Review - The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. 2009
Hardback 287 pages



In Ali Shaw's debut novel, The Girl with Glass Feet, we are led into a world that while it may exist in modern times, it is still is a land of magic and mystery, where the barrier between our reality and the land of faerie is blurred. Set on the fictional island of St. Hauda's Land, a young girl sets upon a quest to find the only person she believes can cure her of an affliction akin to a curse. Shortly after visiting the island on a holiday from the mainland, Ida finds that her feet are slowly turning to glass. And while it starts with just the tips of her toes she soon finds that it is creeping ever farther up her body. She returns to the island to seek out an eccentric character whom she believes has the magic and knowledge to save her. What she finds instead is that hers isn't the only secret that the island holds and that her story is only a small thread in this complex tapestry of tales of magic and love.

Review - Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon

Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon
Publisher: Three Rivers Press 2009
Paperback 273 pages



Everyone, at one point or another, needs a good fairytale. I'm not talking about a Disneyized washed out Brothers Grimm disaster either. I'm talking a fairytale for adults. One that brings magic into our lives, with just that slight element of something darker lurking under the surface.

In Carolyn Turgeon's Godmother we get the old tale of Cinderella with a twist. What if it wasn't Cinderella at the ball? What if the death of Cinderella's mother and father, instead of making her sing with mice, made her a suicide case waiting to happen? In this delightfully imagined tale we find Cinderella's fairy godmother in present day New York. After failing her duty to Cinderella she is cast out of the fairy realm and made to fend for herself. Working in a small bookstore, the godmother decides that the only way to redeem herself is to bring two people together; her boss, a shy bookstore owner, and a new acquaintance, who is still grieving for a lover that died years before.

The ending is unexpected, but wonderfully bittersweet. While the story can move fast at times, and too slowly in others, in the whole the creativity of the novel makes it worth the effort. Just don't forget your glass slippers!