Bound by Donna Jo Napoli

Xing Xing lives her with Stepmother and her step sister Wei Ping. Her dad and mom both have passed away, but she believes that their ancestry lives on with her. She has to do all the scrubbing, fetching water, basically all the chores. While she's struggling to get through all the tasks, she finds comfort in a fish she finds that she believes is her mother's spirit guiding her. Wei Ping is gtting her feet bound, and Xing Xing has to go get help. She goes to get help and then Wei Ping gets better. So her stepmother starts to be nice to Xing Xing and makes her a dress, but Xing Xing has revenge, because her stepmother killed her precious fish. She goes to the carnival dressed up in her mother's clothes. She takes in all the wonderful sights and food, but then sights her stepmother and Wei Ping, and runs away, losing a golden shoe along the way. The prince gathers news of the shoe because it gets so expensive on the market. So the prince goes to fit the shoe on every woman, and of course Xing Xing gets the fit and the prince fits perfectly with her. I loved it! I'm so dumb cuz i didn't even realize it was a Cinderella type story until like the very end. Probably because it was so unqiuely its own. I did read it really fast, but it's def awesome. Love it. So sad how they bind their feet though, I wonder if they still do that?