The Stepsister Scheme

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
(I don't know if anyone would consider this a spoilery review, so please be warned . . .)



Danielle is the princess formerly known as Cinderwench. Predictibly, she's having a hard time settling into her new role in life, despite the fact that she genuinely loves her husband. She has a hard time establishing a relationship with her servants, as she finds it difficult to tell them what to do and to allow them to do their own work. She doesn't enjoy learning the protocol she needs to know. However, all that changes when her stepsister, Charlotte, reappears in her life. One assassination attempt later, Danielle finds that she must become assertive if she is to live--and if she is rescue her husband, currently at the mercy of her stepsisters. She has the help of Snow, a witch with mirror magic, and the mysterious Talia, known popularly as Sleeping Beauty.



The Stepsister Scheme is an engaging read, and I've been looking forward to reading it ever since talking to the author, Jim C. Hines, at a conference in Minnesota in 2006. I used to study fairy tales as an academic area of pursuit, and I can say that Hines has clearly done his research. He knows the older, darker, alternate versions of these tales quite well. However, he doesn't bludgeoun (sp?) his readers with that knowledge. Instead, it unspools slowly as their history becomes relevant to the plot. Shrek 3 used many of these same princesses to tell a far different story. In that movie, their passive traits (ex: Sleeping Beauty's ability to fall asleep at will and trip soldiers with her body) are used to save the day. Here, Hines tells the story of women that refuse to be passive and reshape their various curses into strengths.



I liked this book, and I look forward to the sequel, The Mermaid's Madness, promised in October 2009. The cover copy made this book sound like it was going to be much funnier than it was, but once I adapted to Hines' humor, that wasn't an issue for me any longer. The next novel has the potential to be stronger (and maybe funnier?) now that these characters have been established in their roles.


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