Title: My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen
Author: David Clawson
Format: Ebook
Genre: YA/NA, M/M, Romance, Coming of Age, Funny
Standalone: Yes
Part of a Series: No
POV: Chris
Steam Level: Minimal - some kissing and references to the deed but nothing explicit
5/5

My first thought when I finished this book was I LOVE THIS BOOK. I loved the unique writing style - told in the first person by Chris, a bit like a memoir but also breaking the fourth wall as if the reader should know this story. At one point I have to look up if it was real or not since I don't keep up with celebrity (or any) gossip. Chris is a high school senior, living with his stepmom and stepsiblings after his dad committed suicide several years prior. Chris is also gay but hasn't come out yet This story deals with acceptance of yourself, the pressures others put on you, mental health, and a little on race. But it deals with all these tough issues in a easy and light way. I found myself smiling throughout the book. I'd definitely read more by this author.

I received this book for free from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

An interesting take on the classic Cinderella story, but overall lacking and took me too long to get through!

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

What an odd little piece.
Oddly charming, oddly sassy and oddly emotional, to be exact.

This is a modern YA GLBT romance that is very (and I mean very) loosely based on the fairy tale of Cinderella. There's a ball, a missing shoe and a fairy godmother involved, as well as a selfish (yet strangely lovable) step-family and some sort of Prince Charming.

A decent gender-bending spin on the Cinderella fairy tale. Very much a young adult book and a little cheesy at times but a reasonable, feelgood read.

I LOVE fairytale retellings. They're my secret obsession. This one absolutely tops them all! I would love to see this turned into a move.

Hey guys!!

I have been reading!! Book slump is out of the window. Please don't judge me for my happy dance. As you noticed I have the new book releases out this month and I have also done next months. Oh boy, are you going to love it. There's so much stuff coming out that sounds incredible.

Onto the book! I think the name tells you everything really. Its another Cinderella retelling with a twist. Firstly our lovely main man is Chris, and he is gay. Secondly, as you notices he has a drag queen as a Fairy Godmother. This kind of sums it up but here's the summery anyway.

Summery:

Chris Bellows is just trying to get through high school and survive being the only stepchild in the social-climbing Fontaine family, whose recently diminished fortune hasn’t dimmed their desire to mingle with Upper East Side society. Chris sometimes feels more like a maid than part of the family. But when Chris’s stepsister Kimberly begins dating golden boy J. J. Kennerly, heir to a political dynasty, everything changes. Because Chris and J. J. fall in love . . . with each other.

With the help of a new friend, Coco Chanel Jones, Chris learns to be comfortable in his own skin, let himself fall in love and be loved, and discovers that maybe he was wrong about his step-family all along. All it takes is one fairy godmother dressed as Diana Ross to change the course of his life.

What can I say, this was interesting. It was a very witty read with some brilliant real life problems. People not accepting you as a regular person or you not being able to understand their acceptance. Falling in love with people who are "out of our league" and just being human. This book has it all.

The start of the book had a rather Cinderella feel to it, but towards the end of the story it had gone beyond the loss of a shoe and to something further. David Clawson had taken this to his own level. He has create his own story from a classic.

If you take your time to read it and think on the story, it has the classic feeling of people in relationships. However, it also has more. It's known that most societies still don't accept the LGBTQ. This shows the hardships that some people would have to go through. Not being able to hold hands. Such a simple gesture that can comfort someone as well as tell them that you are there. I like that this covers that and that coming out it is shown as hard work.

Most of us can only imagine what the gay community goes through when they have to come out to everyone. And for those of you who go through it, there will always be people who are proud of you for coming out and being who you want and need to be.

But as the book quotes about gay pride, "Maybe it's people being proud about accepting who they were born to be and not trying to hide or deny it anymore." As much as this stands for they Gay Pride I feel this stands for anyone. Be proud and accept yourself for who you are and what you can accomplish, because it is you and only you who can walk out into the world with your personality and pull it off. It has been designed for you.

The book has such understanding for the world and it shows. I like the feeling of the book in the long run again as its very relatable and fun. With the chemistry of the family as well as the expectation of money, the dynamic works very well.

I feel that I would have needed a little bit more of a connection between myself and the characters, as I felt I was watching this from within a bubble in their world. I also feel there may have needed to be a little more materialization added in. There wasn't enough description of the house or the people. I know Chris's room was on the 3rd floor and that his room was sparsely furnished, but I could walk into the house and would not be able tell you that it was theirs, or even walk to the kitchen and know where I was.

All in all I would give the book 4 stars and thank David Clawson for his hard work.

I picked this book up and it just wasn't for me. I don't know if it was because of me expecting something else or just being in a different head space, but I didn't finish this. I would like to give it another try later.

This book had such a fresh take on the Cinderella tale, and the title just catches your eye! I've had many people ask me about this book since it was published, and our library even ordered a copy! This book was a pleasant read, which is very much needed in this day and age!

It's been a few months since I read the book and unfortunately I never got round to writing my thoughts down properly. I can offer the following however:

- YA fiction set in New York
- Main themes are romance and family
- Modern-day gay Cinderella retelling
- Likely stereotypical approach to drag queens but Coco is still fierce/fun
- Some issues regarding eating disorders, alcoholism, slut shaming and homophobia
- Struggled to believe in Chris and JJ’s relationship – most takes place behind the scenes

Warnings: Homophobic language. Offensive language. Offensive remarks towards drag queens. Racism.

Note that I have expressed some thoughts towards drag queens. Now, as I am not a drag queen, nor do I know any drag queens, the opinions I express about them are solely on a general thought and not exclusive towards drag queens.

Ok, so I needed a cute read to get me over an arc that I dnf and about halfway through this book I so wanted to dnf as well, and then I decided to keep on reading it, to see how the ending would be. The title and description of this book are what drew me in and while I love a Cinderella retelling, a gay Cinderella hits all the right buttons. And I thought it would be this book. And then it really wasn’t. Well, it was like a quarter of what I wanted.

I like that it changed from the usual two stepsisters to a stepsister and –brother. But then they fucked that up by making the stepbrother a total douche, and the stepsister mostly annoying (she had some redeeming qualities).

I was confused about the title. It seemed like there would be an emphasis on the drag queen (Coco), but even though there was a greater emphasis on the fairy godmother than usual, I’m still confused as to why the title was more about Coco than Chris (so proud of myself that I actually remembered his name).

So let me get this straight (ha) – Chris, the main character, just decides to fucking leave with this random person (Coco). Nahuh hun. Didn’t horror movies or your parents or literally your fucking conscious teach you anything? YOU DON’T FUCKING GO OFF WITH A RANDOM PERSON. WEET JY WAT GEBEUR? JY SAL FOKKIN’ GEMOER WORD (Do you know what will happen? You’ll get fucking murdered – there’s no actual translation for gemoer, but the closest it is is an extreme version of being murdered. That’s why I love Afrikaans). And Chris also lets a random person (still Coco) into his house. How bloody American of him. I see that apparently you guys just let pizza delivery people in, like nee man, disse reg nie. Like, please, guys. Stop just willy-nilly letting people into your house. That’s why you have so many horror movies.

So Chris is mean to be like 17…but he acts more like the 12 year old I look after.

There are tons of homophobic comments, most of them coming from Chris’s supposed family – which they later try to justify by saying they only said those comments (which were homophobic, I might add) as a way of showing him support. The English language is failing me right now, so I’m going to switch over to Afrikaans. Wat die absoluut fok is hierdie boek? Watter sort kak is díe? Hoe is ‘n mens verondestel om daai sorte comments te sien as enigiets anders as fokkin’ verkeerd? Translation: What the absolute fuck is this book? What kind of shit is this? How is a person supposed to see those comments as anything else than fucking wrong?

And then the whole introduction of Duane/Coco to Chris and as a matter of fact, how the entire book treats drag queens was very offensive. From assuming that just because Chris knows what gender Duane was assigned to at birth, that is the gender Duane wants to be known as (which means Chris using he/him pronouns when Duane is Coco – like no please, correct pronouns).

All in all, there were good quotes about lgbt+ and all that jazz, which did in fact, make me want to give the book two stars, but then I decided on one star after I saw how the book treated its drag queens. There are also a few times where Chris explains a view of gay (all about emotional connections and being gay doesn’t go away) that is great and all, but then he mucks it up by saying that being gay had certainly never made me want to dress or look like a woman – which just sets his previous arguments about gay and what it means back like a few paces. Then there’s another quote about drag queens that really irked me: Coco slipped a gloved hand between me and Special Kaye, looking up into her much taller friend’s heavily made up face. “Bitch, you are one pair of scissors away from going drag queen to transsexual, understand?” – that, that quote nearly made me put the book down. YOU DON’T MAKE A FUCKING JOKE ABOUT TRANS ISSUES!!!

Ooh and continuing with drag queens – there’s a scene where Duane tells Chris this: I haven’t been to bed yet. But Kevin – that’s Special Kaye’s real name… - real name, like the persona of a drag queen is just for kicks.

There’s also this part where Chris asks Duane if he’s bi (because he’s drag queen) and I think I had to exit Kindle for a few minutes and go read Sterek. Because wat die absolute fok soort a vrag is daai? A person isn’t bi because the way they dress. Similarly, they are also not gay or lesbian due to the way they dress.

The next paragraph involves a quote that I was super upset about it as it implied something extremely rude and I’m not sure as to whether it was what I thought it was or just an actual joke (note that I will be ranting a bit on this). So it follows on the previous paragraph (Chris asking Duane if he’s bi because he’s a drag queen) and Duane replies that (and I quote) the only fish I eat is at Red Lobster. So because he reveals that he is in fact, gay, does this quote mean he thinks of women, or rather their genitals and how it supposedly smells like a fish. Listen here, bra. You can’t say something like that about a woman (this is where I was wondering what gender the author was. I guessed male. I was fucking right) when you possibly have female characters – now how are they supposed to feel good about themselves and their bodies when you write such a shitty quote – which is fucking is, I’m very sorry (actually not) but it is. And if it turns out to be that this quote is meant to allude to vaginas, I will scream and write a long paragraph.

- This paragraph, not counting this sentence, is over 200 words. Trust me, I will do it.

In conclusion, no I most do certainly not recommend this book and if anyone does know if that fish quote does allude the female genitals, please tell me and I’ll happily write various lengthy paragraphs. Some might even be in Afrikaans.

I have a trans daughter and I shared this book with her after I read it. We both thought it was very funny and moving. I look forward to reading more books from this author. My daughter loved Coco.

First of all this is one of the most fun titles for a book I have seen lately, and one of the most fun books I've read.

A modern, contemporary, grounded in reality Cinderella retelling, where our hero Chris, is a young dealing with being gay teenager & member of a socialite/prominent family. He is telling us the real story, because the public account is all wrong. Actually Chris is "talking directly" to us readers.

First appearing in Diana Ross style, Coco, probably the most unconventional fairy godmother I have encountered, joins this original retelling by getting Chris to the ball New York style. Our Prince Charming is J.J. Kennerly, the eligible bachelor that his stepfamily our pushing to his stepsister. Now isn't that awkward? Awww those beautifully comical & embarrassing situations they get themselves into.

Like a pleasant breeze, the words just flew by reading this book with great caustic remarks. It was HILARIOUS. There were parts I was literally crying from laughter, but it was also sweet, touching, dealing with public image & sexuality, the unfairness of it.

Including a marvelous ending with a shoe, but not in the way you're expecting, I finished this book with a goofy smile on my face..

Welp...
This book had some good potential. The title was eye-catching and the premise itself--a modern day retelling of Cinderella with a gay protagonist--was intriguing enough that I requested it. However, the end result wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
The good: Chris is a sweet guy, a little prone to letting people walk all over him, but sometimes funny and smart and it was nice to see how he and his family/friends handled his gradual coming out. I liked that several of the characters gained added depth throughout the story (Buck and Kimberly especially, though they kinda bungled trying to let Chris know they were cool with him being gay), and the story was decently funny at times. The romance was mostly good, though like Chris I found the fact that they were going behind Kimberly's back and making her an unknowing beard pretty icky.
The bad: some really bad stereotypes about drag queens, LGBTQ+ people, black people, etc.; Kimberly drugging her own mother with Xanax; JJ being a low-key idiot at times (and apparently thinking Chris should be totally okay with keeping their relationship a secret, possibly forever, and that it wasn't that unfair to Kimberly); the pretty much insta-love between Chris and JJ; and the ending which seemed rushed/forced (view spoiler). I wish I could've liked this book more, I really wanted to. It was a pretty fast read and had some moments that made me laugh and all, but other times it just made me pull my I've-smelled-something-icky face with all the stereotypes and bad/problematic choices characters made but were never called out for.
Also...the author's writing style could be a bit much at times. I'm not one who dislikes flowery language or a smart turn of phrase but in this there was just too much all the time. The whole thing just felt like it needed a lot more editing/rewriting, especially to fix all those instances where weird verbal gymnastics happened just to make sure a sentence didn't end with a preposition. Seriously? That old grammar nugget? It's not necessarily anymore and when you try to warp the sentence to avoid that preposition, it actually makes the whole thing really confusing and hard to read. Also it's y'all not "ya'll" which is a nonsense word that doesn't make any kind of sense. Y'all is a contraction; the apostrophe goes in place of the missing letters. "You all" becomes "y'all" when the apostrophe replaces the "ou." Putting the apostrophe between the "a" and "ll" doesn't make any kind of sense because they're nothing being replaced there. *seethes* Sorry this is a pet peeve of mine and it really irks me to see y'all used incorrectly. I know the book has already been published and all so I hope, if nothing else, that a lot of the weird sentence structure choices were fixed between this ARC and the finished copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an incredibly problematic book.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1981158712?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1798807295?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1967657575

3,5 stars

This is a gay Cinderella retelling and it did not disappoint at all! As soon as I saw this book, I just knew I had to get my hands on it.
There were numerous times where I laughed out loud, epsecially when the drag queens interacted with each other which, unfortunately, happened only once. I need more of them!

I just love good Cinderella retellings. Chris, our Cinderella, was a very likable guy and he goes through much character growth during this book. But it's not only him, also the rest of his family undergo much character development, I really liked that they were not just written in a stereotypical way.

I have to admit, though, that I was not so much smitten with J.J. Kennerly. I didn't see what the fuss about him was. He is a decent guy but not really like a Prince Charming. Furthermore, the romance between J.J. and Chris was too insta-love-y.

But all in all, I still recommend this book and applaud it for its humor!

While I was intrigued by the premise—a gay retelling of Cinderella—My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen really disappointed me.

The representation of a gay teen coming to terms with his identity, as well as falling in love for the first time, was the redeeming quality to this story. Chris is a sweet kid who volunteers himself to take care of his step-family after his father’s tragic suicide. His progression from completely closeted to ultimately out and proud was really compelling. I enjoy reading about “baby gays,” kids who are closeted, afraid, and learning about themselves and the queer community. Stories like this do have the potential to be educational, both for queer teens and allocishet readers.

That being said, this book fell far short of my expectations for several reasons.

I don’t like to bring writing into my reviews—both because I’m picky, as a writer myself, and because I feel that good storytelling can make mediocre writing less noticeable. Unfortunately, I really struggled to get into this story in the first place because of its heavily expositional style. Rather than showing us what’s going on, the story relies heavily on Chris narrating events, so I had trouble connecting with and caring about what was going on.

For a book with “drag queen” in the title, I expected a little less stereotypical representation. Chris’s “fairy godmother,” Coco, is a caricature of the black drag queen, and her gay male counterpart, Duane, is little better. Duane/Coco never escapes their racial status, and several characters make subtly racist comments throughout that are never addressed in a meaningful way. On top of that, Coco and her drag queen friends are overtly sexual and borderline predatory both toward Chris and his straight step-brother, Buck. Again, this is never addressed as problematic behavior.

Let me state, for the record, that I’ve interacted with a lot of drag queens in my day. I spent a lot of my time in New York City in the gay scene. In that sense, the drag queens portrayed in this book behaved much like the ones I met—they mock literally everyone and everything, as if their goal is to make everyone uncomfortable. While this book was perhaps a realistic representation, I don’t think it was necessary. The drag queens make jokes about uncomfortable topics—references to tucking, boob jobs, bulimia, and more—but at no point is their behavior called out as problematic.

Additionally, the treatment of Duane/Coco’s gender is a constant conversation in the book, but I didn’t appreciate the way it was discussed. Initially, Chris really struggles with misgendering Coco and is preoccupied with sex/gender binaries. This could’ve been a great opportunity to deconstruct the gender binary—as drag queens literally call it into question by performing gender. Instead, there’s a preoccupation with genitals and not a real conversation about the difference between biological sex, gender identity, and gender expression.

(A side note: as far as ableist language about mental health, Chris’s stepmother is an alcoholic, and at one point Chris and his stepsister drug their mom with Xanax—and jokes ensue that are incredibly dangerous, as Xanax shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol.)

Although Chris and J.J.’s relationship develops over the course of months, it’s mostly established through exposition. What this means it that the reader misses out on valuable conversation between the two, so we don’t really see them getting to know each other. So while it’s not necessarily “insta-love” (in that Chris himself points out he doesn’t believe in love at first sight), we don’t really get to see the relationship in action for the most part.

I was really disappointed in the missed opportunity for a discussion of gay sex as well. There’s quite a bit of build-up to Chris and J.J.’s first sexual encounter, but the actual sex is completely cut out of the story. While I get not wanting to go into graphic detail in a YA setting, there’s plenty of “not kid appropriate” content that comes out of Duane/Coco’s mouth (as well as other characters). I felt that this was a missed opportunity to talk about queer sex—and safe queer sex specifically.

the bottom line:
If you’re going to market a book for the LGBT+ community, you have to make sure you address potentially problematic content within said community. Drag queens might be blunt, offensive jokesters, but they should be called out within a book marketed for queer teens who are often learning about their own gender identity. This book could be very helpful for the young G in the community, but it’s potentially really harmful for trans spectrum teens in its treatment of gender, as well as its stereotyping of POC. Ultimately, this could have been a really educational book, but it relies so heavily on stereotypes that it misses its opportunity to really help queer kids—and leaves itself open to allocishet readers and their existing biases.

I admit it was the title that sparked my interest in this book. Oh, its a pretty good title! Whoever thought of it, I applaud you. As you can imagine it starts as accurate modernization of Cinderella, just in gay. I liked the idea, and Duane as Drag Godmother was always worth a smile. sadly he gets forgotten quite fastly.
I was surprised to find out that it goes why deeper than just a cinderella retelling. With the right words the author manages to keep the focus on the coming out, the society unwillingsness to accept and respect and tolerate same sexual couples. Also the familydynamic was really interesting. While it starts off with the typical "Poor Chris is the adopted child orphan thats been used as a slave now" it becomes clear that the situation isn't that easy. While yes, he does all the chores he is also considered family and in the middle they make it clear that coming from different families, conversation is a serious problem. While his stepsister tried to be encouraging on his sexuality, he took it as mobbing. It was nice to see him changing his attitude a bit and seeing that family come along. This is not to make excuses for the families treatment. But it is clear that they like him, which is more than Drizilla and Anastasia ever did.
So now... the lovestory. Sorry but... woah. That was way to fast and than way to nothing and towards the end I just didn't felt anything. Was this supposed to be all romantic? Because no. So for me, this was a book about family, and a gay boy coming out and finding his place.
This book can easily stand its ground next to Becky Albertalli and David Levithan.

This is a case where I liked the concept better than the execution. At its heart its a fun story. THe step family is shallow to be certain and they take advantage of Chris but they do have genuine worries and are, for the most part, actually "good" people. I liked the modern interpretation of the Cinderella story. Its a little overly happy but not disgustingly so. The biggest problem is that the perspective is reflective. We have Chris recalling events after teh fact. This tends to take an overview approach rather than keeping us in the moment or allowing us to really connect with the characters. A fun read for quick entertainment.

This was a really fun and engaging read.
The way this book was written - it makes you feel like you are talking to a friend. It's just casual and friendly.
The characters are all fantastic - they were well developed and I did not find myself growing bored with them at any point of the story - the characters also help create a humorous environment without it being too outrageous.

I really enjoy reading LGBTQ+ stories - and I think it's because there are so few of them that are decent reads. Mix that with the fact that this is a fairy tale retelling and you have me hooked! Who doesn't love a good retelling?! The ending definitely leaves you wanting more! It's a recommend from me!