Customer Reviews

The Godmother

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In traditional fairy tales, fairy godmothers show up when they are least expected but most needed, to right wrongs and assist those in peril. Enter Felicity Fortune. Summoned to Seattle by a sweet but burned-out young social worker named Rose, she sets out to solve problems both modern and ageless with magic and kindness.

You see, there are many young people in danger in the city. Hank and Gigi have been abandoned by their mother and kidnapped by a child molester. Cindy has just been fired from her job by her own stepsisters, and booted out of her family home. Snohomish is hiding in the woods from a hit man hired by her jealous supermodel stepmom. Dico is living on the streets, unable to get any breaks...until he meets a magic cat. Any of this sound familiar? LOL

In this entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking novel, we see that today's problems are nothing new, and that a little kindness goes a long way. One caveat: Scarborough can get a little sledgehammer-ish with her political views. While I agree with most of these opinions, sometimes the character of Rose talks more like an editorial than a normal human being making conversation. Still, I found this relatively easy to overlook. Overall, I recommend _The Godmother_ to anyone who likes this sort of thing.

I am an avid science fiction reader and was looking for something new. Elizabeth Scarborough had co-written several books with Anne McCaffrey, which I had enjoyed, I was looking for some other books that she had written when I found The Godmother. The book is a very interesting blend of SF, current urban political realities, magic and an updated version of the Grimm's fairy tales with a liberal dash of humor.

Scarborough does an excellent job of developing real life characters. This book is both light hearted and thought provoking. I can't wait to get started on The Godmother's Apprentice.

I don't know how she does it...but she does! This book brings old favorites into a modern setting without pushing the line. This book gets better with every reading! I keep noticing something that didn't quite "hit" the time before...The same runs true to with "The Godmother's Apprentice" and "The Godmother's Web."

The original fairy tales were dark and terrifying, and here Scarborough hauls them into the present day, where it turns out they are no lighter or less terrifying. All the usual suspects appear, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and through all their lives the guiding hand of the Godmother. Imaginative, well-crafted, and, well, enchanting.

This novel is a shining example of how to make a faery tale fit into our contemporary lives. The spirit is still the same, and the dangers are still as real; but they're brought to a level that the modern person can empathise with. From Snohamish's drug use, to the abuse and mistreatment of Cindy Ellis and Little Hank and Gigi. Even Diego, with his "Puss and Boots" storyline is more real and heart wrenching than any "real crime" drama.

This book was my first time venturing into the world of fantasy fiction. And what an introduction. I can't wait to start reading the Godmother's Aprrentice!

The first book in a wonderful series.. Imagine you get one wish.. and your a social worker in Seattle... I read this book and then closed it and started right over again.. read this modern adaptation of several fairy tales.. it's heartwarming, occasionally terrifying.. and it does have a happily ever after!

Cleverly weaving in lots of familiar fairy tales, the author also reminds the reader that life in the 90s is NOT a fairy tale, and, often, not even fair! But Felicity to the rescue -- a Godmother with just enough powers to make all the interwoven stories in this wonderful book have happy endings. I hope that Ms. Scarborough keeps writing more and more books in this series -- I'm reading "The Godmother's Apprentice" now and can't wait to get into "The Godmother's Web," the third in the series. I can't put them down, but I don't want to read them because then they'll be all gone!!

This is a wonderfull book for all fairy tale lovers. Great story line and wonderfully written.

Scarborough is, without a doubt, a talented writer (as if one needs me to tell one that). Her prose just about sparkles; it is a delight to read. It's too bad this story is so.. I don't know.. not up to par. It's like a poorly-fitted dress on a supermodel.

The titular Godmother is the best of the characters here. She swoops in at the behest of the heroine (a typical do-gooder a la "Briar Rose"'s Becca, matryr complex, filled with love for the downtrodden, hardworking and without a romantic interest in sight, etc.) to save the entire city. Along the way, she rescues people who closely resemble characters from old fairy tales (the passage in the book that I liked best was her appearance as Kwan Yin to an Oriental gangbanger -- powerful and entirely believable, but alas, probably lost on most people), like "Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel".

It felt like the story took the easy way out in many ways. Of course Hansel and Gretel was about molestation, for example. Many vignettes were too easy, too manipulative, too baldly obvious. Some characters were very stock in nature. The end spiralled out of control fast, coming to a conclusion that I had to read twice to believe I'd seen. I don't get into stories that are too pat, too obviously forced together, but this had that feel, in spades. And the bit about magic being doled out irked me for some reason -- very hokey and totally unnecessary, particularly since, having introduced the device, Scarborough promptly stomps it for the whole rest of the story. She could have thought of a better way to lessen the use of magic.

Would I read it again? Not likely. Scarborough has written many better books, but this isn't one of the better efforts.