Maguire's book is a politically correct Cinderella story, and as such, it challenges our tendency to equate beauty with good and ugliness with evil. Maguire undermines our preoccupation with physical beauty, and he challenges the ways in which evil is presented to children in classic tales. Just as he did in his first book, Wicked, Maguire stresses the notion that girls don't have to conform to society's definitions of beauty in order to be good, kind people. He takes the premise of the traditional Cinderella story and reverses it, maintaining that mythic archetypes—such as the ugly, mean stepsister and the beautiful Cinderella— psychologically damage young children by conditioning them to believe that physical beauty leads to happiness.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister emerges as a commentary on love and society and an analysis of the notions of good and evil.

Maguire removes the...