Cinder House by Freya Marske

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Tor and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Ella is a haunting.

Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.

Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.

Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.

You think you know Ella's the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.

You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.

My Opinion

At less than 150 pages, this was a quick and fun read. An interesting Cinderella retelling. Freya Marske has packed plenty into this lovely novella.

Rating 4/5

Cinder House does exactly what it says on the tin: gives us a lush gothic retelling of the classic Cinderella story wrought with longing and want. Cinder House's melancholic tone combined with Marske's prose creates a haunting story of an invisible girl and the sacrifices given to feel seen.
By twisting the classic fairy tale elements Marske manages to create a story that pays worthy homage to the original, whilst still being uniquely its own. In a world full of tricksy fae bargains instead of fairy godmothers, Cinder House is a well-crafted gothic novella where house and haunting merge to create a character-driven story full of hidden desire.

One thing about me, I love Cinderella and I love a Gothic queer retelling and this one delivered BOTH.

I absolutely adore Freya Marske’s writing, and this novella, a retelling of the Cinderella story, is no exception.
Ella is a ghost at the start if the story. Her stepmother has inherited the house where she died but Ella is tied to the house and still expected to skivvy for her and her stepsisters, or they damage the house, causing her pain. Slowly, and by making friends with a fairy, Ella gains some autonomy and eventually makes it to the ball, meeting the prince, and his powerful intended queen.
Marske writes about what it is to be trapped, likening this to her own experience of chronic illness. I can see how this metaphor makes sense. Ella is a wonderful character, determined to escape her destiny and the shackles of servitude to her stepmother, but she also, really wants to have all the bodily experiences she’s missed by dying as a teenage, and Marske really brings this to life, through the wonder of the ball - not only through a sexual awakening but in her joy at the food. Ella is a Cinders for the modern age.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

This is my first book of Freya Markse that I've read and I'm pleased to say, I really enjoyed the writing style. I usually struggle to get into novellas and connect with the characters but Freya did an excellent job is this unique retelling of Cinderella. The story follows Ella who is now a ghost magically bound to the house, her step mother and sisters who are as evil as ever, and of course the prince who may or may not have his own magical problems. The magic elements and world building were interesting with plenty of twists and turns on the original story to keep it fresh and interesting. The tale took a few dark turns at times which were very unexpected but welcome. If you are looking to try out this author then this is an excellent book to get a taste.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for this eARC to review.

Cinder House is not your typical fairy tale retelling. It’s a beautifully haunted remix of Cinderella, wrapped in velvet shadows and lit with flickers of hope.

Freya Marske delivers a novella that feels like poetry and magic dancing together. Ella isn’t just a ghost—she’s a furious, aching presence bound to her family’s home, visible only to those who mistreated her in life. As she negotiates with a fairy charm-seller and earns fleeting glimpses of freedom, we witness a yearning so vivid, it practically glows on the page.

The Gothic atmosphere is irresistible: crumbling staircases, midnight bargains, and the soft blur between love and longing. The romance is tender and unexpected, and Marske’s lyrical prose gives even the quietest moments a shimmer of enchantment.

Fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher will sink effortlessly into this tale—but Cinder House stands completely on its own, breathing fresh life into well-worn archetypes. It’s wistful, warm, and just a little wicked.

A spell to read with candlelight and cocoa.

With thanks to Freya Marske, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

I'm a huge Freya Marske fan & I love retelling, so when I heard she'd done a version of Cinderella, I knew I had to read it.

This isn't a long book & I normally struggle to connect with characters when faced with this. However, with this one, it wasn't a problem. This could be due to the fact that we've grown up knowing this story, but Marske's version is unique with a clever twist on the tale. Ella is a great character & I'd love to see more from some of the characters around her in the future.

A quick & punchy tale, playing with the familiar & adding some twists.

This is my first read of something by Freya Marske, and I immediately went to reserve A Marvellous Light at my local library because her writing style is so captivating, I need more of it.
This was such a unique retelling of Cinderella and I loved the elements of magic and the general concept of what it is to be human. When Ella's house hurt, so did I, and it's no small feat to manage this sort of response in a reader from such a small novella.

It did feel like the last act of the novella could have been more fleshed out as things happened very quickly and the "twists" were quite rushed and maybe didn't get the love that they deserved, including the queer relationships. But overall, this was a beautiful story and one I will definitely reread.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm always wary of a novella because it often doesn't give me enough bite to truly enough the story. But, I also pretty much love Freya Marske's writing, so I decided I had to read this.

I don't regret a thing. This was a lovely retelling of Cinderella. So often retellings map so closely to the original story that I'm left bored, because I know how this is going to play out. There might be a few wiggles along the way, but the bones, the dramas, the resolutions are there.

I can honestly say I had no idea how this book was going to turn out. The story was the same but some how.... it was entirely new. Pieces of the original tale were woven throughout but still there, still good.

A delightful read.

This retelling of Cinderella is really original, inventive and bittersweet. Ella is a ghost who has become sort of one with the house that she was murdered in. I felt so angry for Ella, as her situation was just so unfair. The main beats of the classic Cinderella story were there, but how they were all linked together within the paranormal interpretation was really fun and interesting.

At 144 pages, this was novella length and easily binged in one go, but it did a lot within the short page count. I personally would have loved this as a full-length novel to get even more time with the characters. But what was here was perfectly paced, and made me feel for the characters.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from Pan Macmillan and NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.

It's pretty much a given that I'll try out anything that Freya Marske writes. Now normally Cinderella isn't a story I'm particularly drawn to but, like I said, I know Freya could write something magical that I would enjoy. And I did! Freya is always great at invoking a sense of place and I love the way she builds houses into her magic systems. This one is a short one and 144 pages, but I still felt that it became very established and I would love to read more set in this world. I will say I was thinking we would get something slightly different from the ending however I understand why we didn't especially given the context in the authors note at the end. Overall magical and intriguing. I you've enjoyed the other books from this author I would certainly give this a go.

I genuinely adored Marske’s previous book, The Marvellous Light, and I’m so pleased she’s absolutely nailed it once again with Cinder House!

I foolishly didn’t even realise until I started reading that it was a novella - I’m pretty inexperienced with this format, so I was a little nervous that it would be rushed, but the story is actually incredibly well developed for being only around 150 pages long.

The beginning was a little bit of a cold open, so it took me a while to really understand how this universe was being set up, but it quickly got going - and oh my goodness, as soon as those fairytale elements started happening, I was just engulfed in this whimsical, charming story. I’m such a sucker for any kind of fairytale retelling, and this novella really succeeded in providing that for more of a grown-up audience than I’ve previously seen, which I really appreciate.

Ella, our protagonist, goes through such emotional and personal growth; her personality was one of my favourite things about the story! The other characters felt grounded and real, too, and Jule’s story tugged on my heartstrings even though we only met him about halfway through. I will admit, though, that I would have liked to see a bit more third-act development from Nadya, as her character was left feeling the most mysterious to me.

I wish that the last few scenes had been a little more developed, as the ending felt somewhat rushed after the final conflict, but I understand why it had to be that way to stay within the novella word limit.

Overall, I really enjoyed the afternoon I spent devouring this book and really recommend it for those who enjoy fairytale retellings, queer and disability rep, strong character development, and whimsical fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A wonderfully inventive and new take on the Cinderella story.

This short but deeply satisfying tale is both a romantic fairy tale, a ghost tale and something in between. Following the afterlife of Ella who is bound to the house she was murdered in, her ghost is forced to obey the commands of those who own the house - which just so happens to be the people who murdered her. Through a series of events, she is able to regain 'human' form for three nights only - three balls where she meets a Prince and Princess.

The stepmother and stepsister characters ran the gauntlet of unpleasant villains, from the weak one lashing out at anyone weaker than her, to someone who was cold and pragmatic, who would do whatever it took, no matter how evil. And then there was the truly evil one, who took pleasure in causing pain and was probably the stand out character of the book purely for how monstrous she was.

If anything, one issue is that it is too short. There is a world beyond the house, the market and the palace, but we are only given hints of that, of the politics that shift, of the magic and the fair folk who had been banned from one country but allowed in this one. I wanted to know more about the world, I wanted to know why the curse had happened, what had happened, what would happen. How did magic work in this world? There were hints, but not enough.

Not to mention there was very little resolution. Certain people got away with certain actions and everyone seemed to shrug and be fine with it?

My main issue with it, is the poly representation. This is labelled queer and yet it is only in the last handful of pages that we really see that. The 'twist' when we learn certain identities and thus realign what we thought we knew of relationships between the main characters helps but it still doesn't make the relationship real, there was no hint of that beforehand. Again, however, a lot of that can be blamed on the shortness of the story. If it had more pages, more time could have been devoted to the relationship, to the growth that is needed to make it more believable. I yearned for a happy ending for these characters but I can't say I believed it, because we were given so little to work with.

I really enjoyed my time with the book though, I read it in one sitting and enjoyed every moment, unable to put it down.