DNF Diaries: The Queer Gothic Cinder House That Lost Its Spark
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Some stories open like a cracked window. A chill slipping through, teasing the promise of something haunted, something tender. Cinder House by Freya Marske should have been that kind of novella. A queer gothic Cinderella retelling? A housebound ghost? A twisted stepfamily dynamic? It had every ingredient I normally savor.
Title: Cinder House
Author: Freya Marske
Publisher: Tordotcom
Format: ARC
Genre: LGBT, Novella, Thriller, Retellings, Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: October 7, 2025
Pages: 144
Star Rating: DNF at 40%
Spice Rating: 0 chili peppers
The DNF at a Glance
TL;DR
- Haunting premise? Yes. Murdered girl. Ghost bound to a house. Cursed midnights.
- Execution? Fell flat — muted prose, thin atmosphere, no emotional depth.
- Retelling vibes? Leans too much on Cinderella without building anything new.
- My experience? I kept hoping it would bloom… it never did.
- Final call: DNF. Even a novella should feel alive.
The Haunting Premise That Drew Me In…
And the setup truly is haunting.
Ella is murdered at sixteen and furiously bound to the house where she dies. Her ghost drifts through the hallways, invisible to the world—except to her stepmother and stepsisters, who continue to treat her exactly as they did in life: as a maid, a burden, a thing to be commanded. Anyone said to “own” the house can perceive the house’s ghost, which means any order to scrub, clean, or repair becomes a sentence she cannot deny.
Even in death, Ella is trapped in servitude.
And there are limits to even the small freedoms she carves out. She discovers how to slip her invisible tether and leave the house, but she cannot be seen or heard by the living. Her family must never learn what she can do. And every midnight, without fail, she is dragged back to the exact staircase where she died—a cursed resurrection, again and again.
Until something shifts.
The Fading of the Magic
Ella forges a reluctant friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and together they strike a bargain: three nights of almost-living freedom. Three nights where she can be seen. Danced with. Touched. Three nights where a ghost becomes a girl again.
You think you know this story—the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.
You’re halfway right, and all the way wrong.
And maybe that’s why the disappointment cut deeper. Because this setup? This is everything I love in a retelling: gothic edges, fairy bargains, a girl caught between worlds. But somewhere between concept and execution, the magic thinned.
The novella is short. But brevity isn’t an excuse for shallow storytelling. Some of the most powerful fairy tale retellings live inside 100 pages. Cinder House doesn’t reach its potential. It leans too heavily on your memory of Cinderella and never shapes a new, compelling story around its bones. The pacing is uneven. The atmosphere feels draped in dulled silver—not intentionally haunting, just…muted. Flat. As if the prose itself was smothered under a layer of tarnish.
I kept hoping it would bloom into something sweeping, aching, or strange, but it remained surface-level.
One-dimensional. A ghost story without pulse.
Sometimes the Magic Just Doesn’t Come
And when I realized I didn’t care—not about Ella’s progress, not about the romance thread, not about the house that held her prisoner—I knew I had to let it go.
Ultimately, I DNF’d Cinder House.
Even with a short page count, I needed more: more world-building, emotion, more tension, more life.
Novellas can be sharp and stunning. But this one simply wasn’t.
Ella deserved more.
And honestly? So did I.
Read This If You Like…
- ghost-girl stories with gothic edges
- fairy bargains and cursed midnight magic
- dark fairy-tale retellings
- housebound hauntings
- queer gothic romance (light)
- atmospheric novellas centered on grief and longing
- Cinderella retellings with a supernatural twist
Thank you to Tordotcom for sending me an ARC of Cinder House to read and review. If you’re interested, grab Cinder House from your local bookstore or Amazon, whichever you prefer.
Cinder House Audiobook on Libro.fm
Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske—a queer Gothic romance perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.Ella is a haunting.Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.Even…
If you’ve read Cinder House, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Did it work better for you, or did you feel the same? Or what makes a retelling magical for you? I want to know. Your answers might help another reader find their perfect match.
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DNF Diaries: The Librarians, Beautiful Idea, Weak Execution?
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