Cinder House

For the building in Derbyshire, see Ye Olde Cinder House.

Cinder House is a 2025 fantasy novella by Freya Marske, retelling "Cinderella" as a ghost story. It was first published by Tordotcom.

Synopsis

When Ella is sixteen, she and her father are both murdered by her stepmother. Her father is gone, but Ella rises as a ghost — bound to the house which her stepmother inherited, and visible only to its owners.

Reception

Cinder House won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella of 2025,[1] is a finalist for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novella,[2] and was a finalist for the 2026 Locus Award for Best Novella.[3]

Publishers Weekly called the story "as strong, beautiful, and clever" as Ella.[4] Kirkus Reviews drew parallels between Ella's compulsion to obey the house's owners and Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, and commended Marske for "explor[ing] the ways limited mobility and accessibility can erode one's sense of self", and for "subvert[ing] the 'doting father' and 'wicked stepmother' archetypes."[5]

Strange Horizons lauded it as "appealing, to the point, and hard to put down",[6] while Locus considered it to be "tender (and) full of quiet longing", with "a finale that gently asks the reader to reconsider what a 'happy ending' might look like,"[7] and noted that it is an "elegantly written, unconventional love story" that "drop(s) hints about a wider, richly detailed world inhabited by fey, humans, magicians, and other liminal beings."[8] Reactor emphasized that Marske spotlights "what it means, at its core, to be designated cinder. Ash, remnant," and observed the depiction of "sex through the lens of somebody who does not have access to a body in the same way most living, abled people do."[9]

References

  1. ^ "Aurealis Award 2025 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 2026-02-23. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
  2. ^ 2026 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved August 11, 2026
  3. ^ "2026 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Online. May 30, 2026. Archived from the original on May 31, 2026. Retrieved May 31, 2026.
  4. ^ Cinder House, reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published July 22, 2025; retrieved August 11, 2026
  5. ^ Cinder House, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published October 7, 2025; retrieved August 11, 2026
  6. ^ 2025 In Review: Part Two; by Dean Leetal; at Strange Horizons; published January 5, 2026; retrieved August 11, 2026
  7. ^ The Year in Review 2025 by Archita Mittra; at Locus; published February 2, 2026; retrieved August 11, 2026
  8. ^ Cinder House by Freya Marske: Review by Archita Mittra , at Locus); published August 22, 2025; retrieved August 11, 2026
  9. ^ The Sublime Ache and Freedom of Freya Marske’s Cinder House, by Maya Gittelman; at Reactor; published November 18, 2025; retrieved August 11, 2026

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.