Rating: 
Summary: Good Effort
Review: I applaud Maguire's yarns that seek to lend a historical edge to popular fairy tales, and after "Wicked," I was anxious to read his follow-up. Sadly, "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" just doesn't have the spark that "Wicked" did. The tale is told by Iris, one of Cinderella's stepsisters. It's not that Iris isn't likable, but for the first 60 pages of the novel, you're reading about Iris, her family, her dreams, and none of it actually inspires you to care about the character. Eventually, you do root for Iris and a happy ending for her, but by then, you've lost all interest in the other characters and the plot.Cinderella is painted as a beautiful, if emotionally bankrupt, girl. She finds her prince. So what? This is nothing new, and the retelling of it really spoils the fairy tale, whereas "Wicked" enhanced it. This is a good effort, but too long and the characters have seemingly no depth. The prose is languid and flowery, and the setting of a small Dutch town intriguing, but it just does not live up to its predecessor.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacked Pizazz
Review: Cinderella has always been my favorite fairy tale, which is why I was so looking forward to a new twist on it. However, while this book had some clever ideas the writing was less than thrilling and many of the themes needed more explanation. I did not really care about the characters and felt they needed more depth.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it.
Review: Of all the different versions of the Cinderella story, this one is at the top of my list. It's more of an adult fairy tale, where it fills in the holes that you may not have noticed as a kid. Such as "Why were the step-sisters so mean to her?" and takes into the account where humans can embellish a story to make someone sound like they were wronged while everyone else was out to get her. The plotting, the encouragement, the insults, all this and more that were portrayed in the story were developed.
In Fact, it wasn't necessarily the story itself, but the epilogue in the end that really captured me. Being called ugly by your own mother is never rewarding and Ruth proves this to us.
Rating: 
Summary: Love this book!!
Review: Gregory Maguire is a master storyteller! I love the way he reinterprets these stories. I like the dark edges that he puts in his books, because fairy tales were much more violent and dark before they were rewritten.
Rating:
Summary: It was okay....
Review: I really didn't find this book to be all that good. It was hard to read and follow and most of the time I was wishing the author would just get to the point and quit rambling. The concept was good (not quite like the Cinderella story we all know and love) but the author could have moved things along at a quicker pace. Would I recommend it? Like I tell everyone: you're your own critic.
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Summary: A Wonderful Tale
Review: Every now and then, you stumble upon a book that catches your mind and spellbinds you for days after the book is closed. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is like that. Every person in the book could almost be your next door neighbor. Maguire has drawn in words with a talent not often seen.
After reading it myself, I begged my mother to read it. Often, she will read a book I recommend but it's more for me than for her. However, this time she has become so entranced that during any free moment she will pick it up.
I really recommend this book. It is very clean (though not suitable to children or many young teens - highschoolers would be fine - due to heavy material). For those of you whom this offends, I will warn you there are a few curse words here and there, but they are not many nor too bad. Other than that, this is a great, clean book to read. There's a lot to learn from it about yourself, people around you, and just society in general. Kara
Rating:
Summary: Ugly is beautiful, beautiful is ugly and nothing is as it
Review: Reviewer: Joy Marie from United States
seems in this re-iteration of the story of CINDERELLA in a most unigue, fasinating, and historically revealing myth of wonder and awe.
The ever-scheming step-mother, Margarethe; the plain but intelligent and talented younger daughter, Iris; the lumpkin of an older daughter, Ruth, simple and dependant on all for her needs...they all escape from an angry mob in England on the death of the father, and come to seventeenth-century Holland. Here they must beg for their food and lodging, and with Margarethe's greed leading the way, finally make their way into the affluent household of the van den Meers after their first stay with the Master, a talented painter looking for acclaim. Enter Clara, our Cinderella , only child of the van der Meers. Believed to have been captured at a young age and made into a changeling, Clara lives a life of solitude as she is never allowed to pass through the gates again to the outside world. Clara's mother dies in the birthing of her second, but still -born child. Another opportunity not to pass up, the clever Margarethe soon becomes the wife of an den Meer, the mistress of the house, and step-mother to the now Cinderlass, Clara. What makes this fairy-tale based myth so very readable, interesting and absorbing, is its' ease of prose, its' absolutely believable characters, its' wonderful historical content, and its very clever pitting of good against evil, beauty against ugliness, strength against weakness, desire against duty, true art for arts' sake against survival, and love against hate. The author's use of the tongue-tripping vocabulary of the times is suberb. And yes,since it would not be the story of Cinderella without them, we have the Ball, the Prince and the Slipper, but in a way you would never have guessed. In this novel, you do not want to guess; you want to be surprised and astonished at every turn of the page. Maguire has succeeded in doing this and in every possible manner he deftly keeps you in touch with the emotions of each and every character. The ending is both typical and surprising and thus makes this gem of a novel into one you will you want to read and keep on your shelf and re-read again and again.
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Summary: So that's what REALLY happened...
Review: ..this is what I found myself thinking through most of the book. This book definitely puts an interesting twist on the childhood fairytale. Eventhough it had imaginary creatures like imps and changelings, the whole story was almost like reading an autobiography after reading the unauthorized version of a person's life. Great book, can't wait to start on "Wicked".
Rating:
Summary: A twisted and wonderful retelling of a childhood favorite
Review: I loved Cinderella when I was a little girl, and now as an adult, I love this book. If you liked Wicked (by the same author), you'll like this too as it's written in the same style. Very entertaining-great to take on vacation. Indulged my love of fairy tales.
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