Before picking up Just Ella I heard it was praised as a feminist retelling of Cinderella that was a more grounded and realistic take on the tale. I did not find it to be feminist as (although the line itself is never spoken in the book) Ella has the attitude that she is not like other woman and is very much the exception rather than the rule. This retelling also removes all the magic from the fairy tale (the carriage, fairy godmother etc.,) but it keeps other equally unbelievable elements.
Some of the elements I found unbelievable was the world building. They live in a fictional kingdom, but they speak languages like French, Latin, Greek, which would imply that they lived in our real world. Their religion is literally just Christianity with a different name. So this story is fantasy because it is most certainly not historical fiction. I have nothing against fantasy stories with little to no magic, but I don’t really like it when the magic is removed and the setting is said to be more realistic and/or historical because of it.
The noble women only sit and do needlework all day which Ella scoffs at. Except noble women in medieval Europe had many responsibilities, one of the most significant being running the finances of the estate. Other un-official duties of noble women included hosting and receiving guests (who may or may not be foreign diplomats) and planning events such as parades, tourneys, etc. The Queen is never shown to partake in these activities nor does she try to teach these to Ella which if this was a more “realistic” setting she would most certainly be doing. I was also confused why sewing was treated as being so useless because in pre-industrial times, sewing was an essential task because people kind of needed to wear clothes for warmth and protection.
Ella constantly berates he lady’s-in-waiting for being stupid and most of the humor stems from just how air-headed all the other ladies at court are. Actually pretty much everyone, but Ella and her love interest are so incredibly stupid its infuriating. There is a lot of conflict between Ella and these rich boneheads, but there is not really any tension from these conflicts because the courtiers are so wrong there is no possible way Ella could get them to listen to her, and because they are so wrong it also doesn’t make Ella seem all that clever herself. I don’t need to be exceptionally smart to tell someone not to drink gasoline. Ella is not that level-headed to think spilling a few drops of soup on a table cloth is nothing to lose one’s head over.
There is also this one incident that probably bothered me way more than it should have. Ella is attending a tourney with her ladies and she is excited to finally have a break from all the gossiping and sewing. However as soon as they arrive outside the ladies sit in a pavilion that is closed shut and Ella is understandably angered by this because she came to watch a tourney and now they are shut inside a tent and cannot see anything. Ella is told that the curtains are drawn because women are forbidden from watching tourneys as they are to delicate for such action. Women regularly attended tourneys throughout history.
Ella snaps at this and during her rant over this matter, she asks her ladies-in-waiting what they are waiting for. A lady-in-waiting tells Ella that they wait for the men to get home. This irked me because a lady-in-waiting at least historically was more like a retainer and a secretary to a noble woman who she waited on. Hence the name.
Now without magic, how did Ella get to the ball? Throughout this story other characters discuss rumors that Ella received help from a fairy-godmother, but Ella makes it clear this was not the case. Towards the end of the story she explains how she gathered everything she needed for the ball. She, a peasant who is little more than a servant to her step-family, got them herself, the dress, the carriage, and even the glass slippers which she won from a bet she made with the glass blower. I don’t really mind this per se, but when she is explaining this to her love-interest, the only other character in this book who has at least two working brain cells, comments. “People would rather believe in fairy godmothers and divine intervention than to think that you took charge of your own destiny.” I might be reading way too much into this, but I felt this line was meant as a “take that” towards the original story and people who like fairy godmothers and magic.
This story assumes that Cinderella in the fairytale is a passive character who gets lucky, and this is true that she is lucky, but I wouldn’t say she is passive. In most versions of the story and the Disney movie, Cinderella tries her hardest to be allowed to attend the ball and in many versions completes impossible tasks that her step-mother sets up for her only for everything to go wrong. In most stories she receives assistance whether through a fairy godmother or in most cases the spirit of her late mother, but this doesn’t just happen.
Ella is written as an antithesis to what readers expect a Cinderella character to be by being far more active. However, she isn’t any more active than other characters, she just doesn’t have things go wrong for her just before the ball.
I pushed through this book because, due to the praise it received for being a feminist retelling, I expected that Ella would have to check her internalized misogyny at the end, but she does not. Ella begins and ends this book believing she is “not like other girls”.
Do I recommend this book? Not really. It feels like a parody that, in some ways, disrespects people who enjoy fairytales and magic. More affectionate parodies/reconstructions of Cinderella that gives the original Cinderella credit where credit is due is My Fair Godmother by Janet Rallison and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
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