Ari Reviews: The Wicked Ones: A Dark Ascension Novel – Robin Benway

The Wicked Ones is a Disney young adult book that tells the backstory of Cinderella’s stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella. The book gives us a glimpse into what caused them to become the stepsisters we know from the movie Cinderella. The book starts off when Drizella and Anastasia are young girls and their father mysteriously leaves them one night. Their father takes all of their fortune as well as their mother’s hope for true love. When Lady Tremaine remarries again to Cinderella’s father after her first husband abandons her, she encounters loss again when her new husband becomes ill and passes away. After Cinderella’s father’s death we begin to see Lady Tremaine lose her kindness and warmth therefore, becoming bitter and angry due to the loss and suffering she and her daughters have experienced. Lady Tremaine becomes very controlling and instills a strict routine in order for her two daughters to marry rich one day in order to escape the fate that has been brought upon them. I love how you got to see the stepsisters in a different light in this book. They both have kindness as well as hopes and dreams in finding true love and seeking beyond the world outside of their chateau compared to what their mother wants for them in seeking rich and royal husbands. We also see Anastasia and Drizella showing sympathy and remorse for their stepsister Cinderella when their mother would be harsh and mean to her due to not keeping up with Lady Tremaine’s expectations in serving the household. The book also explains the uneasy relationship between the three girls due to Cinderella’s father being cold towards his new daughters which caused the stepsisters to have resentment, sadness, and some tension toward Cinderella. I hope in the next book in the series they will all become closer and overcome the uneasiness they have with one another. You also see sibling rivalry between the two sisters that is brought upon by Lady Tremaine due to favoritism and pressuring them to be perfect to attract rich husbands at the royal ball. Anastasia and Drizella discover when they venture outside of their lonely isolated lives at the chateau there is more to the world than what their mother expects of them to do. Anastasia encounters an unexpected romance in the village with one of the royal attendants and Drizella wants to learn more about the world of science. I am still reading the book and I look forward to seeing how the book ends. I hope all of the girls will get their happy endings and be able to escape the controlling realm of their mother and stepmother. This is a great book for Disney fans or anyone who loves fantasy books. The author did an amazing job with this book and gives the reader a deep glimpse into the lives of Anastasia and Drizella. We also see the other side of them where they have kindness, hopes and dreams. I feel so bad for the stepsisters due to Lady Tremaine’s behavior towards them and their father walking away from them. They deserve so much happiness, love, respect, and good fortune. I have hope that the stepsisters can have a different fate that will possibly give them what they desire and escape from Lady Tremaine’s control. The book gave me a lot to ponder and questions such as will their father return one day? Will Anastasia’s romance blossom? Will Drizella discover more secrets and discoveries in her father’s study relating to science? Did her father belong to a secret society involving magic and science? I hope the upcoming book will answer these questions or when I finish reading this book will give me some closure to my questions. I would encourage you all to check this book out whether you are a Disney fan or not, it is such an amazing read in what I have been reading so far!