The Girls at the Kingfisher Club: Twelve dancing princesses meet the Roaring Twenties

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

As far as fairy tale retellings go, mingling the tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses with the 1920’s New York speakeasies makes a lovely kind of sense. The prohibition, the dance halls, the high society – it all fits perfectly with the story of twelve princesses who sneak out of their rooms every night, much to the bewilderment of their father when he sees their worn-out shoes every morning.

Genevieve Valentine transports the familiar beats of the story to a Fifth Avenue townhouse in the Roaring Twenties, in which the daughters of wealthy magnate Joseph Hamilton are kept in captivity, seen by no one but themselves. He was eager for a son of course, but his wife died after twelve girls (including two sets of twins).

This leaves Josephine, the firstborn, as the closest thing the youngest have to a mother. It is she that comes up with the idea of sneaking out at night to dance in the city’s underground speakeasies, and it’s for this reason she becomes known as “the General” by her siblings, given the way she manages their temporary escapes.

But it’s a heavy burden of responsibility and things get worse when their father announces his plans to marry them all off to eligible – but unknown – suitors. Jo has no idea how to proceed: she and her sisters own nothing, and their father is not a man to be crossed. With police raiding the nightclubs and bootleggers honing in on their secret, Jo has to walk a careful tightrope in order to protect her sisters, making plenty of sacrifices and taking just as many risks along the way.

Valentine’s sparkling prose captures all the dancing, costumes, sequins, feathers and shoes of the original story, but on another level, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club depicts the psychological strain the girls suffer through while under the thumb of a controlling, abusive father. She’s very good at subtlety demonstrating a character’s thoughts and moods, and making insightful comments about human nature.

Although he only once resorts to physical violence, Joseph Hamilton is a terrifying figure, while Jo’s fear at her sisters’ vulnerability is palpable. Valentine also makes a valiant effort at characterizing twelve different girls (plus several male characters) with distinct personalities – not an unimpressive feat! The only thing that got on my nerves was the sheer number of sentences in parentheses. There’s at least one on every page, usually completely unnecessarily.

But The Girls at the Kingfisher Club is a lovely update on a familiar fairy tale that’s not often rewritten despite its potential for exploration and deconstruction.

~Rebecca Fisher

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club is an excellent retelling/updating of a classic fairy tale into a more modern setting. Rather than a pseudo-medieval castle filled with princesses and their suitors, Genevieve Valentine gives us twelve sisters living in New York City during the Roaring Twenties who have been shut away from the world by their father. Their only entertainment, and their only contact with the outside world, come from clandestine nightly excursions to speakeasies hidden throughout the city. The sisters, in no particular order, are: Doris, Rebecca, Araminta, Josephine, Louise, Sophie, Rose, Lily, Mattie, Hattie, Ella, and Violet.

I loved the way that the sisters were written — they didn’t hate each other, they didn’t snipe at one another and try to tear one another down in order to benefit themselves; they supported each other, even when they were arguing or making bad decisions. There was no ridicule for dancing with only one or multiple men, no lectures about inappropriate dress or loose behavior, no jealousy over the prettiness of certain sisters or the attention one or another might receive — just overwhelmingly positive support. All women should be lucky enough to have sisters or friends who love them this much.

Valentine portrays 1920’s speakeasy culture very well — the rebellion against the previous generation and its expectations of “proper behavior,” social structure, and adherence to the laws of Prohibition for women and men of any social class. Her characters exemplify the way that young people would feel smothered by those expectations in an era of change and new possibilities — the ways that they might lash out, whether by dancing late at night or bootlegging (or worse). Additionally, she explores the fact that well-heeled young women who snuck out to dance could be punished with confinement in an asylum, while young men who engaged in criminal activity would merely be thrown in jail.

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club isn’t a strict retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” but that works in the novel’s favor. The story is not only more interesting, but more accessible, by being updated to a more modern time period. The original tale is a framework for the novel to grow around; Valentine’s story is faithful to the source material, but not slavishly so, and differs greatly enough to feel fresh and new. The ending, in particular, was a welcome surprise because there were so many other elements which differed from the original tale.

I will be purchasing a copy of this book at the first possible opportunity.

~Jana Nyman