Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the classic story of Cinderella through the perspective of Clara's stepsister, Iris, who is her only friend. The girls struggle to keep their family from poverty and grow up in a world where they are judged by their appearance. The dark insights to this well-known tale are captivating and creative.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister takes the traditional fairy tale of Cinderella and conveys the plot in a different light. Margarethe Fisher flees from her home in England to Holland with her two daughters, Ruth and Iris. Ruth is mute and assumed to be handicapped and Iris is younger and clever, though not beautiful. Margarethe's family is deceased, so she takes a job caring for the household of a painter, Luykas Schoonmaker, or the Master. Iris falls in love with his assistant, Caspar, and finds that she has a good...