Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon

Godmother

by Carolyn Turgeon

A new take on Cinderella, told from the perspective of the fairy godmother living in modern-day Manhattan

Lil is an old woman who spends her days shelving rare books in a tiny Manhattan bookstore and lonely nights at home in her apartment. But Lil has an intriguing secret. Tucked and bound behind her back are white feathery wings--the only key to who she once was: the fairy godmother responsible for getting Cinderella to the ball to unite with her Prince Charming.

But on that fateful night, something went terribly and beautifully wrong. Lil allowed herself the...Read more

Reviewed by ladygrey on

2 of 5 stars

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There's a faint quality of beauty to the story, especially in the fairy flashbacks. But the narrative is also overly steeped in simile which at times just feels like it's trying too hard. I liked the idea of a godmother who falls in love with the prince but found her actually incredibly unsympathetic. I quickly tired of her whining and grousing about everything she'd lost and how sad and lost she was. I didn't ever want her and the prince to end up happily ever after and kept asking what happened to Cinderella. And yet as the story progressed and took on darker allusions I found it kind of interesting. I didn't like the ties to the prosaic world at the end but I did like the places where the fairy world entered into the prosaic in the end. I don't think I ever liked Lil. For all her need to help people I found her incredibly self absorbed. But I definitely liked Veronica and I think I really liked her grandmother.

And for all the things I didn't like about this story, I found that it lingers; that the emotion of her world clung to me for a while which means she must have done something right.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 10 May, 2010: Finished reading
  • 10 May, 2010: Reviewed