We Kept Her in the Cellar - W. R. Gorman

From the blurb: A dark retelling of Cinderella told from the stepsister Eunice's perspective. Eunice follows three household rules, including caring for Cinderella and keeping the family's secret: Cinderella has frightening supernatural powers and lives in the cellar. When Eunice gets a chance to attend the ball, her younger sister Hortense takes over caring for Cinderella, and Cinderella escapes. She goes to the ball anyway, charms the prince, and leaves destruction behind. Eunice must decide how much she will sacrifice to stop her.

This dark Cinderella retelling is DARK AF. There's a damn good reason Cinderella's stepfamily keeps her in the cellar and makes her do menial chores. She looks like a beautiful girl but she IS NOT. She's a Lovecraftian eldritch horror who elects to put on the appearance of a Disney heroine but she's bound to her new family and there are rules that she has to follow.

Every beat of the Disney version is there but from the POV of Cinderella's stepsister and the whole book is amazing. (It also takes a couple elements from the Grimm brothers' version that Disney left out.) It is incredibly gory and appalling and I absolutely loved every minute of it.

It was coincidental that I read it in October but it's a phenomenal Halloween read.