“Goodness is always contextual.”

How does someone become a villain? Is it nature versus nurture? Is it the point of view from which a story is told? Is it one too many mistakes and misunderstandings, until you simply cannot find your way back to being good? And who gets to define good in the first place?

We often read to walk in someone else’s shoes. We read to build empathy for people we don’t quite understand. And this is why I love villain origin stories. Fairytales give us characters like the evil stepmother, women who embody our deepest fears. But then we are left there, without an explanation as to how this villain was shaped. And what broke them?

What I admire about Lady Tremaine, a re-telling of Cinderella, is the author’s recognition that the evil stepmother had her own story. She wasn’t just a shadow in Cinderella’s. As we read from the stepmother’s point of view, I couldn’t help but be moved but the lengths a mother will go to protect her children.

We know Cinderella’s grief well—a young girl who lost both of her parents. But we rarely think of the stepmother: a woman who buried two husbands, raised three children alone, all while living in a world that offered little protection or safety to women in her position.

If you’re looking for your next read, I highly recommend this one. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

One of my favorite quotes: “YOU are the scariest thing in the woods.”