DRC Review: Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim

Release date: 28 July 2026 (US)/23 July 2026 (UK)

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: Historical Fiction/Magical Realism

Publisher(s): Del Rey/Penguin Random House (US); Hodderscape/Hachette (UK)

Synopsis: A bracelet. A curse. And golden fishbones to be returned to the sea...

Guangdong, 1940. When Ha Yut Ying narrowly escapes Japanese soldiers by turning invisible, she knows her new-found magic must be kept a secret. But her mother, whose dreams foretell the future, suspects her daughter has changed, and warns her of a curse upon their family. For her protection, she gives her a gold bracelet whose links are shaped like fishbones.​

After the war, Ha Yut Ying is sent to live with her father and his second wife, who have become wealthy factory owners in Hong Kong. Her stepmother, jealous of her beauty, forces her to work in the family's shoe factory.

But when Yut Ying collides with a boy on a bicycle on her way to work, she loses her bracelet. The boy is Tommy Yeung, scion of a local soymilk tycoon. And their encounter will change both of their destinies forever...

Review

Much to my delight, the first book of Lim's I've read, despite owning the entirety of the author's backlist, kept me mesmerized on every page. A generational tale culminating in a satisfying end, Fishbone Cinderella gives a perfect example of what retellings should look like.

Starting at the time period surrounding World War II but focusing narrowly on the conflict between the Japanese and Chinese just before and after the war's end, readers meet Yut Ying as a young girl enduring the Japanese invasion of China. From a young age, she endures hardship from all sides and manages to sustain an extraordinarily, though relatively, bright outlook in her life. Though the synopsis gives the impression that the book focuses on Yut Ying, the book also tells of her daughter Marigold and the journey they both take toward breaking the curse on the women in their family.

The fantastical aspect in Fishbone Cinderella plays a subtle yet substantial role. Magical realism resonates strongly with me when it comes in the form Lim presents. Yut Ying (whose chosen name is Helen) and Marigold break a generational curse by revisiting the past together, bonding, and healing the mother-daughter relationships in a family plagued with strife. I also enjoyed the mixture of first- and third-person points of view to follow them through the journey. If I've read any other storytelling presented this way, I can't remember. It highlights the divide between the two women in a structural way the really helps immerse readers.

Lim can write characters like nobody's business as well. Many of the unsympathetic characters, and there are a great many, show a complexity that doesn't excuse their behavior but provides readers with some sort of lifeline for them to latch on to for empathy. It's almost as if Lim wants readers to see that even the best people have made mistakes and the worst can have some redeeming qualities—whether by their own actions or through the experience of the narrator's perception of forgiveness or fondness.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, though I didn't think I would hate it in any degree to begin with; but I figured the historical fiction aspect of it would bore me, but it did not in any capacity. I usually read retellings with a hyper awareness of the juxtapositions between the original plot points and characters and their counterparts, but while I read Lim's writing, I forgot them all completely and got lost in the plot, which I have not done in a very long time in such a story.

My thanks to Del Rey/Penguin Random House via NetGalley for the DRC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.

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