When I was a high school theater nerd, I played ugly members of Cinderella’s step-family not once, but twice.

The first time, my freshman year of high school, I played the elder ugly stepsister in a Bainbridge Performing Arts version of Cinderella. Laura Allen played Cinderella, and the production was a lot of fun with all those cute little kids playing mice and singing. My favorite part was when, in-keeping with the Grimm’s version of the story, the ugly stepmother cut off a portion of my foot in order to help it fit into the shoe. This was always an audience pleaser: she’d slice and slice, eventually tossing a piece of flesh-colored putty onto the stage. Always got a great laugh/squeal out of the crowd.

The second time around, I played Cinderella’s stepmother in my theater group’s rendition of Into The Woods. I was not amused by this casting: one time playing an ugly step-thing was fine, but this second casting was a major slight to my developing ego, as the same director was casting me in essentially the exactly same role. I may know now that the casting was mostly due to my being an over-the-top ham, perfectly suited for ridiculous villainy — but at the time I took the small part and the second occurance of the word “ugly” quite personally. THANKS, DIRECTOR. I get it: you think I’m so perfect as an ugly step-creature that you cast me in practically the same role TWICE. Because I am that ugly — and evil!

Anyway: despite my whining 15 years later, I’ve long since gotten over the issue. But let’s just say that I had a bit of a personal interest in Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I’d enjoyed his first book, Wicked until the end when I felt like it sort of fell apart. (One minute we love the Wicked Witch of the West, then Dorothy appears and all of a sudden all the empathetic character study falls apart.) I’d heard rumors that this second book of his wasn’t as good, but when Owen gave it to me for Christmas, I dove in with relish (and ketchup! and mayonnaise!).

I’d have to disagree with the rumors: I thought Confessions was much better than Wicked. It stands up on its own as a historical novel, but the unfolding of the Cinderella story is nicely done, and unlike Wicked, the retelling doesn’t fall apart when the Maguire’s story caught up to the fairytale. Definitely recommended. Especially for former ugly stepfamily.