Woltmann has assembled an intriguing collection of essays that explore contemporary progressive and/or problematic adaptations of the Cinderella narrative. Using the perspective of “wokeness,” contributors describe how the characters and story lines of modern Cinderella-like tales (e.g., films such as The Devil Wears Prada, Sex and the City, The Princess and the Frog, Deaf Cinderella, The Lost Heir, Inglourious Basterds; television series such as Once upon a Time, Grimm, Game of Thrones) attempt to promote an awareness of female empowerment and social injustice and challenge canonical gendered scripts and expectations. Throughout, contributors also demonstrate how these tales offer novel portrayals of agency and forgiveness; reframe narratives about (step)families; reinforce problematic, regressive, and "un-woke" messages; espouse pro-, post-, and anti-feminist values; and make reference to past Cinderella-like texts (e.g., Chance the Rapper’s track “Zanies and Fools” makes reference to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1957 production of Cinderella—a production that, with its themes of longing, possibility, and fantasy, espouses queer orientations to time). A well-written and well-researched book for those interested in literature and popular culture, mythology and folklore, and how stories can inspire, or inhibit, cultural change. Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

If you think you know the true Cinderella tale, forget it! Suzy Woltmann's collection of provocative and insightful essays, Woke Cinderella: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations, demonstrates that numerous writers and filmmakers have rewritten the classic Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions in unusual ways, revealing that Cinderella had many sides to her and was not really the wimp she seemed to be, wishing only to marry a prince. The essays in this volume have brought a 21st-century acumen to a story that deserves to be adapted over and over again.

Jack Zipes, author of Johnny Breadless: A Pacifist Fairy Tale; Ernst Bloch, The Pugnacious Philosopher of Hope;The Giant Ohl and Tiny Tim; The Book of One Hundred Riddles of the Fairy Bellaria; Fearless Ivan and His Faithful Horse Double-Hump; The Sorcere

Fans of the fairy tale surprised to discover woke Cinderella will enjoy delving into her feminist, queer, deaf, non-human animal, cyborg, and other postmodern manifestations in mainly American novels, films, and television. Unpromising characters from Disney and from mainstream Hollywood display their politically and culturally savvy wokeness, while apparently promising characters may fall short. Fairy-tale scholars will appreciate the diversity of examples and points of view, and their students will welcome the 21st-century subject matter.

Pauline Greenhill, co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Media and Fairy-Tale Cultures (2018) and author of Reality, Magic, and Other Lies: Fairy-Tale Film Truths (2020), University of Winnipeg, Canada