Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your overall impressions of Lady Tremaine. What were your favorite or least favorite aspects of the novel, and why?

2. Compare and contrast Lady Tremaine with other fairy-tale retellings. What narrative or thematic overlaps do you notice between Hochhauser’s work and titles like Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West or Marissa Meyer’s Gilded?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How did you respond to Lady Tremaine’s backstory? Which aspects of her childhood experience resonate most with your own, and why?

2. Discuss the impact of Lady Tremaine’s marriages on her identity. Have the romantic relationships in your life influenced the ways you define yourself?

3. Lady Tremaine relies on societal rules to navigate her life. Which social conventions do you conform to, and which have you discarded? Why?

4. Throughout the novel, Lady Tremaine grapples with her role as a stepmother to Elin. Have you ever experienced or observed others navigating a blended family dynamic? What were the benefits or challenges of that situation?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Lady Tremaine is a retelling of the Cinderella story. Explore how Hochhauser casts Lady Tremaine’s story via a feminist lens. How does she use this fairy-tale world to comment on contemporary advocacy for women’s rights?

2. Hochhauser casts Prince Simeon as the villain of the story. Examine how Simeon’s nefarious nature relates to contemporary conversations surrounding toxic masculinity, sexual violence, and the #MeToo movement.

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Analyze the novel’s use of point of view. Explore how Lady Tremaine’s first-person narration dictates the narrative atmosphere, mood, and conflict. Consider how the narrative themes would resonate differently if they were written from the third-person limited point of view.

2. Compare and contrast Hochhauser’s version of the Cinderella character (Elin) to other fairy-tale renderings of Cinderella. In what ways is Hochhauser’s Elin a narrative device in Lady Tremaine’s story?

3. Analyze the role of micro and macro settings in the narrative’s evolving atmosphere. Consider the characters’ regards for and responses to settings like the woods, the hunting lodge, the manor, the orchards, the palace, and the inn.

4. Identify three symbols not explored in this guide and examine their significance. For example, what might the ball, Elin’s tower, or clothing and dresses represent, and how do they further the themes of sacrifice, oppression, or ambition?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Imagine an alternate ending to the novel. How do you imagine the characters’ lives would elapse if Lady Tremaine allowed Elin and Simeon’s marriage? Would Lady Tremaine live “happily ever after”?

2. Imagine you are adapting Lady Tremaine into a film. Who would you cast in the leading roles? Which artists would you include on the soundtrack? Which scenes would you add, alter, or omit to make the adaptation your own?