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  • All the Ever Afters

  • The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother
  • Written by: Danielle Teller
  • Narrated by: Jane Copland
  • Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (38 ratings)

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All the Ever Afters

Written by: Danielle Teller
Narrated by: Jane Copland
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Publisher's Summary

In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous re-imagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella’s "evil" stepmother.

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, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story....

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress' apprentice when she is only 10 years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenage Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child.

Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of "happily ever after".

©2018 Danielle Teller (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about All the Ever Afters

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

Too much religion for a fantasy world

The author chooses to remove all magic and wonder from the Cinderella story/world. It's an unfortunate choice, and the story instead chooses to focus on religion, specifically Catholicism. I believe the story would have been better served by keeping religious references vague if that was the direction the author truly wanted to go, so the reader could project their own beliefs into the story.

The story itself seems to spend a lot of time on that aspect of the main character's life, as opposed to the time she spent with Cinderella. That portion of the novel was very much pulling specific instances from the fairy tale and explaining them away, which came off as a checklist more than a story. Her time with Cinderella seemed very rushed in the greater context of the book, when that's what would have drawn many readers to the book in the first place.

Overall it was an alright story, but not one I would recommend in the same breathe as Wicked. Good as background noise if you have a weekend to kill. The voice actress does a pretty good job and is easy to listen to.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Just couldn't get into this book

I just couldn't get into this book. it didn't keep me interested. I kept falling asleep 🤔

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

So much fun !

How fun and interesting to hear the other side of the so called Cinderella story. If you like Wicked, you'll like this too. Story is more for adults though.

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