The Charmed Wife

What happens after a happy ending?

Cinderella’s married life in the palace seems like an endless loop of idle eating and dancing, her husband never present or invariably distant, her children her only joy she may soon lose.
The tone of the book is an odd, in all the positive ways, combination of fairy tale and a realistic narrative voice of an unhappily married woman, fuelled by her misery and the newfound decisiveness to end it.

It is both sad and refreshing to witness the well-known version of Cinderella reimagined as a miserable woman in her mid-thirties, struggling to make sense of her bleak happily ever after. I applaud the author’s vision and her take on other familiar characters. No one, not the Prince, not the evil stepsisters, not even the Fairy Godmother are what we’re used to.

The occasional cuttings to Cinderella’s mice’s personal lives feel like fun interludes but somewhat unnecessary, nonetheless, overall, the structure of the novel is skilfully accomplished. We begin with a brief overview of the story we already know and then dive right into The Charmed Wife’s narrative, with appropriately timed and placed flashbacks, each told in a fairy tale manner and welcoming some more unexpected yet familiar faces. My personal favourite is the Witch, who, as many others, is not at all what you would expect.

Sometimes, it is hard to tell what is real or not, just as Cinderella struggles to tell reality from her fantasy. Here our world and fairy tale are transposed on one another to show that magic cannot solve everything, true love is not the same as lust or infatuation, and making excuses for others is a futile endeavour that nourishes hate, and “hate traps you as much as love does.”

The novel touches on the subject (which has been bothering me for quite some time) of the Prince having the whole kingdom trying on the glass slipper until finding the girl it would fit, essentially, any girl with the appropriate shoe size. “Would he have even known the difference?” Cinderella ponders. At some point, she begins to acknowledge the power of choice and what true love really feels like, which is far from feeling like “some misplaced piece of luggage” that needed retrieving with a glass slipper acting as a luggage tag.

The novel challenges the outdated conviction that goes in line with the “middle-aged certainties” of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, that marrying rich is every woman’s ultimate goal. Of course, true love does exist. But it is not shallow, it is not just about the looks, interminable gifts, and possessions, but something much deeper that would never take away your dignity. There are many “beautiful beginnings”, but not all make for a beautiful ending.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets Once Upon a Time with a darker twist, the novel is tragic, funny, and refreshingly unexpected. You will not be disappointed.

An incredible fantasy depicting what actually happens post the happy-ever-after. A fairytale like no other!

I have just finished this book and I am feeling a little stunned if I am honest! I love a twist on an original fairytale so the premise of 13.5 years later really intrigued me.

Once I started I found the story a little slow going but once the author started to explore the marriage history from the eyes of Cinderella I was fascinated and couldn't put the book down.

I really loved the parallels with our modern world and the twist towards the end where fairytale and real life meet. I especially enjoyed how the author explored how hopes and dreams can swiftly become nightmares!

There were sone wonderful nods to other fairy stories and also how some of those turned out in later years too.

I thoroughly recommend this story to all die-hard fairytale fans I think its the little dose of reality we all sometimes need!

What an unexpected treat this was. I was expecting something dark and whimsical, and there was definitely both darkness and whimsy here, but there was also anger, feminism and subversion of what happy ever after actually means, adding up to a clever, inventive modern fairytale.

The Charmed Wife begins long after Cinderella and the Handsome Prince have begun their happy ever after. Our heroine lives a life of balls and tea parties, of enchanted mice and gorgeous gowns. She has two children and the perfect husband. At least, that's what she tells herself, that's what everyone says. So what if she hardly ever sees him, if every day blurs into the next, if life is one blurry, bland pink bubble? And yet, here she is, standing at a crossroads at midnight, asking a witch to murder her husband. What brought her to this moment? And what happens next?

Hold on tight and forget everything you think you know about fairytales as Grushin sweeps us off on an adventure unlike anything you've read before. At times grimmer than Grimm, with deft humour and some excellent storytelling, The Charmed Wife recasts traditional fairytales for the modern day. A thoughtful, original retelling. Highly recommended.

The Charmed Wife is perfect for adult fans of fairytales as it explores life after the happily ever after. Thirteen and a half years later plus two children, and things aren't all that they were cracked up to be. The story finds Cinderella meeting up with the witch in hopes of ending his life as opposed to the love potions most disgruntles housewives go to the witch for. This is definitely a darker twist on the retelling, but it is done in such a fun and lighthearted way. There is a nice layer of humour throughout. We get to revisit other familiar characters such as the mice, fairy godmother, etc. The writing is excellent. I truly cannot recommend The Charmed Wife enough to fans of Cinderella or fairytale retellings in general. Highly recommended!

This book slid off in a completely different direction to what I was expecting, and I loved it anyway (maybe even more?). I went in thinking it would be a subversive fairytale retelling - I got that and a lot more.

There are so many layers to this book. Stories within stories within stories. The central character is 'Cinderella', but we also have minor threads that her own storyline grazes, crosses or tangles up with in this great big tapestry of the Fairytale World. Bluebeard and Sleeping Beauty are just two that come to mind. There are so many overlapping stories that it's almost dizzying - which perfectly matches the strange, dream-like state of wandering into a forest and bumping into folktale after folktale making up this fairytale web.

The transition from the fairytale universe to modern day New York City was utterly seamless and downright sneaky! I'm still in shock at how it was done and so impressed. Especially when an important fact comes up near the end, relating to Cinderella's childhood.

I absolutely loved how self-aware and subversive this was, especially when you look back at bits of Cinderella's fairytale life from the lens of her present-day hindsight in NYC. Cinderella is a very unreliable narrator so PREPARE TO BE CONFUSED - YET ALSO MARVEL at how Grushin's almost indecently long sentences (like seriously, a LOT of commas) evoke precisely the sense of confusion, tension and simmering discomfort and anxiety felt by Cinderella herself. A woman overwhelmed by the reality of her unhappy marriage and a music box of a world.

This is more of a character-driven book with a lot of flashbacks and introspection. Speaking of flashbacks, I think at least half of the exposition is actually in the way of Cinderella recalling her past leading up to the knife's edge moment where she deliberates killing Prince Roland (her husband). Character-wise, I liked that no one felt 2D good or evil - everyone was nuanced, including the far-from-innocent Cinderella and the husband she's demonised in her head. The plot was certainly still interesting - especially when reading the side-fairytales - but if we're talking plot, it's the parallel story of Cinderella's mice that really shines. It was highly entertaining and surprisingly diverse (sapphic mice of the world, unite!), as well as being a clever way of adding extra depth and context to the world-building. It was especially effective when we started slipping into the modern world/era.

All in all, a surprising and thought-provoking (and somewhat mind-bending) read that I'd recommend for fans of fairytales and folklore! A word of caution to younger readers though, as it does occasionally get somewhat graphic in relation to sex and violence.

This book is wonderful, but it's tricky to review because I think it's much better if you go into it not really knowing what to expect, so I don't want to give any of the plot away.

What I can safely say without spoiling anything, is that I loved the mice, with their intricate histories and adventures. I also loved how unpredictable the plot was (no easy feat when you're retelling fairytales!)

It's a very clever story with some brilliant characterisation, fantastic side-plots and epic histories. I will be recommending The Charmed Wife all year.

This book delivered to my expectations (which were very high!) I have read quite a few Cinderella retellings in 2020 so The Charmed Wife felt like the natural progression!

An amusing book but also such a nice female power novel. Thank you for letting me read and review this book I hope we get more like this soon!