Kalynn Bayron – Cannonball Read 17

Cinderella is Dead (RIP)

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

June 21, 2023 by cosbrarian Leave a Comment

Cinderella gets a Handmaid’s Tale twist for a YA Audience in Bayron’s book, with a queer protagonist too! It has been 200 years since Cinderella got her “Happily Ever After” in the kingdom of Lille. Her story is now essentially the kingdom’s Bible, but very few people in Lille get to share in a happily ever after of their own. The kingdom is ruled by a cruel king, whose rulebook is a patriarchal nightmare. Curfews for female residents and no freedoms of which to speak; […]

A Disappointing Sequel

This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron

April 6, 2023 by RevGirlUtena Leave a Comment

This review contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for This Poison Heart, so read at your own risk! This Wicked Fate picks up directly after the events of This Poison Heart, with Briseis’s Mom dead, her soul held by the Goddess Hecate. If Briseis and the gang can reunite all the pieces of the Abstryus Heart in the next 28 days, they can bring her Mom back from the Underworld. So what does the gang do? Well, they already have all of the pieces […]

Look, I read a non-smutty book!

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

April 5, 2023 by RevGirlUtena Leave a Comment

Briseis is a black teenage girl who can control and grow plants, often unintentionally. She is also invulnerable to poisons. She can roll around in Poison Ivy and not break out in a rash or even itch. She can drink straight poison or inject it into her veins and not be harmed. She is adopted, and her moms run a struggling flower shop in New York City. One day, Briseis receives a letter that her only surviving natural relative, an aunt, has died and left […]

Dystopian Cinderella Story

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

April 21, 2022 by Bibliophile Leave a Comment

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron is a dystopian take on the classic fairy tale. Set 200 years after the fairy tale happened, sixteen-year-old girls are now required to go to an annual ball, where a suitor will select a girl to marry. If after three balls, a girl isn’t selected they are never heard from again. The main character, Sophia, would much rather marry her childhood best friend Erin than some random man that chooses her, attempts to flee the ball. She manages to […]

Adding politics to fairy tales makes everything more depressing

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

February 15, 2021 by crystalclear Leave a Comment

This is a grim take on Cinderella. In this society, all girls (of a certain class, actual servants and peasants need not apply) must present themselves at the Royal Ball to hopefully be selected as a bride, as Cinderella was 200 years before. But this is not a happy fairy tale. Women are treated as second class citizens, or worse, and are completely controlled by their husbands. Women have no choice in their husbands – they are “claimed” at the ball by whoever wants them. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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