Cinderella Is Dead takes place approximately 200 years since Cinderella has died, and everything has gone to shit, especially for women. Prince Charming instituted all sorts of laws and customs that keeps women servile, makes same sex love impossible, and is generally repressive for the people and pockets-lining for the king. While Charming died long ago, his successors honor Charming's vile regulations. A warped version of the Cinderella story (the same one we know) is weaponized, with the annual ball a meat market where any man may claim any 16-year-old girl in attendance.

Sophia, who has known she wanted to marry her friend Erin since the girls were twelve, has no patience for the rules enforced by the current king, Manford, and is dangerously loudmouthed about it. And maybe a little free with her knees; she's not interested in most men's testicles romantically, but she doesn't mind making violent contact with them when necessary.

Sophia is Black, per the cover and her description, but while race doesn't play a lead role in the story, I tracked racial justice parallels throughout. Things like

I tried to take out that statue in the square a few nights ago.

*

...the woman smiles one of those fake smiles, all mouth and no eyes. I know the smile, and a little piece of me dies every time I have to use it.

*

The king may be a pile of ash, but his ideas are alive and well.

*

"we want a say in what happens next,"the man on the ground says as he scrambles to his feet.
"You've sad idly by while the people of Mersailles suffered and died, and now you want a say in what happens to us?" I'm shocked at his arrogance. "You're not in a position to make demands. I watched you try to buy a young girl in the dungeon."

All of the above quotations are ostensibly about the women of Mersailles, but to me they seemed to be as much about Black people in America.