Godmother Night
Lesbian protagonists. GLBT-negative world; sexual violence. Winner of the 1997 World Fantasy Award.
. Recommended.
February 27, 2010 | Revid 466 < prev | next >
Lauren and Jacqueline are two young women at the heart of a contemporary fairy tale, discovering themselves and each other, love and the fear of loss, and the inevitable shadow of death. But death isn't just a mysterious force to them. She is Mother Night, accompanied by a gang of red haired, motorcycle-riding sirens, and—whether welcomed or shunned—she's determined to play a stronger role in the lives of Lauren and Jacqueline than in those of ordinary mortals.
The first part of the story documents the blossoming of love, painting an intimate portrait of both the trials of youth and the unique pitfalls of living queer in a straight world. I enjoyed it even as the tension ratcheted up and never loosened, even as a pall descended so heavily onto these two women that they seemed to fade in and out of their own lives. It was beautiful and grotesque at once, like butterflies without mouths.
But the second half was just sad, without any greater meaning than the capriciousness of death. Mythic symbols and personifications recurred throughout the story, but never seemed to represent anything more than our inability to escape mortality. I kept hoping for some deeper truth, something that would tie together the disparate threads of these women's lives and provide some meaningful closure. But then, maybe the point was that none of it really means anything: life or death, joy or grief, holding on or letting go.
And that just makes me sad.
Godmother Night is a powerful story—far more like the Brothers Grimm than Disney—and everyone who reads it is likely to come away with their own personal interpretation. Mine happened to be unpleasant, but I don't suppose fairy-tales about death are ever likely to be otherwise.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Please attribute this work to "Finder at GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources." Linkbacks are always appreciated.
