After the death of her father, Xing Xing lives with her stepmother and stepsister, Wei Ping. Wei Ping is in the process of getting her feet bound in order to attract a husband, and suffers great pain as a result. Xing Xing knows that if her sister cannot find a suitable husband soon, that Xing Xing herself will be sold as a slave. As the annual festival grows near, Stepmother becomes more desperate to find a husband for her daughter, and Xing Xing begins to rebel against the role that she has been forced into.

Bound is a retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella, set during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Being a fan of both fairy tale retellings and Chinese history, I thought that this little book would be a perfect selection for me. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling a little let down. While Bound is not a bad book, I often felt that it never passed the “just okay” line in everything from characterization, to it's historical commentary, to the weaving in of the original fairy tail. One area where I have no complaints is in the actual writing of the novel itself. Donna Jo Napoli has an almost lovely way of describing things, which made the book very easy to read.

When it comes to the characters, I found one area where Napoli succeeds is with the stepmother and stepsister (Wei Ping) characters. I like that Napoli gives them motivations for their actions. Yes, Wei Ping is grouchy, but this is a result of the painful foot binding procedure she must endure. Stepmother can be cruel, but this is mostly motivated by a desire to see her family succeed. The character I have the biggest issue with was Xing Xing, the protagonist. I feel as if we're given plenty of information about her (she misses her father and mother, she likes calligraphy and poetry), but never really get to know here all that well. It's almost as if for the entire novel, that there is a wall between her and the reader. As a result, she came off as rather bland until the end.

Bound is both a commentary on what it was like to be a women living hundreds of years ago in China, and a fairy tale retelling. The historical aspects, which focus on foot binding and the pressure to become married, were interesting but I feel as if other novels have done better on the subject (mainly, work by Lisa See). The fairy tale elements are very interesting, but I feel that they ultimately entered the story too late. As a result, the novel seems to wander around for the first hundred pages or so with not much of a purpose. Due to Napoli's strong writing, this is not unpleasant to read, but ends up feeling a little empty.

Although Bound has it's strong moments, my issues with the characterization and plot resulted in it a surprisingly “meh” read. There was enough about the book that I enjoyed, so I plan on reading other books by Napoli in the future. I suspect that Chinese history was just not her strongest point.