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Can you avoid getting Poisoned?

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...who is the deadliest of them all?Can you survive the Darkwood, or will you have your heart cut out? Enter if you dare...

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...who is the deadliest of them all? Can you survive the Darkwood, or will you have your heart cut out? Enter if you dare...

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Unmasking the Voice Behind the Mirror

Guest Post from Jennifer Donnelly, author of Poisoned!

Mirror, mirror on the wall . . . who’s the fairest of them all? 

The words are from Snow White, of course—one of the richest, darkest tales from my favorite fairy godfathers, the brothers Grimm.

Ever since I was little, I’ve loved this story, even though it terrified me. Maybe because it did. There were so many frightening things in it—the evil queen, the dark forest, the poisoned apple.

But one thing scared me more than any of those—the mirror.

It talked. It spoke in a hollow, disembodied voice—a voice of authority. There was someone, or something, inside the mirror. But who was it? And why was he there?

Whoever he was, I knew he was very powerful, because the queen listened to him. She trusted him. His poisonous words told her all that she was not, and she believed them. She let the voice steal her power.

What is this voice that constantly tells us we’re not enough—not good enough, smart enough, strong enough? And why do we listen to it?

I wrote Poisoned to unmask that voice, and to show readers how to silence it—whether it comes from a mirror, social media, magazines, film, or television.

So many strong, brave kids begin to doubt themselves as they become teenagers—I certainly did—and I believe that the destructive, dimin- ishing voice in the looking glass is to blame. My main character—Sophie, a teenage princess—is one of those kids.

Sophie’s an unlikely hero. She’s an anxious girl, a misfit, one who’s been told, over and over again, that she’s less than, that she’s lacking, that she’s not enough. Soft-hearted and kind, she’s a bitter disappointment to the ruthless queen, who believes that kindness is weakness, and that Sophie isn’t strong enough to rule. 

In the course of the story, Sophie loses her heart—quite literally—but on her quest to recover it, she learns that kindness is actually her greatest strength, and that sometimes the thing that makes us all wrong is exactly what makes us perfect. 

She discovers that she is all she needs, that she has all she needs, to chart a path through the dark forest and find her way home.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to tell you a bit about Poisoned, and I hope you enjoy my retelling of this timeless, and timely, tale.

Get your copy of Poisoned and start reading!

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Watch the trailer for Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly, a dark fairy tale retelling that proves that kindness is the ultimate form of strength. 

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Poisoned Excerpt

Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen's huntsman. Her lips were the color of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman took out his knife . . . and took Sophie's heart.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise. Sophie had heard the rumors, the whispers. They said she was too kind and foolish to rule -- a waste of a princess. A disaster of a future queen. And Sophie believed them. She believed everything she'd heard about herself, the poisonous words people use to keep girls like Sophie from becoming too powerful, too strong . . . With the help of seven mysterious strangers, Sophie manages to survive. But when she realizes that the jealous queen might not be to blame, Sophie must find the courage to face an even more terrifying enemy, proving that even the darkest magic can't extinguish the fire burning inside every girl, and that kindness is the ultimate form of strength.

START READING: 

Poisoned Excerpt by I Read YA

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A Dark and Feminist Story of Redemption, Empowerment, and a New Definition of Beauty. 

Start reading Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly, the story that starts where Cinderella ends.

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Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly | Official Book Trailer

Start reading Stepsister, a dark and feminist story of redemption and empowerment. 

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Don’t just fracture the fairy tale...

SHATTER IT. 

Start reading Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly!

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Stepsister Excerpt

Don't just fracture the fairy tale. Shatter it.

Isabelle should be blissfully happy-she's about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn't the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince's heart. She's the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella's shoe . . . which is now filling with blood.

Isabelle tried to fit in. She cut away pieces of herself in order to become pretty. Sweet. More like Cinderella. But that only made her mean, jealous, and hollow. Now she has a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.

Evoking the darker, original version of the Cinderella story, Stepsister shows us that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and uses Jennifer Donnelly's trademark wit and wisdom to send an overlooked character on a journey toward empowerment, redemption . . . and a new definition of beauty.

Start reading your exclusive excerpt of STEPSISTER now!

Stepsister Excerpt by I Read YA on Scribd

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