All the Ever Afters | Book Review

It was after reading East and West by Edith Pattou that I started looking out for another classic fairytale retelling. All the Ever Afters were recommended in an article, with the promise that it's a retelling of Cinderella from the 'evil' stepmother's perspective. As someone who grew up loving most of the Disney princesses, this was right up my alley. That, coupled with the intense need to read something magical this near to Christmas, made me purchased this book on Kobo. It's safe to say that Cinderella had never been the same ever since. 

I flipped the first page with the expectation that the author would explain why the 'evil' stepmother became evil. Yet, what unraveled after me was unlike anything I have expected. It was a book that needed to be written to and read by young adult/adult readers, because it was a reminder that in real life, the evil character in a fairytale may just be you and I, living our daily lives, putting in our best effort to survive. 

All the Ever Afters read more like a historical-fiction than a fantasy novel. It was real, honest, and heartwarming. It showed how sometimes people stretched a simple story into one filled with baloney. As it turned out, the 'evil' stepmother was far from 'evil'. Her story in Cinderella had to be pushed to the extreme because every story needed a villain - unlike in real life where most people often feel in the grey area. While fairytales worked for young readers, it might not be so for more mature ones.

As the story unfolded and I reflected on myself, I viewed Cinderella in a different light. She might be the prettiest, but she surely was not one who would survive hardships and real work. Cinderella was lucky to be born into a wealthy and reputable family, but not the same could be said about her stepmother. She was born in poverty and was sent to work as servants away from her family. Should she acted the way Cinderella did, she would not have survived. 

Teller wrote beautifully on how Agnes (Cinderella's stepmother) worked hard and smart to climb the ranks to provide a better life for herself and her family, and in her description, I saw Agnes as a woman of strength and character who, against all odds, managed to make life better for herself. Agnes did not complain about the hard work because she had accepted it as her fate. So when Cinderella, who was born with a silver spoon, complained about the slightest things, it made me unable to relate to her. Certainly, I could not discount the fact that she was orphaned and had a different upbringing, but her actions felt like nothing but entitlement. 

Agnes might be strict and demanding towards Cinderella, but isn't that what Mothers are like? If I did half the things Cinderella did, I would have been disowned. Yet, because his Father coddled her and gave her whatever she wished for, she felt that anything that did not go her way meant that she was being tortured. In real life, we would have called her a spoiled brat, but this was a fairy tale and the main character would always be right. 

After the book ended, I realized how unfortunate it was that in Cinderella, the woman who took charge of her life and broke out from poverty was the evil one, and her daughters, who were 'ugly' by the beauty standard then, were described to be nasty and jealous of her. It's appalling to grasp that all this while, we had been brought up thinking that ugly was bad and hardworking was not acceptable in female - because of stories like Cinderella.

All in all, I was glad this book was written and I would recommend it for those who read the original story of Cinderella and wanted another take on it, or just anyone who loves a good story about class and gender inequality.