Lady Tremaine
Lady Tremaine ~ Rachel Hochhauser
Lady Tremaine is in the unenviable position of being twice widowed, once wealthy but now takes her hawk Lucy hunting for meat. She is unable to pay her servants, and is meanwhile trying to keep up appearances in order to secure decent marriages for her daughters in order to pull the family out of poverty. She has two daughters from her first marriage, Rosamund and Mathilde, and a stepdaughter from her second, Elin. Her daughters are helpful and do their best to lighten her load, while her stepdaughter mostly walks about spouting insipid platitudes from a book on etiquette, waiting for a husband to sweep her off of her feet. Her second husband left her the house (which needs a new roof) and land, but along with that came his debts. He did leave some money, but not for maintaining the house, it all goes to Elin’s dowry, and cannot be touched for anything else.
I’m not the biggest fan of fairy tales in general. I don’t think I’ve read any version of Cinderella other than one based on the Disney film. The Disney film is…fine…but the whole princess culture is exhausting and stupid and part of the reason we banned Disney when Maya was little (Results – a child obsessed with Disney – do not recommend). When Nicole, Jenny and Engie all reviewed this book (with varied results), I decided to give it a try. I’m really glad I did, because it was not at all what I expected (which was a rehashing of the Disney version casting all blame on Cinderella). Instead what we have is a fairly nuanced look at Lady Tremaine’s predicament, as well of those of all three of her daughters. Yes, there is a ball. There is a Prince. There are white horses and a golden carriage. But this story is much richer, darker, and ultimately more satisfying than the fairy tale. Highly recommended.
18 Comments
Margaret
Having read some of the fairy tales in their original versions, all of them are a retelling, so I enjoy the creativity in the newer versions. We didn’t restrict Disney but didn’t take our kids to the theme parks. The 40 year old has never been and doesn’t intend to take her boys there.
J
Oh the theme parks…they are SO EXPENSIVE and not all that fun (for me, I have friends who go several times a year). Here in California, they do a Grad Night where they close the park to the public a little early, and then it’s open all night for graduating HS seniors. I went to that when I was 18 and it was SO FUN. No crying kids, no parents, just hanging out with friends and going on the rides. My daughter didn’t go…I don’t remember whether her school didn’t go, or if she just didn’t want to. I’ve been back 2 times since, with small kids in tow, and it’s nowhere near as fun.
I think you would enjoy this book if you like retellings of fairy tales, and you make a good point about them ALL being retellings.
Margaret
I wouldn’t mind the price for a once in a lifetime experience, but I get motion sickness plus I’m scared of heights. So a theme park wouldn’t be worth it for me.
J
Agreed. It’s worth it once or twice for me, but if I were going with a kid, I’d want them to be old enough to go on all of the rides. My daughter was 5 1/2 and probably the ideal age would have been 7 or 8.
StephLove
I will keep it in mind.
We didn’t ban Disney, but I wish I’d waited longer to let North watch some of them. I’d forgotten how scary some of them can be and not really appropriate for preschoolers. After one disastrous weekend of watching BOTH Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid when they were 3, they were terrified of witches for years.
J
Some of those scenes are pretty dark and scary for little ones for sure. They likely shouldn’t see it before they’re 6 or 7, right?
Jenny
Ooh, I’m glad you liked it! I think the original Cinderella story should be banned. What kind of messages does it send to young girls? Yuck. This one was great.
J
I’m so glad you said how much you enjoyed it, thank you!
Michelle G.
Great review, J! You have convinced me to give it a try!
Totally off point, but I was obsessed with The Rescuers as a child. No princesses in that one! Ha! Ha!
Cinderella was just OK. I loved the scene where the mice sewed her dress.
Apparently I like mice! Cartoon mice.
J
When I was a kid we had a cat named Evenrude, because her purr was funny and sounded kind of like that dragonfly in The Rescuers! That was a great movie. Honestly, I loved the Disney movies that were animal based growing up. The Rescuers, Lady and the Tramp, The Aristocats…all so good.
Nicole MacPherson
Lol on the Disney thing. Parenting, am I right? You think you’re doing the right thing and it backfires.
I liked Lady Tremaine but I like fairy tales generally. Not the Disney ones, really, but during the pandemic I got super into the OG fairy tales, like Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. And let me tell you, they are DARK. Omg. Some of them are pretty wild. I also read a book called Unraveling and it talked about how women used to tell each other fairy tales while they were doing dull things like spinning wool into yarn, and they would compete to be more and more bawdy/ graphic. In fact, Snow White’s dead corpse was not kissed to come back to life – it was fucked. Necrophilia! Good times. Anyway, I think there are a lot of interesting things that come out of fairy tales – The Little Match Girl is a good description of Victorian England and how difficult it was for poor children.
ALL OF WHICH is a long winded way to say I like fairy tale reimaginings! And I did enjoy this.
J
LOL about sleeping beauty, WHAT? I mean, that WOULD wake you up.
Little Match Girl is the most heartbreaking story I can think of. Uncaring people. Reminds me of a line in A Little Princess, where people gaze at Sara with joy, because she is a happy, well cared for, well dressed little girl. Paupers and starving children were basically invisible because they were so common.
nance
I’m probably not going to read this; I generally get irritated by books that are “inspired by” or a “retelling of” other stories/books.
Agree agree agree with you about Princess Culture as promoted by Disney. It’s one reason why I was so glad to have had boys. About every little girl I know is obsessed with Disney Princesses; it’s an incredibly influential and insidious ethos. Granted, I haven’t watched any Disney movies since the boys aged out (I think Beauty and the Beast was the last one), so the newer generation of Disney Princesses may be less…odious. And I just don’t get the Disney Adults. They creep me out.
J
I think Ariel and Belle were the beginning of the less odious ‘princesses’, but yeah, the whole thing is a LOT. Boys don’t seem to get as enraptured by the prince side of things, probably because the princes are generally idiots.
PocoBrat
I just started this today!!
J
I hope you love it! It was a lot better than I expected.
Diane
I read this too and was sucked in. I really liked the Cinderella spin, though I feel like the last third of the book was some kind of action adventure thriller that I wasn’t expecting.
J
Agreed! Not what I expected! I didn’t need the Cindarella spin, I felt like I would like it anyway without knowing it was Cindarella.