"The Wicked Ones," by Robin Benway

The Wicked Ones by Robin Benway explored the story left untold about Cinderella's wicked step sisters Drizella and Anastasia's lives before they were evil. Like other Cinderella stories, we don't get to see them before they turned evil where in this book we see the hardships and pressures they faced throughout their life. This gives readers a completely fresh perspective of the story and lets people make new opinions of the sisters. Robin Benway is a powerful young adult author. She is known for writing stories about family and personal growth. She won the National book award for Young people's literature for her book Far from the Tree. She has written many popular books especially popular for teens. Before her book career really took off she worked as a bookseller and publicist. The wicked ones, being one of her really popular books because of the relatable and fresh characters.

The wicked ones are based on the famous sisters of Cinderella, Drizzela and Anastasia Tremaine. The sisters have to live with the harsha and strict expectations of their obnoxious mother. The sisters struggle finding who they really are after trying to impress their mother for so long. As time goes on they realize how much more there is in love. They face many challenges that test their morals and loyalty and really decide who they are as people. The main conflict erupts when Drizella and Anastasia fail their mothers expectations and disappoint them. This is a big issue because from the beginning the sisters are pressured to act perfect and do everything they are told even if it's not who they are. As the story deepens the conflict rapidly grows. They have big decisions to make, obeying their mothers wishes or pursuing their own life and dreams. The siblings soon develop their identity but their choices leave them with big consequences connecting to their famous title “the evil step sisters”. At the beginning of the story Anastasia and Drizella are seen as normal wealthy girls of Lady Tremain. Many people believe their lives will end up poorly. The communities true opinions of the girls truly comes out when they are overheard calling Anastasia and Drizella ugly and talentless. This changes the girls alot. This sparks drama between the siblings and family which makes them question their decisions and if they are wasting their life.

One thing I really valued about this book was the different perspectives we saw. We got to see how people perceived as evil actually got there which told a bigger story. The story makes people question first impressions and give people compassion for the way they act. I also enjoy the issues in the book. A lot of them felt relatable and not like a crazy fairytale. Overall this story gives a new perspective to fairytales. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes uncovering things about people. This book is very character focused  and about personal problems. I think it was a great way to add to a traditional story. All and all The Wicked Ones is a fresh and entertaining take on the classic evil stepsisters in Cinderella. This book makes you question what you already knew which is very intriguing.