Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
344th out of 1,728 books
—
7,121 voters
The Good Fairies of New York
by
Martin Millar,
Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)
Dinnie, an overweight enemy of humanity, was the worst violinist in New York, but was practicing gamely when two cute little fairies stumbled through his fourth-floor window and vomited on the carpet. . .
When a pair of fugitive Scottish thistle fairies end up transplanted to Manhattan by mistake, both the Big Apple and the Little People have a lot of adjusting to do. Heath
Paperback, 242 pages
Published
September 8th 2006
by Soft Skull Press
(first published 1992)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Nov 29, 2010
Mariel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
dancing like a monkey
Recommended to Mariel by:
maimed happiness
Current editions of The Good Fairies of New York feature an incandescently fluorescent blurb from Neil Gaiman. Every subsequent Millar publication features this same quote. It's a lifetime ticket. He can be trusted (unless it's nostalgia based. I'll save those musings for another time, perhaps). There are things that nostalgia will do to perspective and all that (I despise the '90s while other freakazoids somehow miss it). Trusting reviews at all is tricky. I didn't even have the decency to writ...more
12 likes · like · see review
view all 19 comments
That anyone bothers surfing the internet on their own time is absurd. When you are not at work you could be eating, drinking, writing, playing baseball, taking karate, licking someone’s neck, looking at stars, getting into fights or cutting down cell phone towers. What the hell good is sitting down to a high-jacked internet connection if all you are going to do is read Pitchfork the entire night? Get serious about your time, and use those well-paid, or well, paid company hours at your job like t...more
16 likes · like · see review
Don't judge a book by it's cover. Although I usually do and it's worked out before with random finds that turn out to be amazing, not so in this instance.
Great cover, great introduction by Neil Gaiman, Staff Pick at a great independent somehow does not equal a good book. I thought it'd be cool but it's pretty much just about some Scottish fairies in New York City. I really didn't like the style, which I didn't find particularly skillful. It could have been a lot better. The main thing I got out...more
Great cover, great introduction by Neil Gaiman, Staff Pick at a great independent somehow does not equal a good book. I thought it'd be cool but it's pretty much just about some Scottish fairies in New York City. I really didn't like the style, which I didn't find particularly skillful. It could have been a lot better. The main thing I got out...more
Jun 25, 2007
Richard
added it
The Good Fairies of New York finds two Scottish thimble fairies transported to lower Manhattan. Morag and Heather, who didn't completely fit in back in the old country, are a bit bewildered by their new surroundings, but make do as best they can. They're not entirely alone-as it turns out, New York is heavily populated by fairies, including Italian, Chinese, and black ones.
They glomp onto some humans; Morag joins Kerry, who suffers from Crohns disease (complete with colostomy bag), while Heather...more
They glomp onto some humans; Morag joins Kerry, who suffers from Crohns disease (complete with colostomy bag), while Heather...more
While not quite as life-changingingly awesome as
Lonely Werewolf Girl
, this is still a ripsnortingly fun read.
Updated to add: One of the reasons this book didn't completely work for me is that, even though it is set in New York and two of the main characters are supposedly Americans if not New Yorkers, all of the characters seemed British to me. Millar avoided any really obvious faults in vocabulary, but the tone of the dialogue wasn't quite right for New Yorkers.
Updated to add, second iteratio...more
Updated to add: One of the reasons this book didn't completely work for me is that, even though it is set in New York and two of the main characters are supposedly Americans if not New Yorkers, all of the characters seemed British to me. Millar avoided any really obvious faults in vocabulary, but the tone of the dialogue wasn't quite right for New Yorkers.
Updated to add, second iteratio...more
4 likes · like · see review
What a disappointing read. Firstly, the text is huge, so it didn't even give me the benefit at least being a distraction. I finished it in about 4 hours. The characters never evolved and I didn't even like any of them to begin with. Everything just sort of exists in this book, and the reading of it just felt like a snapshot of the world, but it was like a snapshot of someone else's living room with no context. Completely boring because I don't care about that room, I know nothing about it, and i...more
It's not often I stop reading a book, even ones that I end up giving a 1-star to, but I gave up on this one about halfway through. The Good Fairies is just, plain and simply, not well-written. It reminded me of something written by a 14-year-old who has some fun ideas but no concept of how to put them together into a compelling story.
Millar likes to jump between different characters and subplots far more often than is healthy - often he'll introduce a couple of new characters, then two paragraph...more
Millar likes to jump between different characters and subplots far more often than is healthy - often he'll introduce a couple of new characters, then two paragraph...more
10 likes · like · see review
Make no mistake, this is getting two stars because Millar was fortunate enough to have Neil Gaiman write his introduction...which, by the end of the book, is the best piece of writing in the whole thing. This is a shame, because I received this book as a present from a really good friend, and was completely ready for a hilarious, light-hearted sort of novel. I really, really tried to like it, and forced myself to sit through the whole thing, sixth-grade writing style and all, despite numerous mo...more
4 likes · like · see review
I bought this on a whim because it was sitting on a table at Barnes and Noble and it had an introduction by Neil Gaiman. I would say I am an incredibly avid fan of Neil Gaiman, so I bought it.
I wasn't totally disappointed. It was a fun read, and the characters were memorable (especially Dinnie and Kerry), but I felt like some of the storytelling choices the author made were very awkward. You never really read about anything happening, you just heard about it later. You were never present during...more
I wasn't totally disappointed. It was a fun read, and the characters were memorable (especially Dinnie and Kerry), but I felt like some of the storytelling choices the author made were very awkward. You never really read about anything happening, you just heard about it later. You were never present during...more
Boy.
Did i have to force myself through this one.
I have to wonder if Neil Gaiman and I were reading the same book. The storyline was completely all over the place. Within a chapter the author bounces from one group of characters to the next, leading me to wonder why he had numbered chapters at all..
The book goes something like this:
Two scottish fairies land in NYC, get drunk, play the fiddle, fight amongst each other and wreak havoc among the lives of Dinnie (A fat cranky man who has no money a...more
Did i have to force myself through this one.
I have to wonder if Neil Gaiman and I were reading the same book. The storyline was completely all over the place. Within a chapter the author bounces from one group of characters to the next, leading me to wonder why he had numbered chapters at all..
The book goes something like this:
Two scottish fairies land in NYC, get drunk, play the fiddle, fight amongst each other and wreak havoc among the lives of Dinnie (A fat cranky man who has no money a...more
Dry understated humor and spectacular circumstances (who's the last character you know that had a colostomy bag?) combine to make a fairly entertaining ride. Was a little difficult to get into the style at first, but then the pace picked up and carried you right along with it. Will be checking out the author's other works.
The writing style was light and easy to read. This made it a quick read but also left the story very shallow. There were a larger than average number of characters and the story rapidly switched between them. Each time I picked the book up again I had trouble remembering what was happening with all of the characters.
The premise of the book seemed very funny, fairies running amok in New York City, but the delivery was only mildly humorous and overly crass in places. The characters themselves lack...more
The premise of the book seemed very funny, fairies running amok in New York City, but the delivery was only mildly humorous and overly crass in places. The characters themselves lack...more
A group of Fairies end up in New York and cause all sorts of trouble, mostly by getting drunk and having no concept at all of how not to cause trouble.
I was really expecting to love this book but I actually found it quite disapointing. I think it was a prose thing for me. It was very flat and difficult to read. We get told something relevant to the plot has happened and they get hurried along and it would be nice to have seen some of that stuff happening, you know. None of the characters had any...more
I was really expecting to love this book but I actually found it quite disapointing. I think it was a prose thing for me. It was very flat and difficult to read. We get told something relevant to the plot has happened and they get hurried along and it would be nice to have seen some of that stuff happening, you know. None of the characters had any...more
Get ready for a wild ride. First there is Heather and Morag, Scottish thistle fairies, that only wanted to start the first radical fairy punk rock but end fugitives fleeing to New York. Then there is their task of matching an overweight disgruntled inept violinist with a beautiful free-spirited artist who has pledged her life to complete her flower alphabet to beat out her ex-boyfriend’s production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream in a local community art contest. Unfortunately Heather's and Morag's...more
This was a fun book. I'm pretty sure there were messages in there (possibly about being a good person and washing machines being awesome), but overall just a zany, silly story about the hazards of Scottish, English, and Irish fairies suddenly finding themselves in New York. Oh yeah, and humans and ghosts living in New York. And delusional homeless people, who were some of my favorite characters.
I really enjoy Martin Millar's style. He uses such unadorned, simple english, but still manages to cre...more
I really enjoy Martin Millar's style. He uses such unadorned, simple english, but still manages to cre...more
I never thought I would like this book. I couldn't even remember why I picked up this book. The cover reminded me of something that you would read when you were 14. However, when I picked it up again in my room (quite some while after I bought) and saw that Neil Gaiman's comment was plastered on the front cover, I began to realise what type of book this would be. It is a VERY quick read. It is simple, direct and fast-flowing. It is also pretty short. You could read this in a day. This is not a c...more
i bought this book because of how much i enjoyed reading the kalix macrinnalch series and after the fifth or so page began to feel denial set in; that it was just off to a slow start and that at any moment things were really going to get interesting and i was immediately going to get rhapsodic.
by page twenty i seemed to have mostly purged myself of denial and accepted the fact that this book wasn't going to be anywhere near as good as lonely werewolf girl but as the aforementioned was spectacul...more
by page twenty i seemed to have mostly purged myself of denial and accepted the fact that this book wasn't going to be anywhere near as good as lonely werewolf girl but as the aforementioned was spectacul...more
Bon ok, ce ne sera pas facile... Hummmm... Par quoi commencer? Bon, premièrement, j’ai rarement vu autant de « New York » utilisé dans le même minuscule petit paragraphe que dans ce résumé de 4e de couverture! 5! Je les ai compté! Je ne connais Neil Gaiman que de réputation, il semblerait que ce soit un très bon auteur, mais là franchement cette 4e de couverture, c’est trop! Je ne sais pas si vous avez bien compris, mais le roman se déroule à ... New York! Non, sans blague!? J’aurais jamais devi...more
I'll try to keep this one spoiler-free. ;)
Here's the amazon blurb, which sums up the plot quite nicely without giving away too much:
Morag and Heather, two eighteen-inch fairies with swords, green kilts and badly dyed hair fly through the window of the worst violinist in New York, an overweight and antisocial type named Dinnie, and vomit on his carpet. Who they are, how they came to New York and what this has to do with the lovely Kerry - who lives across the street, and has Crohn's Disease, and...more
Here's the amazon blurb, which sums up the plot quite nicely without giving away too much:
Morag and Heather, two eighteen-inch fairies with swords, green kilts and badly dyed hair fly through the window of the worst violinist in New York, an overweight and antisocial type named Dinnie, and vomit on his carpet. Who they are, how they came to New York and what this has to do with the lovely Kerry - who lives across the street, and has Crohn's Disease, and...more
A fun tale of two Scottish fairies who find themselves in New York after committing a heinous crime against the clans. After a fight, Morag and Heather separate and end up with a pair of neighbours. Innitially Heather tries to teach her human friend to play the fiddle, while Morag helps her human friend gather flowers for a celtic alphabet. During these adventures, the fairies run afoul of the Italian and Chinese fairies of New York.
Meanwhile, the rest of their party, including three Irish fair...more
Meanwhile, the rest of their party, including three Irish fair...more
This one touched the right buttons for me. It's a fairy tale tale for the new kids on the block : irreverent, subversive, sexually liberated, rich in pop culture references. It should also come with it's own soundtrack albums - one for New York punk bands and one for traditional Scottish tunes. I am tempted to take notes and hunt for the records mentioned here when I get around to re-reading the book.
The general tone is one of carnival parade / commedia dell' arte with colourful characters inter...more
The general tone is one of carnival parade / commedia dell' arte with colourful characters inter...more
Finished reading The Good Fairies of New York (1992, 2006) by Martin Millar last night. The Good Fairies is a humorous urban fantasy, similar in genre to the work of Christopher Moore, but even further out. Although Moore’s sense of humor is pretty odd, Millar’s is downright strange.
The Good Fairies is mostly about two Scottish thistle fairies, Morag and Heather and their adventures in New York. Not that they know they are in New York (for a while they think they’re in Glasgow) or where New York...more
The Good Fairies is mostly about two Scottish thistle fairies, Morag and Heather and their adventures in New York. Not that they know they are in New York (for a while they think they’re in Glasgow) or where New York...more
My friend Carla dropped this one in my lap at the bar awhile back, because she thought I'd really like it. I mean, it has fairies and sex and colostomy bags and punk shows in it, so what's not to like? And I did like it for all of those reasons. That's kind of where the book fails somewhat, though. It skims the surface of all these neat things and instead of going deep, deep into this sort-of-fantasy-but-also-uber-gritty world, it relies on its coolness to get by. I would have loved more depth o...more
I can't help but feel a bit betrayed. Neil Gaimen himself wrote a glowing introduction to the book, and promised me that it would be funny and engaging and wonderful. It was not.
The style was disjointed and haphazard, jumping from scene to scene that were sometimes as short as a few sentences. Doing so occasionally can sometimes be quite effective, but when the entire book is like that, it leaves me feeling like I've just read a long string of teasers, and the book itself had no meat. I also fel...more
The style was disjointed and haphazard, jumping from scene to scene that were sometimes as short as a few sentences. Doing so occasionally can sometimes be quite effective, but when the entire book is like that, it leaves me feeling like I've just read a long string of teasers, and the book itself had no meat. I also fel...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Having recently moved to New York City, one of my first excursions was to the Strand Bookstore. Late one evening in May, I walked into the shop and, feeling slightly overwhelmed but giddy with excitement, I ventured into the maze of tables and shelves surfeit with books.
Within ten minutes, I happened upon a book entitled The Good Fairies of New York. The title caught my attention: fairies? New York? The titular connotations suggested that the book would be a type of urban fantasy. Seeing that Ne...more
Within ten minutes, I happened upon a book entitled The Good Fairies of New York. The title caught my attention: fairies? New York? The titular connotations suggested that the book would be a type of urban fantasy. Seeing that Ne...more
The book begins in the apartment of the worst violinist in New York. Two very inebriated fairies fly in his window, one of them vomits and appologizes. The other says, "Don't worry. Fairy vomit is no doubt sweet smelling to humans." Bwa ha ha!
In the intro, Neil Gaiman says: "This book is for every fiddler who has realized, half-way through plaing an ancient Scotish air, that the Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated" is what folk music is really all about, and gone straight into it. It's a book for every...more
In the intro, Neil Gaiman says: "This book is for every fiddler who has realized, half-way through plaing an ancient Scotish air, that the Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated" is what folk music is really all about, and gone straight into it. It's a book for every...more
I've known about this book forever, and for some reason always assumed I wouldn't like it.
I was wrong.
*************
(ETA now that I see how love-hate most of the reviews are.)
The writing style is really disjointed and choppy and sometimes repetitive. The random facts you get when first introduced to characters might not necessarily be the most important ones (or maybe they are), and so when the BIG facts are dropped it can really twist your gut. I guess maybe if you like linear narrative, that co...more
I was wrong.
*************
(ETA now that I see how love-hate most of the reviews are.)
The writing style is really disjointed and choppy and sometimes repetitive. The random facts you get when first introduced to characters might not necessarily be the most important ones (or maybe they are), and so when the BIG facts are dropped it can really twist your gut. I guess maybe if you like linear narrative, that co...more
‘The Good Fairies of New York’ tells the dreamy tale of a fairy troupe who converge on a terrible New York violinist named Dinnie. Heather and Morag, along with their winged-friends Brannoc, Maeve, Padraig, Petal and Tulip have a plan for Dinnie and his across-the-way neighbour, Kerry. These eighteen-inch fairies pack quite the punch and have a cunning strategy for war that would put Sun Tzu to shame . . .
‘The Good Fairies of New York’ was actually published in 1992, but has been re-released th...more
‘The Good Fairies of New York’ was actually published in 1992, but has been re-released th...more
Rating: 5.0 stars
I'm very surprised by the amount of negative reviews for this book, as I found The Good Fairies of New York to be a lovely read. Millar reminds me very much of one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Carroll, in a stylistic sense. His prose is charming, and the dry wit and humour he sprinkles throughout the book never ceased to make me chuckle as I was reading.
Perhaps what truly caught me up in this book was the characterization. The characters are realistic. You aren't going to l...more
I'm very surprised by the amount of negative reviews for this book, as I found The Good Fairies of New York to be a lovely read. Millar reminds me very much of one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Carroll, in a stylistic sense. His prose is charming, and the dry wit and humour he sprinkles throughout the book never ceased to make me chuckle as I was reading.
Perhaps what truly caught me up in this book was the characterization. The characters are realistic. You aren't going to l...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Martin Millar is a critically acclaimed Scottish writer from Glasgow, now resident in London. He also writes the Thraxas series of fantasy novels under the pseudonym Martin Scott.
The novels he writes as Martin Millar dwell on urban decay and British sub-cultures, and the impact this has on a range of characters, both realistic and supernatural. There are elements of magical realism, and the feelin...more
More about Martin Millar...
The novels he writes as Martin Millar dwell on urban decay and British sub-cultures, and the impact this has on a range of characters, both realistic and supernatural. There are elements of magical realism, and the feelin...more
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“Don't worry, fairy vomit is no doubt sweet-smelling to humans.”
—
12 people liked it
“Two fairies were sleeping peacefully on his bed. Dinnie was immediately depressed. He knew that he did not have enough money to see a therapist.”
—
9 people liked it
More quotes…
