Cinder House: A queer gothic Cinderella retelling from the Sunday Times bestseller
Oct 2025 · Pan Macmillan
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About this ebook
Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske – a queer Gothic fairy-tale novella perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.
‘A spellbinding haunting’ – Lex Croucher, author of Trouble
You think you know Cinderella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her furious ghost is trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until, that is, she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
‘Whimsical, romantic, and bittersweet’ – Ava Reid, author of A Study in Drowning
Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this spellbinding novella from Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light and the queen of romantic fantasy.
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Readers love Cinder House:
‘This novella packs a punch!’
‘Nothing short of queer brilliance’
‘Gorgeously atmospheric and wildly creative’
‘Torturously full of yearning in the best kind of way’
‘A spellbinding haunting’ – Lex Croucher, author of Trouble
You think you know Cinderella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her furious ghost is trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.
Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.
Until, that is, she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.
‘Whimsical, romantic, and bittersweet’ – Ava Reid, author of A Study in Drowning
Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this spellbinding novella from Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light and the queen of romantic fantasy.
--
Readers love Cinder House:
‘This novella packs a punch!’
‘Nothing short of queer brilliance’
‘Gorgeously atmospheric and wildly creative’
‘Torturously full of yearning in the best kind of way’
Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske – a queer Gothic fairy-tale novella perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.
‘A spellbinding haunting’ – Lex Croucher, author of Trouble
You think you know Cinderella’s st...
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About the author
Freya Marske is the author of Cinder House, Swordcrossed, A Power Unbound, A Restless Truth and A Marvellous Light, the latter of which became an international bestseller and won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Fantasy Romantic Novel Award. She is an Aurealis Award winner, has been nominated for two Hugo Awards, and won the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent. She lives in Australia.
Freya Marske is the author of Cinder House, Swordcrossed, A Power Unbound, A Restless Truth and A Marvellous Light, the latter of which became an international bestseller and won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Fantasy Romantic Novel Award. She is an Aurealis Award winner, has been nominate...
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