MY FAIRY GOD SOMEBODY

A teenage girl begins a journey of radical self-discovery as she investigates her family history.

McCauley “Clae” Mitchell has always felt like a part of her was missing. Raised in the predominantly white town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, by a single mom, Clae has many questions about her estranged dad that her mom has repeatedly dismissed. Before Clae’s uncle Wendell passes away, he gives Clae a class ring that belonged to her dad. The ring, inscribed with the name of the New York City high school he attended in the early 2000s, is the first clue to solving a perplexing mystery. The second is the Brooklyn address of an unknown benefactor who’s been sending money to her mom for years—a person Clae believes is a paternal relative. When she earns a scholarship to a top summer journalism program, she trades New England for the Big Apple, and with the help of new friends Joelle and Nze, who form the rest of “the Black girl contingent,” she slowly but surely uncovers the truth. Allen’s sophomore novel effectively captures Clae’s turbulent inner struggles, particularly her thorny feelings about her persistent longing for genuine kinship and community. The first-person narrative features spots of wholesome summer romance, but realistic themes of friendship, complicated relationships, and grief take center stage.

A richly drawn story that explores the precarious construction of identity and the pain of complex family dynamics.