . ⋮ summary 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱


this story moves between two timelines, two cities, and two daughters trying to understand the women who raised them.

in 1940s China and Hong Kong, we follow Ha Yut Ying, a girl who survives the japanese invasion of her hometown in the most impossible way: by turning invisible. but survival is only the beginning of her story. after the war, she’s sent to Hong Kong to live with a father who feels more like a stranger and a stepmother who slowly strips away her dreams of becoming a singer, reducing her to little more than a servant in her own home. as the years pass, Yut Ying learns what it means to endure betrayal, ambition, forbidden love, devastating loss, and the dangerous habit of making yourself smaller just to survive.

decades later, in 1960s San Francisco, we meet Marigold, her daughter, who has always had a talent for sensing what’s hidden beneath the surface. but nothing prepares her for the moment she watches her mother vanish before her eyes, a fracture that shadows her entire childhood. when her mother’s health begins to fail, Marigold becomes determined to uncover the secrets that shaped her family, even if it means unearthing a history steeped in war, sacrifice, and magic that’s more like a wound than a gift.

at its heart, this isn’t just a fairytale reimagining, it’s much deeper than that. it’s a story about mothers and daughters. about generational trauma and the silence that travels across oceans. about immigration, war, love that costs too much, and the aching desire to finally be seen.


𐔌 . ⋮ Helen & Marigold 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱


what truly undid me was the relationship between mothers and daughters, not just in the tender moments, but in the fractures.

this book understands something deeply painful: that love does not always prevent harm. that sometimes the very people who love us most are also carrying wounds they don’t know how to name, let alone heal. and so those wounds become silence. they become distance, they become things unsaid at the dinner table, truths buried for the sake of survival.

Yut Ying survives by disappearing, by making herself smaller, quieter and invisible. and in doing so, she unknowingly passes that instinct down. Marigold grows up in the shadow of secrets she can feel but never fully grasp, loving a mother who is both present and unreachable.

it hurt because it felt real. the way trauma travels across generations. the way immigration reshapes identity. the way mothers try to protect their daughters from the very pain that shaped them, and sometimes end up recreating it instead.

and yet… there is so much love here. it is fierce, aching, imperfect love. they don’t always know how to say “i’m sorry,” but still find a way to make it clear that they love each other.

i also couldn’t stop thinking about Helen and Marigold as mirrors of one another.

Helen, once a young woman whose dreams were taken from her, spends years trying not to look too closely at the girl she used to be. and then Marigold grows up bright, searching, carrying the very “curse” Helen tried so desperately to outrun. in her daughter, Helen is forced to confront not only what she survived, but what she could have been.

Helen believes that distance is protection. that if she avoids the past, the magic, the pain, even avoids parts of her own daughter, it will eventually fade. that silence can function as mercy. but denial does not erase wounds; it only deepens them. and in trying to shield Marigold from her history, she unknowingly keeps them both suspended in it.

they are reflections, not exactly identical, but echoing. two women shaped by the same inheritance, standing on opposite sides of understanding. and the tragedy, and the hope, lies in this: Helen might finally find herself again, but only if she allows herself to be seen by the very daughter she’s been trying to protect.


𐔌 . ⋮ the setting 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱


another thing that makes this story ache the way it does is how deeply it is rooted in history.

the war is the fracture line that splits Yut Ying’s life in two. the invasion, the displacement, the constant negotiation between survival and dignity lingers in every choice she makes afterward. you can feel how history carves itself into a person, how it forces children to grow up too quickly, how it teaches them that safety is fragile and dreams are optional.

and then there is immigration.

the move to Hong Kong. later, to America. each relocation promises reinvention, but what it often delivers is reinvention at a cost. identity becomes something you carry carefully. you learn what parts of yourself are acceptable, which parts must be softened, which parts must be hidden to belong.

in San Francisco, that tension continues. Marigold grows up straddling cultures, shaped by a past she doesn’t fully understand but constantly feels. the immigrant experience here is layered. it’s loneliness, ambition, sacrifice. it’s the unspoken pressure to succeed because someone else already gave up everything.

what struck me most is how the novel shows that migration doesn’t erase trauma, but instead simply relocates it. oceans cannot dissolve memory, they only change its language.

and yet, within all of that displacement, there is resilience, music, love, and determination.


𐔌 . ⋮ the writing 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱


i have always admired Elizabeth Lim’s writing, but this book feels like something else entirely. it feels braver, as though she allowed herself to explore every corner of the human experience without holding back.

this story outshines her previous works for me, and not because the others lacked magic, but because this one feels so expansive. it moves through war, immigration, generational trauma, love, ambition, grief, and redemption with the kind of emotional precision that left me stunned. she makes you understand every ache, every longing, and every flicker of hope feels lived-in.

there were moments when i had to pause and just sit with the book. don’t get me wrong, this book is not hard to read. far from it. but it was overwhelming in the most devastating way. the emotions really settle into you.

and yet, her prose is so effortlessly immersive. it doesn’t feel dense or intimidating; it quite literally envelops you. within a few pages, i was completely transported into the humidity of Hong Kong, into the fog of San Francisco, into the interior worlds of these women. her writing has always carried a certain spark that is unmistakably hers… but in this novel, that spark burns brighter than ever.

the writing is lush and descriptive without being heavy. flowery without losing clarity. whimsical without sacrificing realism. there is magic woven into the language itself, yet it never drifts too far from truth. the result is something original, emotionally resonant, and breathtaking.

i am in awe of what she accomplished here.


𐔌 . ⋮ closing thoughts 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱


at its core, this book feels like a love letter from mothers to daughters, and from daughters back to the mothers who tried, even when they didn’t always know how.

it made me want to reach across generations, to hold on a little tighter, or maybe to forgive a little softer.

if you are a mother, hug your daughter. if you are a daughter, hug your mother.

we inherit more than we realize (wounds, dreams, silence, resilience) but we also inherit love. and sometimes, being seen is the bravest thing we can offer one another.

i don’t know if the version i read will be the exact version that reaches shelves on july 28th, 2026, but i feel indescribably lucky to have experienced this story the way i did. i’m so glad i got to have sat with it, to have felt it settle into my bones.

thank you to netgalley and del rey, random house worlds, inklore for this arc in exchange for an honest review. 🌟


𐔌 . ⋮ pre-read 🌊 .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱

the scream i just let out!! 😭 i can’t believe i got approved for the ARC of fishbone cinderella… which means i get to read a new elizabeth lim book. she made me fall back in love with reading, and her stories mean the absolute world to me.

[My.bookish.diaries · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

Thank you Del Rey Books for the gifted copy!

This was definitely a Cinderella type story.. (Yeh Shen) . The story follows two women from the same family across different generations, and I was hooked right from the beginning. I just needed to know how they ended up where they were and what had happened to bring them to this point.

Most of the book follows Yut Ying (Helen), and her story completely broke my heart. Every time I thought things were finally going to get better, something else heartbreaking happened. I kept thinking, please... not again!! I was constantly hoping she'd finally catch a break and that all of her suffering would be worth it in the end...

This is historical fiction with touches of magical realism set during wartime, and it doesn't shy away from showing how difficult life was for women. It highlights the strength and resilience it took just to survive, while also serving as a reminder of the parts of history we should never forget.

I also really loved the magical realism. It tied the generations together so beautifully and made the connections between the women feel even more meaningful. One of my favourite parts was seeing the complicated mother daughter relationships, especially between Yut Ying and her mother, and later Marigold and Helen.
Those relationships felt, emotional, and incredibly real.

I also found myself relating to the way daughters were often treated as less important. Growing up in my own culture, I saw similar attitudes, so I could really empathize with what these women went through.

Women's rights have come such a long way, but this book is a powerful reminder of how many battles women have fought throughout history..even within their own families.

Overall, this was a heartbreaking, emotional, and beautifully written story that had me tearing up more than once.

I'm so grateful I had the chance to read it early, and I definitely recommend picking it up if you enjoy historical fiction with a touch of magical realism and stories centered around strong, resilient women. 🧡

SOY IS JOY ✨

[AndaReadsTooMuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not expecting complete and total emotional annihilation when I started this book. It’s Elizabeth Lim. I know her work well, I have practically everything she wrote. I was clearly deluding myself because here I am on a Monday evening unable to do anything but stare at the dang wall and fight back tears.

My gods. I… am struggling to put the emotional depth this book just brought me into words. I am on my knees. A story of love, loss, motherhood, childhood, war, and trying to find a place in a world that doesn’t quite fit. When YOU don’t quite fit. This brought me back to Amy Tan’s books in the best way possible. That glimpse of what life is like as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife.

Look, this isn’t going to be eloquent. I am an emotional mess. I am rattled, I am pensive, I feel sorrow and elation. This book in many ways was healing to me and my personal journey as a daughter and mother, despite sharing very little of the same culture. Perhaps it was my own childhood in the same city a few decades after this story takes place that made it so personal and raw for me. I could tell you the plot, but you can read a book blurb just fine. You don’t need my help. What I can tell you is the broken way this family, this generational curse they bear, tries to heal is unmatched.

I will forever be an Elizabeth Lim fangirl, most of you that have read my reviews know this. But Fishbone Cinderella… this is going to be what pushes her into the stratosphere. I am so completely wrecked by this beautiful story I’m not sure I’ll be the same again. And truth be told, I hope I’m not.

Fishbone Cinderella hits shelves July 28. Please, please go get a copy. Get an ebook, go to your bookstore, get it from your library and read this. You won’t be sorry you did.

Huge thank you to Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and Netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

[ashlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book put me THROUGH IT 😭 i genuinely went through all 5 stages of grief and then some. i was not prepared for how emotional this was going to make me.

i loved the cinderella retelling set in 1940s china. yut ying discovers she can turn invisible and gets a magical fishbone bracelet from her mother, but after losing it, she meets tommy yeung and their lives basically get flipped upside down from there.

the magic, romance, family drama and everything that happens along the way had me SO invested. some parts genuinely hurt me 😭 i was so invested in these characters and what was going to happen that i could not put it down. definitely one of those books where i finished it and just had to sit there for a minute.

thank you netgalley for the arc!

[Val ୨୧ (hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

˙⋆✮ “I wanted to go home. But I didn’t know where home was.”˙⋆✮

Okay i see what the hype over this book is about now. I cried myself to sleep after i read it and i will not shut up about this.

The start of the book confused me since it was in Marigold’s perspective and then cut to Yut Ying’s childhood, but you get the general gist pretty fast. The first half of the book follows Yut Ying (Helen) after escaping the war from her village and being sent by her mother into the city to live with her father and his new family. Her story was raw, painful, beautiful and captivating, and when the story shifts to her daughter Marigold, there’s so much more. Marigold’s story, while very similar, has a different texture from her mother’s. It feels more hopeful, and has a brightness to it that Helen’s lacked in moments. I love the way their lives were paralleled in the book, it made their connection and bond feel so much more intimate.

Given my background, I do know a significant amount about the war and the monstrosities that the Japanese committed so this really hit home. It’s set in 1940’s China, so the gender inequality is significant, with her grandmother valuing her brother’s life over her as in those times, being a girl or woman was often seen as a curse. The generational trauma in this book was so well written, passed down from mother to daughter, as well as Yut Ying’s family curse. I have never loved and connected to a book like this. Elizabeth Lim I will be forever grateful to you for being our Chinese representation in the book world.


˖ ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪ ౨ৎ˚₊ Preread ˖ ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪ ౨ৎ˚₊

Thank you to netgalley for giving me an ARC !
Yup. I gave in to the hype. SInce everyone and their mothers have been reading htis book and LOVING it, I requested it to see what the hype was about. Apparently this will make me bawl my eyes out ? yay !

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fishbone Cinderella is a visceral, hauntingly beautiful story that holds your hand with warmth while simultaneously stabbing you in the heart. Structuring the narrative between two timelines, Elizabeth Lim weaves a poignant tapestry of generational trauma and the immigrant experience through the lives of Yut Ying and her daughter, Marigold. In post-war China and Hong Kong, Yut Ying survives a "Cinderella" existence and a loveless home while harboring a family curse that allows her to turn invisible by holding her breath. Decades later in America, Marigold, who is a first generation med student, struggles to understand her mother’s coldness while grappling with her own version of the curse: the ability to feel the raw emotions of people and objects through touch.

The novel transcends the fantasy genre, serving as a profound exploration of how the horrors of war and displacement shape a family’s future. Lim handles heavy themes of parental cruelty and sacrifice with a grace that never feels forced, showcasing how secrets intended to protect can often build walls of silence. The development of the relationship between Helen (Yut Ying) and Marigold is the soul of the book, culminating in a journey back to Hong Kong that allows for a cathartic, healing breakdown of their barriers. Beautifully written and deeply heartfelt, this perfect blend of history and legend is a stunning testament to the enduring, complex bonds between mothers and daughters.

While I am not a fantasy reader, the backbone of Fishbone Cinderella is rooted in family and the immigrant experience. What could have happened to Yut Ying and how her story could affect the generations that come after her, is a story that so many immigrants can relate to. I really loved this story and that COVER, is just beautiful.

Thank you Del Rey for the advanced copy!

[jo ୨୧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

˚★⋆｡˚ ⋆ big thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy

🪭 spoiler free review 🎐

though this novel took me ten years and a year to read it was stunningly beautiful and haunting to say the least. i would say the reason it took me so long is because it's so emotional and truly devasting to read about things that did happen in real life. things that though they are in fiction and labeled under fantasy--happened to real life women in that time period. it was written in such a way that took to the heart and made you just go "oh! thanks goodbye my heart" at night."

my main issue with the novel was pacing issues which is why it took so long to read. one second it'd be incredibly gripping and then it'd be so slow i'd want to put it down due to the plot being all over the place. that's not to say the writing was bad, quite the opposite, the writing was stunning.

🪭 characters 🎐

am i supposed to be okay after reading the most heartbreaking characters ever? no one should have to go through any of what all these characters went through and yet i kept clicking my kindle screen to see if it'd get better. it didn't! elizabeth lim you can pay for my therapy bills (or just send me kenji as payment for that. all characters named kenji are a immediate 10/10. i dont make the rules).

i don't even have any words to write up anything on the characters. all in all, a beautiful book, wonderfully written albeit slow at times, but still a lovely book that i would reccomend. just prebook your therapy appt. cinderella retelling with a twist (that's my kind of retelling.

pre-review
I GOT THE ARC FOR THIS STUNNINGLY GORGINA BOOK
˖°𓇼🌊⋆🐚🫧

[Raghad♡]

I won't say this book is bad cause it really isn't, I think it just came at a wrong time for me. I tried so hard to finish this story cause I really believed it was worth it but I just couldn't. It is a very slow book and I honestly couldn't get through. Maybe I will come back to it one day who knows!

[Anna ʚɞ [Hiatus until beginning of Sept. '26]]

: ̗̀➛ Pre-read:
WHAT?? I GOT THE ARC? 😭
This is so unexpected but ahhhhhh im so excited!! Everyone seems to absolutely love this book and im just so ready for that as its exactly what I need rn!! 🥹🥹
Also my first Elizabeth Lim book?! 💗🥹

Many thanks to NetGalley, Elizabeth Lim & Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for the eARC in exchange for an honest review . ⋆˙⟡

[justine ⊹ ࣪ ˖ (slump era)]

°‧ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ·。

pre-read : what do you mean i got approved for another anticipated release?! #4everblessed 𐔌՞ ܸ.ˬ.ܸ՞𐦯

01/21/2026 : YES PLS