I can think of basically no books that had LGBT representation in them that I read as a teen, and especially not any with a female protagonist in. I'm so glad that's changing now and I get to read more diverse books as an adult, so I was really excited to get stuck into Cinderella is Dead.
Sophia lives in Cinderella's town 200 years on from her death. Every year, all eligible teenage girls must attend a ball presided over by the town's prince, where a man will hopefully pick her as his bride. It's supposed to be a time of great excitement for the girls, and a night on which the fairy godmother turns up to help them (although everyone's parents make sure each girl has a 'backup' outfit for when this inevitably does not happen).
The problem is that Sophia doesn't want a suitable bachelor to choose her as his wife, or any man. Sophia has a girlfriend: her friend Erin and her are being forced apart by the ball and the pressure from both their families to partake in it. Sophia's horrified by the suggestion that the girls that don't get chosen simply 'disappear', and when things don't go to plan at the ball she's determined to find out what secrets the castle, and the Prince, are keeping.
I loved the plot of this - I'm a big fan of retellings of fairy tales and fables, and I loved that not only did this have a POC main character, but that she was also comfortable with her own sexuality. Often I find with LGBT rep in books that there's just one character who is openly gay/lesbian etc, and they might meet one other person later in the book who is too. In this book however, a whole swathe of main characters were part of the LGBT community, which was really great.
The book definitely could have done with a bit more editing and tightening up of the plot I think, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. There was a whole section in the middle that ended up being relevant to the plot, but at the time felt like a bit of a filler side plot, and I sort of got lost in exactly where the book was headed. I am however VERY excited to see what the author brings out next, as this was her debut novel.
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