Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Stepsister

By: Jennifer Donnelly
Narrated by: Helen Duff
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £23.99

Buy Now for £23.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A stunning and shocking retelling of the Cinderella fairytale from a Carnegie Medal novelist

In an ancient city by the sea, three sisters - a maiden, a mother, and a crone - are drawing maps by candlelight. Sombre, with piercing grey eyes, they are the three Fates, and every map is a human life....

Stepsister takes up where Cinderella's tale ends. We meet Isabelle, the younger of Cinderella's two stepsisters. Ella is considered beautiful; stepsister Isabelle is not. Isabelle is fearless, brave, and strong-willed. She fences better than any boy, and takes her stallion over jumps that grown men fear to attempt. It doesn't matter, though; these qualities are not valued in a girl. Others have determined what is beautiful, and Isabelle does not fit their definition. Isabelle must face down the demons that drove her cruel treatment of Ella, challenge her own fate and maybe even redefine the very notion of beauty.

Cinderella is about a girl who was bullied; Stepsister is about the bully. We all root for the victims, we want to see them triumph. But what about the bullies? Is there hope for them? Can a mean girl change? Can she find her own happily ever after?

In Autumn 2020, Jennifer Donnelly will be giving another classic fairy tale, Snow White, a feminist makeover in her new book Poisoned.

©2019 Jennifer Donnelly (P)2019 Bonnier Books UK
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Go the Distance cover art
These Shallow Graves cover art
The Beast That Never Was cover art
The Dead Men cover art
The Mermaid cover art
Six of Crows cover art
Princess of the Midnight Ball cover art
All That She Can See cover art
A Free Man of Color cover art
Fortune's Fool cover art
The Fair Queen cover art
Virgins cover art
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
The Singing Trees cover art
Anastasia cover art
Demon in the Wood cover art

What listeners say about Stepsister

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

A new twist on an old classic. The story of Cinderella's stepsister. Enjoyed the twist a lot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly Recommended

Loved this. The narrator was amazing and the story was brilliant, overall a great listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

absolutely brilliant

I hope this ushers in a new wave of more understanding and stronger girls hooked on classic stories from disney. I love this story underneath the one known so well

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very well written

background stories and character development, story telling style, vocabulary, excellent narrator, colourful descriptions, relatable characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A New take on a Classic Fairytale

I enjoyed listening to this story on Audible. The narration was good and easy going. I loved the "how it all began" with all it's gritty details story, as opposed to the "and it was all Happy Ever After" ending.
I found the build up and back story to the step sisters really interesting and gave me clarity to the Cinderella classic. If anything it left me feeling sorry for the stepsisters and having a clearer understanding of them. I still disliked the stepmother intensely. After hearing this it has made me want to hear other "Altered Tales" by this Author..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING

Really really really really really really really really really really really amazing and it just blew me away with every single asset ❤️

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intense beginning, but very satisfying story!

The beginning is... Intense!
Shouldn't have started this book at 10pm on a school night 🙈
But other than that I really liked the book.
For me it felt like an extension of the original tale.
It didn't rewrite the parts of the story we already know from the tale, but it took those as given and filled it the gaps left in between and at the end.
My only really negative comment is: it could havr been shorter.
At times it felz very long and I was dhocked to ser I still had 7h of audio book left.
But other people probably feel different about this.
So only question I have now is: what happened to the "sweaty dead dog"?
Was it really a failed experiment? Or does it turn out be delicious cheese afterall?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Strongly recommend!

Easy to understand the narrator and they make it very engaging. Super interesting to hear what happened to Cinderella stepfamily after she is gone, after Cinderellas got her happy ending.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful