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3.12 AVERAGE
3.12 AVERAGE
The summary at the back of the book makes it sound like it's a fluffy retelling of the well-known Cinderella story where the godmother is the antagonist. She fall in love with the prince herself, instead of helping Cinderella hooking up with him, and got kicked out of Fairyland to live as human where she works in a bookstore and gets a chance to redeem herself: play the godmother for the bookstore's owner and a hair stylist which she met in the bookstore.
The book could have been great if it would have stayed as such a fluffy story.
1. Cinderella's godmother, called Lil, grew up in Fairyland (I still don't get why fairies live under water, makes no sense.), got appointed to hook up Cinderella with her prince by the Fairy Elders and fall in love herself with him when she saw him once (!). Luckily the prince feels the same after seeing her once and can't stop thinking about her etc. When the ball night arrives the godmother goes and does help Cinderella: gets the dress, the glass slippers, the hair style, ... - very pretty, very Cinderella. They even got to the point where Cinderella got her pumpkin-styled carriage with black horses. Cinderella turns out to be depressed and just wants to be reunited with her long-dead parents, so she tells Lil that she has no wish to go to the ball. The godmother sees her chance, grabs it and goes to the Ball instead of Cinderella. When she returns after midnight she finds Cinderella dead in the grass with slashed wrists (Glass slippers can change your life ...) and gets banned for breaking the rules of Fairyland (no love between humans and fairies unless the Fairy Elders saw it in the bark of trees). Back in NYC, as an eightysomething, she gets the chance to redeem herself when she can set up her boss, a wealthy freshly divorced man, with the hair stylist that sold books there once.
2. The other point of view is somewhat darker. Lil is still an old lady but she escaped into a fantasy world after her younger sister committed suicide (The whole story is that they sneaked out in 1952 to go to a place where they shouldn't have been and Lil grabs her sister's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend to get into a club and let her sister stay behind. It's very likely that men raped the girl (the headline just said "society girl takes own life after violent attack").). Lil turns her younger sister into Cinderella in her mind and telling herself that she failed to protect Cinderella although it was her duty as godmother. At the end of the story she believes that the Fairy Elder redeemed her and she would go back to Fairyland, but she just kills herself when she jumps into the water of the Hudson.
The book could have been great if it would have stayed as such a fluffy story.
Spoiler
Actually you can view the story from two point of views:1. Cinderella's godmother, called Lil, grew up in Fairyland (I still don't get why fairies live under water, makes no sense.), got appointed to hook up Cinderella with her prince by the Fairy Elders and fall in love herself with him when she saw him once (!). Luckily the prince feels the same after seeing her once and can't stop thinking about her etc. When the ball night arrives the godmother goes and does help Cinderella: gets the dress, the glass slippers, the hair style, ... - very pretty, very Cinderella. They even got to the point where Cinderella got her pumpkin-styled carriage with black horses. Cinderella turns out to be depressed and just wants to be reunited with her long-dead parents, so she tells Lil that she has no wish to go to the ball. The godmother sees her chance, grabs it and goes to the Ball instead of Cinderella. When she returns after midnight she finds Cinderella dead in the grass with slashed wrists (Glass slippers can change your life ...) and gets banned for breaking the rules of Fairyland (no love between humans and fairies unless the Fairy Elders saw it in the bark of trees). Back in NYC, as an eightysomething, she gets the chance to redeem herself when she can set up her boss, a wealthy freshly divorced man, with the hair stylist that sold books there once.
2. The other point of view is somewhat darker. Lil is still an old lady but she escaped into a fantasy world after her younger sister committed suicide (The whole story is that they sneaked out in 1952 to go to a place where they shouldn't have been and Lil grabs her sister's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend to get into a club and let her sister stay behind. It's very likely that men raped the girl (the headline just said "society girl takes own life after violent attack").). Lil turns her younger sister into Cinderella in her mind and telling herself that she failed to protect Cinderella although it was her duty as godmother. At the end of the story she believes that the Fairy Elder redeemed her and she would go back to Fairyland, but she just kills herself when she jumps into the water of the Hudson.
I won a copy of this novel from a GoodReads giveaway. Finally got around to reading it, and I'm not quite sure what to think.
The story is about Lil, an elderly woman working in a bookstore in the present-day New York City, who is secretly the Godmother from the classic Cinderella tale. Banished to the human world after not getting Cinderella to the ball, and for falling in love with the Prince herself - Lil lives a dull and meaningless existence, until an opportunity to redeem herself suddenly appears and gives a new meaning to her life.
The novel started off a little slow, then I quickly became sucked in as the story flashed back between Lil's past and present. The story intertwined well, with the seemingly parallel characters/situations. I was completely hooked by the story of redemption, and intrigued at how dark the tale became. The ending was a bit of a shock to me, and I'm amused at how disappointed I was at that. I was really hoping for the fairytale ending after all!
The story is about Lil, an elderly woman working in a bookstore in the present-day New York City, who is secretly the Godmother from the classic Cinderella tale. Banished to the human world after not getting Cinderella to the ball, and for falling in love with the Prince herself - Lil lives a dull and meaningless existence, until an opportunity to redeem herself suddenly appears and gives a new meaning to her life.
The novel started off a little slow, then I quickly became sucked in as the story flashed back between Lil's past and present. The story intertwined well, with the seemingly parallel characters/situations. I was completely hooked by the story of redemption, and intrigued at how dark the tale became. The ending was a bit of a shock to me, and I'm amused at how disappointed I was at that. I was really hoping for the fairytale ending after all!
I liked this overall, the ending was bit twisted, but I sort of got a feeling that was the way we were headed about 3/4th of the way through. Not really a "light hearted" read, but a decent story!
Fairies are selfish. It's a thing. I know this. But still, I was surprised by just how selfish Lillian was throughout the book. I understand that it's also a tale of redemption in getting this new Cinderella to the ball when she failed originally, but I was amazed by how single-minded this Lil character seemed. I was way more interested in reading about the present day, especially when Veronica and George walked into the picture because they were intriguing and colorful characters. I would love to be best friends with Veronica, and get book recommendations from George.
Overall, it was a good read in that it gave me perspective on the Cinderella story, and gave the Cinderella character a little more depth and pain than in the toned down Disney version. And it was a quick read too. But for a fluffy fun read, this is probably not it. Lots of pain, and it has some dark moments.
Overall, it was a good read in that it gave me perspective on the Cinderella story, and gave the Cinderella character a little more depth and pain than in the toned down Disney version. And it was a quick read too. But for a fluffy fun read, this is probably not it. Lots of pain, and it has some dark moments.
I really enjoyed this book more than I really expected. The ending had such a twist but it led to it very well. I'm just in so much shock now.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Cinderella, but through the eyes of the fairy godmother.
Cinderella is destined to go to the ball, fall in love with the prince, and become queen. And Lil is the fairy who has been chosen to make sure everything happens the way it is supposed to. But then the unthinkable happens; through her connection with Cinderella, Lil experiences human emotions and desires and becomes infected with her intense longing for love … and Lil falls in love with the prince. For her selfish mistake, she is exiled to the human world, to live in a human body, for centuries. Until one day, while working in a bookstore in New York City, Lil sees her chance to bring together two lonely people and finally right the wrongs of her past.
Just like Turgeon’s Mermaid story, this one is deeply emotional and sensual. Not sure that I loved it, but I did like it, and it is certainly different from any other Cinderella story I’ve read before. Although, given that it’s the title of the book, I wish it had done more with the concept of being a Godmother; it’s briefly mentioned that this role sets Lil apart from other fairies, but doesn’t go into much depth about what that difference actually entails, and I think that could have been really interesting lore to explore.
Content Warnings
Minor: Self harm, Suicide
Ew. I died a little, reading this book. It’s complete trash and I HATED every page I read. Which, was only about the first 100 pages. I couldn’t even finish it. This book is slow and depressing. I’m warning you, don’t read it.
