Cinders

Ash is 17 and near the end of her final year of high school. Since her mom’s recent death, Ash has been living with her mother’s boyfriend and his two kids, Noah and Mimi. Her stepsiblings bully Ash both around home and at school. Ash’s only way out of the situation is to do well at school, win the prize in her coding class and head off to university and a life of her own. In the midst of this chaos, Ash meets Charming online via an app Ash has developed called SendLove. Using her handle, Cinders, Ash becomes close to Charming and eventually the two young women decide to meet in order to see where their relationship might take them in real life.

Together, Cinders and Charming are a modern re-telling of the Cinderella story, with Ash belittled by her mean stepsiblings and having to do low-paying drudgery McJobs in order to save some money for school. True to the fairy tale, her “prince” Charming arrives to help her out of an untenable situation. Yet Charming is not always as strong and capable as she appears, and thus she also benefits greatly from their relationship.

Ash does her best to maintain her self-esteem and dignity despite her surroundings. She is a bright girl who knows she has to depend on herself if she is going to succeed. While at first nervous about a relationship with another female, Ash soon realizes that she and Charming have a great deal in common, and their on-line friendship turns into something much more once they meet and get to know one another. On the surface, Charming appears to have everything she might need or want, but she realizes that much of her happiness is superficial and that she spends a great deal of time on the image she wants to portray. Time off-line helps her put things in perspective and assists her when she must finally confront her parents and tell them that she doesn’t want to pursue university and that she and Cinders are a couple.

Mette Bach has written this as a high interest book for older students who have reading difficulties. Lorimer states the reading level is Grade 4.0 for Cinders and 3.7 for Charming. The Lexile Reading Level for Cinders is HL570L and for Charming it is HL520L. Given the simplicity of the vocabulary, it sometimes seems that the characters are not particularly well-developed. Noah and Mimi have apparently no redeeming characteristics whatsoever, and Mimi is leader of a group of particularly mean girls. Ash often seems content to put up with the bullying and take refuge in her computer and coding. The arrival of Charming in her life happens on-line, and their relationship develops into a romance almost too quickly to be believable. Both novels are short, seeming more like novellas or extended short stories, and, therefore, themes and characters do not have the opportunity to grow and mature at a more regular pace.

Either of the two books could be read first without interfering with the story. However, it is valuable to read both since readers get a better sense of character by seeing each teen through the eyes of her counterpart.

Bach tackles issues which are current and relevant and which will have appeal to many young adult females. Clearly the LGBTQ+ community is central to the novel. As well, the issue of how social media is used and abused is key. Bullying takes place both on-line and in person in the novel, and Ash and Char must learn to deal with it.

Cinders and Charming are part of Lorimer’s “Real Love” series whose target audience is teen reluctant readers. While appearing simple on the surface, both deal with complex modern themes and complicated challenges which will resonate with young adult readers.