Friday, September 28, 2012

Review Day: The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back!

It's review day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Author: Sariah Wilson
My Rating: 5 stars (I wish I could give it more!)


Book description: 
Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust.

But what happens when you’re the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect—read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice—stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you’ve had a thing for since you were nine years old?

Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie’s secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston.

Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She’ll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake. 

Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie’s going to rule the school.

And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her.



My review:


I absolutely love this novel!  The entire story was a modern day twist on the Cinderella story and it worked so perfectly.  Usually when a classic story is modernized or changed, it looses too much of the original story's feelings - but not this one!  Sariah Wilson did a fantastic job!  She gave you the "ugly stepsister" side of the story, the not-so-ugly stepsister side, the father's side, and so much more.  The characters were flawless.  I felt like I knew each one of them and felt what they felt.

Sariah took the typical Cinderella story, re-vamped it and made it even better.  She added humor, popular *teen* topics (Justin Beiber, Facebook, John Hughes...), a deeper *true-love* romance, and everyday teen concerns (clothing, bullying, music, social status...) all without losing the overarching Cinderella story.  There were so many similarities between the classic Cinderella story and this novel without overdoing it too.  I loved the mix!


**Spoiler alert!!  Read at your own discretion. **


Ella - the perfect cheerleader, the "hot girl", the girl every single adult and person loves and wants to be.  Mattie - the quirky, unique, Manga loving, art fanatic who just wanted to be noticed in a sea of "everyone just blends in", always being compared to her stepsister.  Mattie decides to run for class president to get closer to her long-time crush Jake, who just happens to be her sister Ella's boyfriend.  Mattie and Ella are stepsisters being raised by Mattie's biological Dad.  The two girls are the same age, making life even more complicated for Mattie.  She wants to be herself, but also wants to be like Ella.  When Mattie and Jake get assigned as partners for a class project, they are forced to work together.  The question is...will Jake like Mattie for who she really is?

Sariah Wilson writes like the best of/most popular YA teen fiction/teen romance authors - Sarah Dessen, Jennifer Echols, Susanne Collins, Cassandra Clare.  She sucks you in and never lets you go.  I finished the ~194 novel in one night because I just couldn't go to sleep without knowing the ending!  I hope that Sariah comes out with more novels, I know I'll be re-reading this one all the time!  She's extremely talented and needs to be talked about.  I highly recommend The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back! to anyone (over the age of 12) who wants a YA novel that's a real modern-day fairy tale.  


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If you get a copy, let me know!  I love talking to other people about books.  Happy Reading!

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