Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

Guess what I just won from Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review? Yes, I won a copy of Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon.

This retelling of Cinderella follows the oft ignored character of the fairy godmother, who may or may not be a mentally ill New Yorker. Lil, as this godmother is known, is now living in New York City, broke and employed at a bookstore, years after being exiled from the kingdom of fairies for betraying her charge. Condemned to live as an old woman, her wings bound to her back as penance, Lil is overcome by longing for what she has lost, slipping in her recollections of her idyllic past into the harsh present. When she meets Veronica, a young woman perpetually dogged with man problems, Lil sees an opportunity to redeem herself. But as the narrative progresses, cracks in Lil’s story (and psyche) emerge. Needless to say, readers expecting magical carriages and glass slippers will be surprised by the novel’s morose tone, and though the surprise conclusion doesn’t quite work, Turgeon’s takes on nostalgia and regret are surprisingly clear-eyed given her narrator’s unbalance.

I love fairytale retellings, though a lot of those that I’ve read have been morbid. I remember reading one in high school told from the perspective of Gretel (From Hansel and Gretel fame) that was quite depressing because Gretel had PTSD and couldn’t get over what had happened to her while feeling like the whole world was moving on around her and leaving her behind. Very sad.

Man, here I go again making a post depressing.

My point is that I love it when people retell fairytales. Especially when they focus on characters that were secondary or left undeveloped in the original stories. I am just super pleased to get to read this book because I had been dying to get my hands on it.

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