Book Title: The Slipper and the Tree
Author: G. Lawrence
Series Name: Retold of Old
Position in the series: #2
Genre: Fairytale retellings, Young Adult, Romance
First Published: July 2020
Publisher: Self-published
This one has been on my to read pile for ages. It just was one of those things where you never got around to it. Now I’m not really a New Years resolution kinda girl, but I have decided that for 2025, I want to read more. One of the ways that I have done that is by going through every book I have on my kindle that I haven’t read yet, plus all my physical books and added them to a spreadsheet as well as Goodreads.
I’m told Goodreads is not the site to use anymore. However I’ve tried Bookamory and Storygraph and found they’re not my tea so if there’s another alternative do let me know in comments.
Anyway, on my sheet, I filtered all the books that are on my to-read, added the page count and decided I’m going to read smallest word counts first. The Slipper and the Tree was the smallest but it is such a good read.
Retold of Old
Retold of old is a dual series that has the potential to grow into more. It doesn’t matter what order you read them as the first focuses only on Little Red Riding Hood and the second, “The Slipper and the Tree” focuses only on Cinderella.
After seeing how well Lawrence has managed to retell Cinderella using older material, I am wanting to read the Little Red Riding Hood retelling. However, to begin with, I did find the opening pages boring. I almost put the book down.
There is a heck of a lot of purple prose at the beginning, but once it gets to the interesting part, the purple prose is reduced considerably. This helps the pace of the story and keeps it moving. I still skimmed a lot of unnecessary waffle, but once you get to the interesting parts, it is all worth it.
The Slipper and the Tree Synopsis
This is a tale of witches and wishes, tales and trees, stepmothers, spells and a girl who sleeps in the ashes by the fire…But it’s not the one you know.
~goodreads
Cinderella Research
Lawrence has done their homework when she wrote this tale of Cinderella. When I was an undergraduate student, we had a module where a lot of the focus was on the origins of fairytales. Through this, I learned that Cinderella’s origin can be dated as far back as 11th century. That makes it a thousand years old!
But the story has changed over the years. From three balls down to just one. The godmother was not always a fairy. The father was not always kind or killed by the stepmother. Sometimes, there wasn’t even a stepmother. Just a daughter and an overzealous father. Sometimes she worked in the kitchens
In one of the tales, Cinderella travels to the ball by jumping from tree to tree so that her father doesn’t see her. After all, how often do we look up? In another, the tree is her dead mother granting her wishes.
Lawrence uses all of these elements in The Slipper and the Tree to bring a new element to an old tale. There is lore about witches being turned into trees upon their demise. There’s a reason why witches are seen as bad and godmothers are seen as good. And Lawrence also uses the lack of character development to their advantage.
The Slipper and the Tree Characterisation
There’s not much characterisation of the characters outside the Cinderella-esque character and her aunt, but that’s intentional. Lawrence highlights the facade of the royal family. A prince who cannot remember what his love looks like? Well there’s only one reason that could be the case…
Nion has the most character development. Although we don’t see it, she lived with not a care in the world. Born to money. But when her mother dies is when we join the story. Nion is forced from her position into the kitchens so that her father doesn’t have to look at her. Remember I said not all tellings of Cinderella had a nice father?
Nion goes from rich to poor and through it she sees the world in a way that she never had before. Her character goes from entitled to caring. I don’t want to give spoilers if I can help it. It is a short story, after all. But I just absolutely love how Lawrence tells this story of Cinderella, from the perspective of Nion (Cinderella), to the aunt who has to let her niece make her own mastakes.
I also love the characterisation and empathy with the stepsisters. Lawrence really does make them a victim of the world they live in.
Overall thoughts
If I was in need of a cinderella retelling again, I think I would return to this one. I tend not to return to books, but it’s short enough it wouldn’t take too long to read, and memorable in all the right ways. There’s not any spice, but having said that, I think young adults would be more interest in this retelling than children.
It has a coming of age feel to it, with the need for Nion to learn her own lessons rather than being told what to do. I particularly love the aunt’s view on this. She has no children of her own and acts as a form of guardian to Nion. In the short time that she knows her niece, she succumbs to mother worry and has no idea how parents can cope with the day to day life without worrying their child is about to be hurt.
I hope you enjoyed this review. You might also like my review on The Selection by Kiera Glass, and also Matched by Ally Condie. Both are novels with romances that have a Cinderella kind of feel to them.