Fairies In The Big Apple

WoooHoooo, found a new favorite book! I love that feeling when you start a book and just know you are going to be good friends, here let me introduce you.  Readers this is The Good Fairies of New York and it is AWESOME!!!  This book has it all traveling, romance, tragedy, epic battles, forces of good and evil, music, magic spells, curses, and of course FAIRIES!

My normal (not so) quick summary is gonna be a little bit different this time because it is not a traditionally linear book, it jumps around in little vignettes that are all tied together by one big storyline, but I will do my best.  The main characters in this book are Heather and Morag, two Scottish fairy friends who want nothing more than to start a radical punk fairy band.  They are wee lasses with big attitudes and a penchant for getting into trouble.  The trouble starts when they are run out of Scotland for cutting up a piece of a great clan banner and end up in New York City.  The drunk fairies get separated from their group and end up in the apartment of Dinnie, an overweight, struggling violinist who is about as crass as they come.  The fairies end up in a fight and Morag moves in across the street with Kerry, the beautiful, Botticelli obsessed, New York Dolls playing, flower child.  Kerry has Crohn's disease, which forces her to wear a colostomy bag,

scaring away potential suitors.  Heather discovers that the violin Dinnie is playing so horribly is actually a long lost relic of her clan and it's return would allow Heather to return to Scotland in good graces.  Heather makes a deal with Dinnie, she will help him win the love of Kerry and he will give her the violin, the deal is void if he does not do everything she says, Dinnie agrees.  Morag also discovers the violin and also makes a deal with Dinnie, if she makes Kerry fall in love with him, he will give Morag the violin. While Heather is busy making Dinnie presentable, Morag is helping Kerry finish her ancient Celtic flower alphabet that features a rare triple bloomed Welsh Poppy which is passed around to almost every character in the book.  Meanwhile a whole bunch of other stuff is happening.  The group that Heather and Morag came to New York with includes the children of the current English fairy king, who are being sought after to depose their father ever since he became a tyrant who forces fairies to work in factories (it makes sense in the book I promise).  The leader of the fairy evolution in England falls in love with the step-daughter of the King.  The king sends mercenaries to New York to retrieve his children.  A homeless woman who thinks she is the a Greek warlord alternately wreaks havoc with the fairies plans and helps them overcome the mercenaries. Meanwhile, Heather and Morag's shenanigans (I love that word) have inadvertently gotten them in trouble with the different bands of fairies that live in New York (more specifically Chinese, Italian, and Ghanaian).  Eventually all of the misunderstandings are worked out and they band together to fight of the mercenaries.  Kerry and Dinnie struggle to find some common ground, each fairy trying to win the violin.  Eventually Kerry gets very sick and it is Dinnie who gets her to the hospital and stays with her.  In the end, everybody gets what they want/need and all if forgiven until the next disaster.
Like I said the plot line is kind of all over the place, but that just adds to the charm of this book.  There is so many many many things that just make me so happy about this book, so I'm gonna just jump right in and
spew my happiness all over the place.  My main love is Heather and Morag, they are best friends and worst enemies and remind me of so many great friendships that I have had with other girls/women.  This is actually rare in books, most of the time a love story, or even a friendship that is central is between a guy and a girl, always the male/female dynamic, this female friendship just makes me smile.  I love that their is plenty of competition between the girls, but it is over things like talent and ability and not some guy that is central to their conflicts.  I love the complete indifference to human social standards the fairies have, waltzing in and pretty much doing what they please in these humans lives.  I also appreciate how they come to appreciate their humans.  I love the contrast between the fairies of all the different countries, the Scottish fairies are dreamy and just want to drink whisky and play music, the Irish fairies are fierce and don't take nothing from nobody, the English fairies are repressed and on the verge of a revolution, and the New York fairies are tough, live day to day types. I also love how they all come together in the end to fight for the common good. I love how music is a common theme for everybody, human and fairy alike.  I like how different music is introduced, everything from traditional reels and jigs played on a penny whistle to punk rock being played on the violin and guitar.  I love how the heads off all three of the greatest Scottish fairy clans are strong women fairies.  I love how human pain and suffering is not hidden and how appalled by the ignorant human behavior the fairies are.  But mostly I love that this book exists, I just love it!

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To sum up my summing up, I would say this book is a wild ride that takes you everywhere.  It is quick paced and jumpy and funny and sweet and all over the place in a good way.  It is however a book intended for adults, there is a LOT of swearing, a LOT a LOT of drinking, drug use, sex, and death.  If you have delicate sensibilities I would skip this one.  However if you don't mind a bit of crassness (all of which is necessary for the story) and you love fairies, urban fantasy, humor, or a good time then get thee to the bookstore and geteth this book!  I give it a 9 out of 10 crimson and blue dyed locks of golden hair.
What do you think of alternative books like this?  Do you think it's ok to use stereotypes to get a point across?  Is it nice to sometimes read about love between flawed people or do you prefer the fantasy escapist version instead (both are valid)?  Did this rambling make any sense whatsoever?