Item: All the Ever Afters
Rating: 4.00
Author: quirkycat

by Danielle Teller

In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous reimagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella’s "evil" stepmother.

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. . . .

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of "happily ever after."

I received a copy of All the Ever Afters through the Goodreads Giveaways program.

All the Ever After is a retelling of the classic story of Cinderella, but with a twist. This story takes the focus off of Cinderella, and instead puts it directly onto Agnes, also usually known as the wicked stepmother.
Agnes is not a woman who had a wonderful life, before her stepdaughter’s marriage to a prince. And even that didn’t magically change her world or her life for the better, for the people in politics can be the cruelest of them all.
Agnes was born into the life of being a serf, she had to work hard to get anything good in her life, from a decent job to a house. And she did earn a lot of change in her life, when you think about it. But it was a series of constant struggles for her.

“Being strong does not disqualify you from being beautiful.”

All the Ever Afters was a fascinating, heartbreaking, and beautiful story to read. As I mentioned above, it followed the life of Agnes, the wicked stepmother. The tale started off well before Cinderella ever came into the mix, and I loved that about this book.
I think what really struck me about All the Ever Afters was just how believable it was. Yes, Agnes had a pretty awful life. But it also made sense for somebody of her station during that time. Likewise, the treatment she (and her daughters) would get upon their arrival to the palace also made an alarming amount of sense.
That added to the heartbreak and rise of emotions in this novel, but Danielle Teller put all of that to good use, weaving all of those feelings into the story itself and turning it into something more. For that reason, this may very well be my favorite retelling so far. Or, at least one on my top ten list. Regardless, I really enjoyed reading All the Ever Afters, even if it did completely shock me with its intensity at times.

All the Ever Afters

by Danielle Teller

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Dec 13, 2019

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