Title: All the Ever Afters
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?
As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, a woman who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. But what unfolds is not the princess's history. The tale Agnes recounts is her own.
A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice at Aviceford Manor when she is just ten years old. Alone, friendless, and burdened with a grueling workload, Agnes carves a place for herself in this cold place that is home to Sir Emont Vis-de-Loup, a melancholic and capricious drunkard.
Using her wits and ingenuity, Agnes eventually escapes and makes her way toward a hopeful future, serving as a housemaid for the powerful Abbess Elfilda. But life once again holds unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking twists that lead Agnes back to Aviceford Manor, where she becomes nursemaid to Ella, Emont's sensitive, otherworldly daughter. Though she cares for Ella, Agnes struggles to love this child, who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, ultimately, the celebrated princess who embodies all our unattainable fantasies.
Familiar yet fresh, tender as well as bittersweet, the story of Agnes and Ella's relationship reveals that beauty is not always desirable, that love may take on many guises, and that freedom is not always something we can choose.
Danielle Teller's All the Ever Afters challenges our assumptions and forces us to reevaluate what we think we know. Exploring the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, this lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive novel shows us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound—and ultimately more precious—truth about our lives than the ideal of “happily ever after.”
As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, a woman who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. But what unfolds is not the princess's history. The tale Agnes recounts is her own.
A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice at Aviceford Manor when she is just ten years old. Alone, friendless, and burdened with a grueling workload, Agnes carves a place for herself in this cold place that is home to Sir Emont Vis-de-Loup, a melancholic and capricious drunkard.
Using her wits and ingenuity, Agnes eventually escapes and makes her way toward a hopeful future, serving as a housemaid for the powerful Abbess Elfilda. But life once again holds unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking twists that lead Agnes back to Aviceford Manor, where she becomes nursemaid to Ella, Emont's sensitive, otherworldly daughter. Though she cares for Ella, Agnes struggles to love this child, who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, ultimately, the celebrated princess who embodies all our unattainable fantasies.
Familiar yet fresh, tender as well as bittersweet, the story of Agnes and Ella's relationship reveals that beauty is not always desirable, that love may take on many guises, and that freedom is not always something we can choose.
Danielle Teller's All the Ever Afters challenges our assumptions and forces us to reevaluate what we think we know. Exploring the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, this lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive novel shows us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound—and ultimately more precious—truth about our lives than the ideal of “happily ever after.”
My musings:
One great thing about reading challenges is that they make
me pick up books I would normally never choose to read. Fairy tale retellings
are a genre I had never really considered liking, so I felt some measure of
trepidation when I picked up All the Ever Afters, even though it came highly
recommended. I need not have worried, because I found I really enjoyed it!
As the blurb states, All the Ever Afters by Danielle Teller
explores the story of Cinderella from her stepmother Agnes’ perspective. We
have all heard of the evil stepmother and the ugly stepsisters that made
Cinderella’s life such a misery, haven’t we? If not through books, then through
Disney’s movie version, which left little doubt as to who the villains were in
this story. So it may come as a surprise when I tell you that Teller’s book
will challenge all you have ever believed about this classic fairy tale. The
story starts when young Agnes, born into servitude, is being sent into service
as a laundry girl at the nearby manor house at just eleven years of age,
because her family simply can’t afford to keep her at home. My heart simply
broke for her as she was facing a loveless life full of backbreaking labour at
the mercy of the cruel laundress Elizabeth, who never misses an opportunity to belittle
and torture her young charge. But Agnes is clever and brave, and through sheer
wits and ingenuity, she manages to escape her fate to make a life for herself
that no other serf could have ever dreamed of.
Teller has done her homework well, and her account of Agnes’
life is full of fascinating detail of everyday life in the middle ages. What
stood out most for me was the lack of control the poor had over their fate,
being bound by the feudal system and ever at their manor lord’s mercy, counting
little more than the livestock in the lord’s paddocks. For women, this fate was
even worse, as the only escape from a life of servitude was usually marriage,
which was arranged for them. A good marriage required a dowry, so all Alice
could have hoped for was being betrothed to an equally poor man, bearing many
children they could not afford to feed and a life of hard and thankless labour
without even the simplest of creature comforts. For Alice to escape this life
was nothing short of a miracle, and I greatly admired her courage. I was also
fascinated by the details of the chores Alice was supposed to accomplish daily,
especially the grind of laundry work – never have I been more grateful for
laundry soap and my washing machine! I briefly worked in a laundry once as a
young backpacker, but it’s steamy, backbreaking work was nothing in comparison
to what Alice had to put up with.
Without giving too much away, Alice’s younger years form a
better part of the narrative, creating a three-dimensional picture of a
remarkably brave and clever young woman forging her own path in a world
controlled by the rich, the noble and the aristocracy. Alice’s life story was
fascinating, and I was totally spellbound. When, later in the book, Cinderella
comes into the picture, my ball was already firmly in Alice’s court, no matter
how this tale would play out. Teller has a few surprises in store to explain
some of the well-known details in the fairytale, and I really loved her
interpretation of events as seen through Alice’s eyes. Princess Elfilda, as is
Cinderella’s official name, draws a few parallels to modern-day aristocracy,
which was very cleverly done. However, I was a lot less invested in Ella’s
story as in Alice’s, which is perhaps why the later part of the book lost a bit
of steam for me.
Summary:
With its historical context and a main character who will challenge her place in society through birth and gender, All the Ever Afters will appeal to lovers of historical fiction, especially if you enjoy books set in the middle ages. Teller’s attention to detail and rich descriptions of everyday life at the time made for fascinating reading, but will perhaps disappoint readers looking for a happily-ever-after fairy tale or the type of rose-tinted mystical elements of the Disney version. I really appreciated the down-to-earth realism with which Teller explores this old classic, and highly recommend it to readers who have loved books like The Last Hours by Minette Walters or The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
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