I Can’t Wait For…We Kept Her In the Cellar by W. R. Gorman

Posted 17th July 2024 by Sia in Can't-Wait Wednesday / 0 Comments

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is We Kept Her In the Cellar by W. R. Gorman!

We Kept Her in the Cellar by W.R. Gorman
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads

There are always two sides to a story. This dark and twisted reimagining of Cinderella, told from her stepsister's POV, is perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Naomi Novik.

Eunice lives her life by three simple rules: One, always refer to Cinderella as family. Two, never let Cinderella gain access to rats or mice. Three, never look upon Cinderella between the hours of twelve and three a.m.

Cinderella has dark and terrifying powers. As her stepsister, Eunice is expected to care for her and keep the family’s secret. For years, Eunice has faithfully done so. Her childhood flew by in a blur of nightmares, tears, and near-misses with the monster living in the cellar. But when she befriends the handsome Prince Credence and secures an invitation to the ball, Eunice is determined to break free.

When her younger sister, Hortense, steps up to care for Cinderella, Eunice grabs her chance to dance the night away—until Cinderella escapes. With her eldritch powers, Cinderella attends the ball and sweeps Prince Credence off his feet, leaving behind a trail of carnage and destruction as well as a single green glass slipper.

With Cinderella unleashed, Eunice must determine how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice in order to stop Cinderella. Unsettling and macabre at every turn, this page-turning horror will bewitch horror fans and leave its readers anxiously checking the locks on their cellar doors.

I don’t usually have much interest in fairytale retellings anymore – I was wild for them for a while as a teenager, but I’m meh about them now.

BUT IF YOU’RE OFFERING ME ELDRITCH!CINDERELLA??? HELLS YES I’M POUNCING ON THAT!!!

The idea of Cinderalla as a horror story is just massively intriguing. I mean, the Grimm version is pretty grim, with the punishment of the stepsisters and stepmother, and the cutting off of heels, etc. But Cinderella herself as a monster??? That…is going to be a pretty drastic change. Functionally an entirely new story, really? I would think?

(Actually, now that makes me want to know, where IS the line between a retelling and a completely new story? Because I can’t be the only one who has read ‘retellings’ that are so wildly different from the original that you wouldn’t know it was a retelling at all if they just changed the character names. ???)

How did Cinderella end up some kind of eldritch monster, anyway? Has she been like that from birth? Is it something to do with her mother’s/fairy godmother’s blessing? How did she get the name Cinderella in this version – maybe from starting fires, rather than cleaning up fireplaces? And why has the stepmother not DONE SOMETHING about the monster in the basement??? Is there no exorcism or anything available? Is Cinderella unkillable? What does the stepmother expect her daughters to do, ‘take care’ of Cinderella until they die? And if that’s the case, what happens when they do, eventually, age out of reality and die? If Cinderella is some kind of immortal, she’ll end up free eventually, won’t she?

Or is this more a case of, it’s somehow shameful to admit to having a monster in the family? And that’s why they can’t seek out any help in dealing with her? That does bring us back to, HOW did she become a monster, and is it any kind of fixable???

I kind of want to laugh at the idea of some eldritch monster creature losing a glass slipper, but okay. It would be interesting to see the slippers presented as freaky objects rather than beautiful ones, for once – because really, who would risk wearing (and dancing in) GLASS shoes? They’d rip your feet to pieces if they broke!

I don’t know, I’m just really curious about this premise, and hopeful that monster!Cinderella will be cool and that the story’s internal logic will make sense. I REALLY want to see the fairytale princess as unrepentantly evil for once!

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