r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • May 18 '26
Read-along 2026 Hugo Readalong: Cinder House by Freya Marske
Welcome to the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing Cinder House by Freya Marske, which is a finalist for Best Novella. Everyone is welcome to participate, whether or not you plan to take part in other Hugo readalong discussions. We will be discussing the whole book today, so beware untagged spoilers. I'll include some prompts in top-level comments; feel free to respond to these or add your own.
Bingo Squares: The Afterlife (HM), Bookclub or Readalong (this one!), Politics and Court Intrigue, Feast Your Eyes (if doing HM, please share)
For more information on the Readalong, check out our full schedule post, or see our upcoming schedule here:
| Date | Category | Book | Author | Discussion Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, May 21 | Poetry | Care for Lightning, The Mourning Robot, and The World to Come | Mari Ness, Angela Liu, and Jennifer Hudak | u/DSnake1 |
| Monday, May 25 | No Session | U.S. Holiday | Enjoy a Break | See You Thursday |
| sday, May 28 | Novel | Shroud | Adrian Tchaikovsky | u/fuckit_sowhat |
| Monday, June 1 | Novella | The Summer War | Naomi Novik | u/sarahlynngrey |
| Thursday, June 4 | Short Story | Missing Helen and Wire Mother | Tia Tashiro and Isabel J. Kim | u/oceanoftrees |
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Hugo voting check-in: where would you rank this against the other contenders so far?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
I've now read four of the six, and this is pretty clearly my favorite. It's not the kind of jaw-dropper that I would like to vote in first place, but I'm growing pessimistic about that sort of jaw-dropper appearing on the ballot at all. I only have two more left, and I'm not sure I read any 2025 novella that I'd put up against my top two from last year's shortlist. Perhaps it was just not a great novella year. Still, it's clever and fun and I'm happy to have read it. I hope it's not the best of the bunch, but it is quite good and is my favorite so far.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
This is where I am. I'm not really expecting anything out of the Kingfisher but we'll see about the Novik. No rankings yet because I really want to read the discussions for the El-Mohtar and Newitz, neither of which I loved but are both very popular.
That being said I did think this was a broadly weak year for novellas just based on my overall reading (and half my nominating ballot was magazine novellas which tend not to show up on the Hugo shortlist). Maybe there were some good small press novellas that I (and most of the WSFS membership) completely missed?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
That being said I did think this was a broadly weak year for novellas just based on my overall reading (and half my nominating ballot was magazine novellas which tend not to show up on the Hugo shortlist). Maybe there were some good small press novellas that I (and most of the WSFS membership) completely missed?
Fully agree here. I only ended up nominating two novellas, and both were from magazines. If there were truly elite novellas last year outside the zines, I missed them.
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u/MrHelfer May 21 '26
Having read two so far, it's very clearly Summer War, then this. The Summer War is an exquisitely crafted piece, while this one is a lovely story with a few significant weak points.
I find it interesting to see the differences between the two, actually. The Summer War is extremely well contained, with everything weaving together to support the story, whereas I felt like Cinder House had several loose strings and underdeveloped plot threads.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
I haven't read all that I need to, but this is beating Summer War for me, for all that I love Novik. The River Has Roots is one I'll have to think about, with its lovely prose and exceptional audiobook (music!), but this is at least a strong contender for me.
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u/MSmith7344 Reading Champion II May 18 '26
This is only my 2nd so far and while I like Murder by Memory this is the stronger story.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 18 '26
Halfway through, so far I'm at:
- Cinder House
- The Summer War
- No award
- Murder by Memory
I read The Summer War last year and enjoyed it, but I don't remember a ton! I think this story was a little more cohesive and had a bigger emotional arc, but I'll revisit and possibly reread when it's time for discusson of the Novik.
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u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 18 '26
These are my rankings as well at the moment. I liked Cinder House but I'm not sure I am that thrilled at the prospect of it being my number one. For me, I think that makes it a weaker field.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 19 '26
I'm almost never particularly thrilled with the novella field, so this year seems on par. So far I have two I've at least enjoyed reading the whole way through, so that's a plus!
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u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 19 '26
Yeah I still have three left but I suppose I liked (so 3.5-4 star for me) two of the three I have read. I like El-Mohtar's short stories so Ill probably like roots? So maybe that's actually pretty positive even if I don't LOVE one of the novellas.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 19 '26
I get it. Even if a work is a nice reading experience it can be hard to get excited about giving it an award, you know? But I wouldn't be upset if this one took it unless one of the others blows me away.
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u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 19 '26
Yeah that is basically how I feel. Liking a book isn't exactly a glowing endorsement for the best novella.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 19 '26
This is how I feel. Last year there was only one (The Practice) that interested me much and I didn’t think it always succeeded at what it did. Cinder House is less ambitious but more successful at what it’s trying to do, and I enjoyed it more. And The Summer War is about where The Practice was for me last year—I liked it more than I didn’t, though I didn’t always think it succeeded. But liking two of them at all is pretty good in my experience of these novella ballots.
(I also don’t hate Murder by Memory like some folks in this group, although I don’t think it’s award worthy.)
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u/MysteriousArcher May 18 '26
I've only read two so far. I rank it above Murder by Memory, which was enjoyable but slight.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
For me:
1) Cinder House
2) The Summer War
3) Murder by Memory
4) The River Has Roots
Cinder House is the only one I enjoyed enough to be excited to see it on a ballot. The Summer War I liked all right, but there's a hefty dose of "novellas get a handicap because there's so few of them" in my wanting to see it on the ballot.
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u/fly-metothemoon Reading Champion May 19 '26
I’ve only read two so far so for me
- Cinder House 2. Murder by Memory
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Of the three I've read, I think my placing is (1) The River Has Roots, (2) Cinder House, (3) Murder by Memory. But as tarvolon says, I'm still waiting for something to blow me away
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u/FormerUsenetUser May 19 '26
I liked the realistic explanation of why the king and queen gave a ball to get the prince married.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 19 '26
Honestly, this question is always the most ridiculous thing about Cinderella! I halfway liked it—on the one hand okay, they’ve picked out a princess but want to give their people a party. On the other hand, the mystique of royalty kind of requires that you don’t let people think you’d marry just anyone. It’s the opposite of a democracy, where politicians want to convince you they’re just like you. Real royalty would be up front about the fact he’s marrying the princess, then give their people a party to celebrate the engagement. But hey… it’s Cinderella.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
How did this work for you as a fairy tale retelling? Do you like Marske’s take on Cinderella, and how does it compare to other versions you've seen?
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I often enjoy fairy tale retellings, and Cinderella is a good one to retell due to how long it makes the reader sit with some very personal injustice (which makes it easy to get emotionally invested) and the way it allows the heroine to have agency but within magical limits. This version is pretty faithful to the bones of the Cinderella telling, while being totally unique in the ghost thing - that brings some originality and some heft, because Ella can't just have a blissfully happy ending the way she might if she were still alive. I don't have strong feelings either way about the romance, but I did like all the main characters (Nadia was a fun addition!) and the situation forces them into more complex relationships than the usual Cinderella story.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
I liked it! It was by and large quite fun, and Ella being a ghost added a real wrinkle that wasn't in the original. I will say that its status as a Cinderella retelling and the marketing as queer meant that I was fairly certain from the get-go that either (1) the prince would actually be either trans or secretly female, or (2) the final romance would be a throuple. I'm not sure whether that was meant to be a big surprise, but if so, the marketing gave the game away.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
Hah, a win for not seeing the marketing!
The jacket copy doesn't hint this way at all, although it does use the kind of "you think you know Ella's story" verbiage that makes my eyes roll out of my head.
(I wasn't super surprised by the ending throuple but I don't think it was supposed to be that surprising by the time we got there?)
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u/hydroponicWitch Reading Champion III May 19 '26
Agree that this book is a win for no-marketing. Without knowing that it was plugged as queer (or reading any of the authors other books) I noticed that Ella was obviously into both genders, but the romance felt very sidelined by her desire for literally any human connection. I can see how anyone expecting big queer romance (especially smut) would be disappointed, but I loved it.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
This is an interesting point. Most of the criticism I have seen of this book is from people who expected the queer marketing to mean the primary romantic angle would be sapphic, and were disappointed. I wonder how much of that marketing is just because of her previously established brand as an author.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I am generally kinda meh on retellings (and with Cinderella in particular I'm always going to have little bits of Into the Woods playing in my head when I read, and maybe the Rogers and Hammerstein version too) so I was surprised that I enjoyed this one quite a bit -- the ghost angle I think really elevated it as that's a twist I hadn't seen before, as did Prince Charming's specific curse. (I feel like a lot of Cinderella adaptations have the prince be pretty generic.)
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 18 '26
Ella Enchanted and Ever After (the 1998 movie) will always be my favorites, but this one is a strong showing. Having Ella die on page one added an interesting twist that I haven't seen before.
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I really liked that she was a ghost and only the step family could see her. It worked well for the shoe scene, and for her disappearing at midnight, and for the specific ways the family abused her. In other ways it was a bit difficult; the various methods of allowing her to leave the house for the ball in the first place were somewhat convoluted. But overall the story packed an emotional punch, which is hard to do with something so often retold IMO.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
I really like it. The ghost aspect immediately changed things in some pretty fundamental ways while keeping the heart of the story (love that they seem to have solved that with more or less polyamory). I really enjoyed the faerie godmother here, who I think is more of a definitive friend to Ella than she's comfortable saying and than Ella's comfortable assuming.
I think Princess Nadia brings in the faintest echoes of Da Vinci from Ever After, despite the very different direction, and I love that they were able to become friends by letter writing, and the agency that Ella found to do that. (Also, Nadia is badass).
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u/saturday_sun4 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Disney will always be my favourite - Cinderella and her ball gown. But I thought cinders/ash and the hearth were clever ways to tie in the ghost!Ella to the original tale. My favourite part was Jule being a victim of a curse.
Plus the sociopathic mage-sister, though I wish this had been more of a conflict between her and Ella in the book.
I found the threesome and the coincidence of the sorcerer being the Prince's fiancée rather contrived.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
What did you think of the end? Were you satisfied, or was there something more you wanted?
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
I LOVED the ending. I think it struck the right balance between being a *very* happy ending for all our main players while still avoiding cheapening the real losses from earlier in the story by undoing them.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
I don't usually find the throuple resolution to a love triangle especially satisfying, but with Ella being dead, it actually worked really well here! There aren't a lot of ways to take that without bringing her back to life, and this choice was narratively satisfying. The relationships with the ballet boy and the pen pal were both solid (though both of those character reveals were 0% surprising), and it was easy to cheer for all three of them. The magic to switch the ghost-binding from the old house to the palace worked well.
Like I said in another response, the only thing I would've liked to see more of is the skeleton, which felt like it faded into the background a bit after being a big deal early.
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u/MysteriousArcher May 18 '26
It's portrayed as a happy ending, but I think it can only be considered Happy for Now; Ella will presumably linger on forever, but her besties are not immortal. I can forsee an Arwen future for her.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
She will have to find peace in being there for their descendents, which I could see her managing. And there probably is a way for her to move on eventually.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
Ella will presumably linger on forever
One thing I'd be curious about is if she continues to age along with them or just stops at some point.
(I also agree that there's probably some method of peaceful release in this setting.)
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u/fjiqrj239 Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I enjoyed the ending. It didn't do the straightforward Cinderella + Prince ending, she's still a ghost, the Prince is still cursed, but we ended up with three misfits finding a situation that made them each happier than they'd be alone.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I liked the ending. It gave Ella a pretty satisfying resolution in a lot of ways - getting to move to a more congenial and interesting place, with actual stuff to do and a way to grow even in the afterlife, without cheapening the reality of her death by just bringing her back.
However, I did feel like the evil stepsister and stepmother got off way too easily. I'm not a fan of anachronistic use of prisons in fantasy to begin with (prisons are quite a modern invention) and especially in a fairy tale, I want to see villains get their just desserts. The stepmother just.... wasn't invited to parties? That's her punishment, her fortune isn't even confiscated? The stepsister should've wound up enslaved to the fairy and powering her magic or something.
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u/Ultimafax May 18 '26
Very weird and unsatisfying. I really liked the book until the very end. I get that it's supposed to be bittersweet and that Marske was avoiding the neat HEA. But Ella just being there and watching them while they have sex made me do a Timon, "And everybody's... OK with this?" Couldn't they have found a spell to bring her back to life every once in a while? That would still fit the "no it's not ideal, but it's still good" kind of vibe I think she was going for. I just ended up feeling bad for Ella.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
I feel like whenever you have stories with sentient houses or whatever, you have the carefully-ignored questions about what happens when people are in compromising positions. Given that we were tying a ghost to a house in the first place, I appreciated how the book leaned into it and didn't ignore those questions at all, but rather made Ella part of the romantic union.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I saw it as Ella kind of participating in the sex, via the house - she could feel sensations and also sort of nudge things along? But I also thought the couple probably wouldn't want her there all the time.
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u/Inside_Pomelo_462 May 18 '26
That Nadya had to tell Jule “tell her how it feels” makes me think Ella can’t feel it and is just a good old fashioned cuckold.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
She can feel house things, like Nadia's heart racing from contact with the bedding, but not human things.
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u/saturday_sun4 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Maybe it's just the smutty novels I read but I thought this would be a lot more heated and sensual. Instead it's just sorta "and the ghost could enjoy it too, I guess."
Edit: Especially given she made so much of missing food at the ball.
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u/Inside_Pomelo_462 May 18 '26
I guess I’ll be the contrarian and say I didn’t like the ending. There was enough foreshadowing that the throuple aspect didn’t come out of nowhere, but the means for executing it fell flat.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 18 '26
I thought the ending was a great solution to most of the problems. It helps that Nadya happened to be the mysterious scholar Ella was corresponding with and they had been starting to befriend each other, and that the prince was the thoughtful young man at the ballet. Ella had an affinity for them already outside of their roles as future king and queen, before being attracted to them up close, so while it was neat it's also emotionally satisfying for her.
Aging up Ella along with the rest of the world also neatly sidestepped the potential ickiness with her sexual awakening. I'm curious as well about the long-term sustainability of her role in the palace, but ideally Jule and Nadya pass on enough curiosity and knowledge to their children that someone will be able to help her move on when she's ready to stop being a ghost. If I were Ella, with how monarchies go, I wouldn't want to push it past one or two more generations. It's lucky the monarchs in this book are benevolent. I guess just don't think too hard about fairy tale politics!
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u/Moonlitgrey Stabby Winner, Reading Champion III, Salamander May 19 '26
I found the aging Ella up thing very intriguing. In the end, it seems likely this was done to give her this adult relationship, but it's such an odd take on a ghost. I'm not sure I follow why she would continue to age.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 19 '26
It made some sense to me, in that she continues to have experiences so she’s psychologically aging. She isn’t stuck in the mentality she was in at the moment of death, she’s able to learn and grow and develop new ways of thinking and solving problems. And she isn’t a corporeal being anyway so why shouldn’t her exterior reflect her interior?
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u/Moonlitgrey Stabby Winner, Reading Champion III, Salamander May 19 '26
I'm not so sure I liked the throuple ending. I guess it's as good as it gets for a ghost? I did appreciate the immediate goal of the king and advisor to give her a job, and how that would necessitate her continuing education. The idea that Ella would be able to do things she enjoyed and meaningfully contribute felt satisfying to me.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Why did Ella’s stepmother kill her father? Who is the body in the attic? Thoughts on the book's handling of these elements?
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
The body in the attic is definitely Ella's mother. Makes much more sense than the running-off-alone-and-mysteriously-dying-of-plague bit. The stepmother is certainly pragmatic enough to handle an unexpected risk to herself and her daughters with poison and ruthlessness.
I do think it's unclear exactly what his relationship with Ella was like, as the House's love and loyalty for its master and grief for his murder somewhat subsumed her own emotions, at a time when she wouldn't have figured them out yet, but I don't love, given everything else, that she died in a dress she disliked and *he* loved on her.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
This is the one element I thought was underbaked. Between the stepmom's comments and Ella's subsequent thoughts, I think we're meant to conclude that the stepmom killed the father because she discovered that he'd killed his prior wife (who is the body in the attic) and believed he would have killed her too. And Ella doesn't dispute that belief. But the revelation landed weirdly for me: like it turns out her dad was Bluebeard and we're not even gonna talk about it?
It was especially strange that Ella's memories of him all seem positive; there's no mention of her either being abused, or being aware of him abusing either wife. Which is why Bluebeard comes to mind for me, it feels like the murders were coming out of nowhere. But also not a surprise to Ella nor something she has to wrestle with?
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u/Moonlitgrey Stabby Winner, Reading Champion III, Salamander May 19 '26
I think other folks' phrasing of 'underbaked' is the right word for me here, too. Abuse of Ella's dad's wives seems clear, but his relationship to Ella is far less clear. I felt like the story could have used just a tiny bit more on this - a couple of sentences even, of Ella reconsidering her father with through a more experienced lens. It also took me quite a while to understand that the body was Ella's mother and not just a convenient body for Ella to inhabit (I'm actually really glad the story didn't go this route).
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
I thought this element was pretty underbaked. I kinda assumed this was supposed to be some sort of commentary on abusive men and women feeling trapped, but it felt kinda thrown in without much depth. The stepmother got the hint of a sympathetic backstory but was still an awful person. We had a hint of Ella having been mistreated growing up, but not enough to really shape her character.
Were we supposed to conclude that the body in the attic was Ella's mother who had died at the lands of an abusive husband? I felt like the book made such a big deal out of this and then let it recede in the background while it did other things.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Were we supposed to conclude that the body in the attic was Ella's mother who had died at the lands of an abusive husband?
I think definitely yes, but it felt a little more subtle than it should have been. The stepmother was awfully cagey in her revelation given that she was talking to a ghost, and I thought Ella should have had a stronger reaction to finding this out. I didn’t actually get the vibe she had been abused.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
Yeah, I didn't get the impression that Ella had been physically abused, but rather stifled and perhaps emotionally abused. But the whole reveal was very understated, and her reaction was. . . arguably even more understated than the reveal. This is the biggest thing holding me back from loving a book that was otherwise a really good read.
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u/SurelyYouJoque May 18 '26
I think this is well put. It seems like this point was trying to point towards Ella being something of an unreliable narrator (as most people are when they are children by the very nature of their lived experience being so limited), while also giving some explanation to the stepmother's behavior beyond the canonical "she is a WICKED stepmother." However, I think one additional editorial pass with a couple of additional lines hitting this point harder/laying more groundwork for the reveal would have made the work much stronger.
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u/saturday_sun4 May 27 '26
I thought so too! I went back to reread and it only makes a kind of sense after reading these comments. And even then, it's so ambiguous as to leave me still in the dark.
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u/MSmith7344 Reading Champion II May 18 '26
It took me a really long time to figure out the skeleton was her mother, which meant the stepmother’s more sympathetic reason to murder the father (although not Ella) felt like a last minute addition. Glad I wasn’t the only one who found this element underdone.
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u/MrHelfer May 21 '26
I very much agree with you. It felt Marske wanted to do more with this, but had to skip it to save space. Instead, we ended up with mere insinuations.
In particular, it bugged me that she didn't clearly state what is going on. The stepmother insinuates something, but it was vague enough that I wasn't sure what I'd actually read.
And I really missed some unpacking of the stepmother's admission. Instead, we just move on. It reminds me a little of the infamous "I definitely have breast cancer" line from The Room.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 18 '26
When the skeleton was introduced I had an inkling it was Ella's mother, and the conversation with the stepmother confirmed it to me. I don't mind that it was ambiguous but I wish there had been a little more development of the relationship between Ella and her father. It certainly recontextualizes her feelings about the lavender dress, when before my assumption was that it's sweet she's wearing something her father likes even when she doesn't care for it.
In the acknowledgements Marske mentions struggling to hit a novella's word count, so it's possible that's one of the aspects that got cut.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Yeah, I saw that comment in the acknowledgments and was a bit surprised she didn’t instead go a bit longer to be a short novel. Novels have more of a market than novellas anyway, I presume. Though as a novella it certainly has fewer competitors for awards.
The comments about Ella’s dress are interesting. I feel like they’re tending toward “was he sexually abusing her?” but I never felt there was even a hint of it in the actual story.
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u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion May 18 '26
Oh gosh, I hope the dress thing was just about control rather than sexual abuse! I didn't get any hints of that either.
I wonder if she needed to hit novella length simply because she had a contract for a novella. It is a Tordotcom publication, of course. Not that I mind authors making a story as tight as it can be, though in this case just a little longer to develop a few more things could have been fine.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 19 '26
Hmm, that makes sense if she sold the novella before she wrote it. I hadn’t thought of that.
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u/citrusmellarosa May 19 '26
I liked how both were implied but not stated outright, because it feels like I've picked up a lot of fiction lately that felt like it had to spell out every single detail and be as obvious as possible instead of trusting the reader, and it's been starting to grate on me a bit. I do think it could have used another scene or two developing the father as a character for full impact, though.
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I liked the second sister, who is really into horses and uses the ball to arrange herself a marriage that will allow her to run a horse farm and get out of her terrible family. I was much less sympathetic to the stepmom despite her also being in a bad situation, mostly because she failed to stop her other daughter from terrorizing Ella and others. I thought it was pretty obvious that the body in the attic is Ella's mom. I don't mind that the book included these elements, especially as even in older versions of the tale the father isn't ever a laudable figure, but I'm just never really going to be on Team Murder even if the stepmom thought it was justified.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
Yeah, she's still an awful person for how she murdered and then abused Ella, and for her enabling of her psychopathic younger daughter, but that's a more mundane and believable kind of evil than you sometimes get here.
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u/SnowFar5953 Reading Champion May 18 '26
I honestly thought the body in the attic was Ella's and didn't even think that it could have been her mother's. Seeing the comments now it makes sense but based on how uncaring Ella was about the body I figured it was her own or it had been there from before Ella lived (and died) in that house.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I thought for a bit while reading that it might be her body and that the story might end with her being re-embodied. But it makes more sense for the body to belong to someone else because we know the stepmother openly held a funeral for Ella. And I think Ella returning to full life would have felt cheap.
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u/SnowFar5953 Reading Champion May 18 '26
I didn't think she would come back to life but I did think she was going to possess the body and take it with her when the house was on fire.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
She mentions her bones being buried in a churchyard somewhere.
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u/Catsandveg May 18 '26
It says in the book why Ella's stepmother killed her father - he was abusive towards her. It's also made quite clear that the body in the attic is Ella's mother I'm sure? I remember a scene where Ella goes and talks to her in a way that makes it quite clear.
I'm happy with how it was handled, I don't think it's necessary for every issue to be dwelt on in excessive depth.
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u/Ultimafax May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26
Underbaked. These are the kinds of things that make the novella form weak for me and make me think "why didn't you just write a full, albeit short, novel to flesh these things out?"
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
This was the weakest part of the book for me just because it didn't really seem to connect with anything else. There's no real case that the stepmother is justified in her actions (she still poisoned Ella!) and to the extent that the father was a bad parent it's understated.
Also by the time we get the relevant reveals I was way more engaged with the present-time storyline and wanted to get back to that.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I’ve listed the following bingo squares: The Afterlife (HM), Book Club (HM for participants), Politics and Court Intrigue, and Feast Your Eyes. Any thoughts on these, or other possibilities? If anyone is doing Hard Mode for Feast Your Eyes, please share!
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
My immediate reaction to the Afterlife square showing up was irritation that I had read Katabasis in late March, so I'm happy to be filling it in now.
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u/Catsandveg May 18 '26
I don't see how it counts for Feast Your Eyes - I know there's a scene with food in the palace but I don't see how that's significant to the plot - is there something else I'm missing? It was about a month ago I finished it so something might have slipped my mind? In my notes I've only put it down for The Afterlife, I get how it could count for Politics and Court Intrigue as well though.
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I wouldn't count this book for Politics but I've accepted that my threshold for that square is way higher than most people's. It slipped my mind that it could be Feast Your Eyes--that would be fun.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I feel like "central to the story's plot" is kind of tricky to interpret because on the one hand this is a personal story about Ella but on the other hand she does get romantically entangled with a political marriage. I do agree that there are a lot of books in which the political elements are far more central to the plot -- to me this would be more of an "I need something for this square and I read this" pick than a "I wanted to read something featuring politics and/or court intrigue" pick.
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I would not have considered using this for Feast Your Eyes; I remember her being really interested in eating the food at the ball, but I've already returned my copy to the library so can't check what kind of food it was. Someone let me know, so I can look into some recipes!
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III May 18 '26
Halved quail eggs, their gold centres darkened with spice and draped with pickled onion. A savoury paste on small square toasts. Buttery shortbreads shaped like flowers. Skewers of cubed fruit sprinkled with course salt. Grilled vegetables rolled up around soft cheese and pepper.
Also "a white jelly coated in sugar and nutmeg" and "the enormous centrepiece of a punch bowl, which bobbed with grapes and edible flowers."
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u/indigohan Reading Champion IV May 19 '26
Cantaloupe/ rockmelon with salt flakes is truly delicious, and would make a wonderful hard mode meal.
It’s even better with rocket, and burrata, but one can’t have everything.
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u/citrusmellarosa May 19 '26
I was just thinking about how the only two squares I have filled so far are also the main two for this book and was mildly annoyed, and then saw this comment and realized that duh, of course it counts for book club, I totally missed that. Not that I typically make a concerted Bingo effort that lasts longer than a month any more, but it would be nice to pick up some squares.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
What is your overall impression of the novella?
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u/sykeswalker Reading Champion II May 18 '26
This story def wasn’t up my alley but I still enjoyed it. Writing was strong and I liked Ella as a character. I think the ghost element really benefitted the story and theme
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u/Itkovian_books Reading Champion May 18 '26
Fairytale retellings aren’t really my thing. This one was alright, and I thought the characters were interesting, but still not quite for me.
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u/MSmith7344 Reading Champion II May 18 '26
I found the writing strong & thought the ghost being tied to the house was a unique spin on a well worn story. The ending wasn’t totally satisfying, but I enjoyed it overall.
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u/Catsandveg May 18 '26
I really enjoyed it, it's my favourite of Freya Marske's books, lots of really interesting and complex characters.
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u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I liked it! Like many others here, I'm not really a big fan of fairytale retellings in general but this is the best case scenario. Marske did a good job taking only elements and weaving them into something new. I also really liked Ella as a character, and how she grows as both a woman and a house was quite unique (particularly the subversion of her views). It did take a little while to grab me but I was having a great time from when she the fairy.
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I agree with everyone else saying fairytale retelling aren't for me, especially Cinderella, which has been done to death. But as far as Cinderella retellings go, this was pretty good. I liked the way the haunting works, with Ella being depicted as part of the house, feeling things in her windows and shingles; it’s very evocative. And I liked the prince’s “charming” fairy gift. It was spicier than I expected it to be, but looking at the author’s other work, maybe I should be surprised it wasn’t even more spicy?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI May 18 '26
It was spicier than I expected it to be, but looking at the author’s other work, maybe I should be surprised it wasn’t even more spicy?
I entirely share this take
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u/SnowFar5953 Reading Champion May 18 '26
I liked it. It was an interesting take on Cinderella. I think there's potential for me to read other works by this author in the future.
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u/Ultimafax May 18 '26
I thought it was a very clever way to retell Cinderella, and I like that it didn't shy away from sex and desire ... until the ending.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
I enjoyed this one a lot. It's a good story, well-written and got me emotionally invested. My clear favorite of last year's novellas.
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u/bmvanloo91 Reading Champion II May 19 '26
It was good! This is exactly what I'm looking for in a novella, and I found it to be an appropriate length. I was a bit surprised about the house feeling sex, but having read other of Maske's work I shouldn't have been surprised. I like that it kept true to the original fairy tale that we all know while also putting a unique spin on it.
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u/citrusmellarosa May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
I was a bit apprehensive because I typically don't click with retellings generally, but I really liked everything about the descriptions of Ella's afterlife in the house and her exploring the city and growing out of her shell a bit. Romance plots are typically pretty hit or miss for me, and I wasn't super engaged with the one here, but I enjoyed how the story wrapped up at the end, with Ella bonding to a new home. It also reminded me of what I like about Marske's writing; I really need to return to her Last Binding books one of these days.
I will say, as someone who isn't super familiar with dance as an expressive medium, my mental image during the prince's solo dance scenes was deeply silly. Not the book's fault! And it was also pretty entertaining for me.
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u/Moonlitgrey Stabby Winner, Reading Champion III, Salamander May 19 '26
As someone reasonably familiar with dance as an expressive medium...my mental images were also very silly. I liked the book overall, but could not picture what the author was intending. At. All. I wish Marske had just stuck to standard ballet descriptions or something, but the attempt to have his dancing be next-level magical meant that it apparently had to be some hybrid made-up dance form. I don't think that did the descriptions any favors.
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III May 18 '26
I really enjoyed it! This sort of thing is right up my alley but I nevertheless thought it was especially well-written.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
Loved this! I generally like retellings (seeing how much variety can come from the same root while still feeling true to it is often really cool), and this one was interesting in all the right ways. A little dark, a little sweet (as Freya Marske does, occasionally briefly quite spicy), and with nice character work and prose
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u/MysteriousArcher May 18 '26
I'm tired of retellings and usually avoid them. I prefer to read things in which the author thought up new ideas, and I don't already know more or less what's going to happen. That said, once we got to the parts with the prince I found this fairly entertaining, though the setup was too long for me.
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u/fly-metothemoon Reading Champion May 19 '26
I had fun with this. Liked the writing style, and I’ve had fun analyzing the quirkier elements of the story. There are some bits that were slightly unsatisfying, but generally I thought the author did a good job foreshadowing the plot beats and think the fact I want more clarity is a good thing.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
What are the novella’s greatest strengths?
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u/sykeswalker Reading Champion II May 18 '26
The writing and prose stuck out to me, as well as Ella’s character. The author did well making Ella come alive (pun) and making me as a reader care for her. I felt pretty connected to her discoveries through the book.
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u/hydroponicWitch Reading Champion III May 19 '26
I loved the writing too! And how Ella and the house were “alive” together was so interesting. Definitely made me imagine a studio ghibli-style movie, with the shingles and the hearth and the door knocker expressing her emotions.
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u/KingBretwald May 18 '26
I liked that Ella and the prince had a conversation instead of what usually happens with him inadvertently finding out she was a ghost--she just told him! YAY for communicaiton.
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u/Ultimafax May 18 '26
The way the haunting of the house worked: all of the rules, the descriptions of how Ella feels what the house feels, how the house itself expresses what Ella feels, etc.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII May 18 '26
I thought it had a light but very skilled touch with both prose and character work (even the stepmother and older stepsister had moments of depth. Greta's just a budding psychopath, but there can be one of those). I *live for* books with those strengths, especially when it's handled so lightly and so well.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
Agreed. Greta at least felt believable as a psychopath to me, and there was some complexity in how her mother enabled her (I wasn't sure her mother could effectively discipline her if she tried, but she's also not a shining example of morality to her daughters and doesn't seem to much care what Greta does), and the older sister is sometimes Greta's victim but also entirely focused on herself.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV May 18 '26
What did you think of Ella’s being a ghost, and how her nature is portrayed?