After Midnight

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Description

The Queen who’d once swept up the cinders is exiled to a distant wing of the palace, replaced by a younger, prettier girl who can bear her King an heir. Unwilling to accept the rapid deterioration of her power and desperately clinging to fraying strands of sanity, the exiled Queen journals the choices that led to her sorry state… and those she must make in order to reclaim her rightful place in the kingdom.

But there’s more than one prisoner in the castle, and the conspiracy that draws tight around Queen and rival involves graver threats than a return to poverty.

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Summary

One of my recent reads was After Modnight (Never Afters #3), from the series of reimagined fairy tales by Australian author Kirstyn McDermott.

Review

After Midnight is another reason to read these Never After series of chapbooks. There is the innovative reimagining of where classic fairy tale heroines end up after the fairy tale endings we all know. In After Midnight, McDermott uses an epistolary stylistic storytelling to deliver the tale of Cinderella as a fading queen. Although perhaps not as strongly developed as some of the others novellas in this series, After Midnight is a dark, foreboding tale where the unreliable narrator offers glimpses of what might be truth, or what might be Cinderella’s understanding of affairs around her in a complex web of intrigue, deception and the inevitable fading of beauty in this classic fairy tale of a prince who chose his future-queen after just a single brief meeting.

Conclusion

Recommended for any fans of dark fantasy and fairy tale retellings. In the short novella style, these are wonderfully crafted, diverse and perfect quick reads.

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***This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **