Review: Strange Grace

Title: Strange Grace
Author: Tessa Gratton
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Release Date: September 18, 2018
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eARC received through NetGalley

The town of Three Graces is blessed- sicknesses pass overnight, crops aren't struck by blight, people only ever die of old age. Except for the saints. Once ever seven years, the village sends one young man in as a sacrifice to the devil in the forest, in return for their good fortune. 

Out of Ten: 8/10

Review at a Glance: an engaging and excellently atmospheric with vivid characters and you should pick it up if you're in any way appealed to by creepy little towns, sinister forests, and/or polyamorous witchy teens.
Review: The real surprise with this book was the fact that this book is third person present-tense and I didn't automatically drop it after the first sentence. It usually feels forced and uncomfortable for me to read from that particular narrative viewpoint, but it really worked here! It made things a little bit creepy and frantic which suited really well.

One of the strongest parts of this book for me was the atmosphere. Creepy little towns! I'm always here for creepy little towns. (Seriously, it's a weakness. If I deliberately move to a house that's cursed and then get eaten by the trees or something, you will know exactly at which threshold to lay the blame. Mine. Which will be the threshold of the cursed and sinister house.) And this was an A+ creepy little town. It's got shades of The Lottery in that most of those living there have accepted that every seven years, someone may have to die in order to preserve the supernatural good fortune they experience. To be sainted, to go into the woods to fight the devil that lives in the forest is an honour-while not everyone in the town fully believes this, most do- enough to make anyone who doesn't something of an outcast.

Which brings us to the main characters! One of whom is very much an outcast, one of whom is very much NOT an outcast, and one of whom is very much both at the same time. (Which is fitting given that this is kind of a dominant theme of the story... belonging and not belonging.) Rhun is going to be the saint, and everyone knows it. He can make anyone smile, he's good with people, he's happy in his place, and any part of him that might not fit that role is kept very much a secret. Mairwen is sure of her place in the town- daughter of the Grace witch, soon to be a fully fledged witch in her own right, ignoring the constant call of the forest. Arthur has been on the outside for a long time, prickly and unfriendly, trying to fit himself into a role that is the opposite of the one he was raised in. 

While all three went through engaging journeys (both separately and together), I personally found Arthur's the most engaging, partly because it isn't one that I've seen all that often. While to a degree all of the arcs in this book are grounded in identity, I think it's most notable in Arthur's arc- going from being raised as a girl (because his mother was one of the few who did not believe sainthood to be an honour, and only boys could be saints)' to making himself harsh and miserable rejecting all of that once the town found out, forcing himself into a hypermasculine mold; to eventually finding a place that works for him which is ultimately a lot more true that now he's been forcing himself to be (and much less bounded by the binarily defined roles for either gender within the story). I think there's a lot of be said about this character through the scope of how societies construct gender, both broadly and for individuals, and I really liked how that played into his character arc. (I think your mileage may vary with this one- I really liked it but it might depend on your personal relationship with and experiences with gender essentialism. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this!) 

All three of the main characters are all working through their relationships with themselves, and with each other, as well as with other people. Watching their triad shift and change throughout the book as all three of them went through some pretty significant development as individuals. 

The plot itself is unusual in that it's a pretty straight-forward plot in the broadstrokes, masked by the fact that, partway though, the half of the story is told in flashback, horror movie style. (I think. I don't generally watch horror movies.) It's a little messy and really compelling for the design of the story itself. This is one of those books that's really pulled along by the characters, with multiple points of view: all three main characters, and then several snapshots from others (Mairwen's best friend gets enough point of view chapters to maybe be considered a forth main character, really.) It's kind of organised chaos, with lots of characters and actually a pretty straightforward plot, and lots of points of view, and everyone is kissing each other (um. I wish there was more asking first in some of the kisses...) 

Long story short this book did make me think. It creates a vivid, dark, and unusual world that's just a little bit (okay maybe a bit more than a little bit...) creepy. It isn't so much a coming-of-age story as a story of becoming, and the story layout suits both the tone and the plot really well (much to my third-person-present-tense loathing surprise and delight). The characters were unique and I'm glad I got a chance to experience their journeys.

Random related song recommendation that reminds me of this book or that this book reminds me of: