Weekly Reader: Mother: A Mother Gothel Tale (Witches of Grimm Book One) by C.M. Adler; Rapunzel Revisited Into A Tale of Feminist Solidarity

 

Weekly Reader: Mother: A Mother Gothel Tale (Witches of Grimm Book One) by C.M. Adler; Rapunzel Revisited Into A Tale of Feminist Solidarity

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Similar to Liz Butcher's Never Never, C.M. Adler's Mother takes a familiar story and turns it around to subvert our notions of heroism and villainy. This time the story that gets a facelift is Rapunzel. The central focus in this version is that of a loving mother and a loyal daughter.

Cerelia is on the run with an infant baby in tow. She is a witch and is running from judgemental villagers. She escapes into a forest and builds a cottage with a vast magical garden in which she grows herbs and flowers which are not only used for healing, food, and lotions but also to appease the fairies that hang around.

Meanwhile, Maia, a young servant girl, is pregnant and imprisoned. The weak willed father of her child goes along with his family as they accuse her of witchcraft. Longing for escape, Maia appeals to a spirit named Rumple, to help free her. Rumple Six, the goblin, says that she will be freed and have blood for blood in exchange for her unborn baby. Desperate, Maia agrees so she manages to escape into the forest right into Cerelia's garden.

Mother not only changes the perspective of Rapunzel but gives us a fantasy novella with two strong female leads that carry the theme of the solidarity of women. Cerelia lives an independent life caring for her garden and her familiars like the feisty spider, Xee, and leaves food and other gifts for the fairies that help her magically protect her home. She performs various magic like merging her soul with the forest and having second sight. Both abilities prove helpful to aid Maia.

Maia's involvement in magic is by pure accident to escape from her jailers. She stumbles onto a power that she doesn't comprehend and gets figuratively burned by it. Cerelia is able to show Maia a better way of channeling that magic into something more focused and less self destructive. Cerelia becomes a guide to help Maia find her inner personal power as they become a coven of two.

Besides helping each other in witchcraft, Cerelia and Maia form a familial bond which is emphasized by Maia's name for her: Gothel (German for godmother.) Maia explains that she never felt a close connection with any of the women in the village. Cerelia lost her child and feels that ache despite her independence. She wants someone to share that life with and she has that in Maia. They are mother and daughter, teacher and student, mentor and protegee, best friends. As for Rapunzel, well the young lady with the extra long hair does arrive and is welcomed into this charmed circle.

Mother does a lot to improve the witch characters in The Brothers Grimm's fairy tales. It will be interesting to see what Adler does with the other witch characters.