Thursday, December 6, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Book Review: Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton




Strange Grace is a YA Fantasy Horror novel by Tessa Gratton, who I'd previously been introduced to earlier this year with The Queens of Innis Lear.  Like that book (an alternate version of King Lear), Strange Grace is a dark fantasy book, with the story essentially being a fantasy horror story and like that book, Gratton is excellent at setting the atmosphere as dark and fantastical...and somewhat creepy.

It's also a book not interested in pursuing just conventional relationships, with its three main characters forming a love triangle romance that is more polyamorous than anything.  For the most part this works, some early speedbumps notwithstanding, and the result is a story that is arguably as much romance as horror.  That's probably why I enjoyed this book so much, when horror really isn't my thing.


---------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
For years, the villagers of Three Graces have lived perfect lives - there is always the right amount of food for everyone, no one suffers any illnesses, and everyone lives happy lives.  But the price for this life is high - every seven years, the Slaughter Moon rises, and the village must send their best young man - anointed as a saint - into the Devil's Forest - where that man must try to outrun the Devil who lies within.  This is the result of the bargain struck between a Witch of the Grace family and the Devil of the Forest, and the village has happily paid its toll.

Mairwen Grace is the latest descendant of the Grace family who started everything, but she is doubly tied to the bargain, with her father having been one of the most recent Saints to die in the Forest.  As she grows older, she can't help but feel called to the forest, though her mother, the current Grace witch tells her it is not her time yet.

Arthur Couch was raised by his mother in the village as a girl, until his gender was discovered by the rest of the village - prompting his mother (who'd raised him as such to avoid losing him to the Forest) to abandon him and the village.  Now he wishes to prove himself good enough to be the Saint, especially as his best friend Rhun is the likely alternative.

Rhun Sayer is a young man thought by most in the village to the Best - and thus considered almost certain to be the next saint.  Rhun loves both Arthur and Mairwen and wishes for the best for both of them - and his love for both of them is more than platonic, despite the traditions of the village.

Together, Rhun, Arthur, and Mairwen form a trio of uncertain love for one another, all balanced on a knife edge that is the Devil's Bargain.  But when the Slaughter Moon arrives early, the three will find themselves called to a shared destiny that will not only change everything about the village - but about their own relationships as well.
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As I said above, Strange Grace is essentially a horror romance between the three main characters (a fourth character also gets some page-time as a potential fourth wheel, but is less significant).  And since Gratton has written three rather strong characters, it works, even if it can be a little cliche at times.  Rather than go with a classical love triangle, with the two boys competing for the girl's love, Gratton has the main trio grappling with their love for each other - with Mairwen's love for Rhun being the only angle of this triangle to be clear to any of the participants from the beginning.  But Mairwen also has feelings for Arthur, even if she has trouble admitting it and Rhun has feelings for Arthur as well and vice versa, despite Arthur's trouble with that feeling.  And well, each of the trio has their own problems, whether that be Arthur's brash personality that resulted from his overreacting to being raised as a girl or Mairwen feeling she should be doing more for the Bargain as the daughter of a Grace witch and a Saint.  The resultant struggle between the three forms the central conflict of the novel, and this works quite well.

Of course, this is not just a romance but a horror novel, and I should point out that Gratton does an excellent job describing the scenery to make the atmosphere appropriately chilling.  This is the village that has done a deal with the Devil, who controls the woods, and the Devil's Forest is indeed quite creepy and disturbing once the plot moves into it (not really a spoiler, since any reader will know from the beginning that the plot will eventually get there).  It would be easy for an author to make this plot (Deal with the Devil!  Creepy forest filled with evil creatures!) seem cheesy, but it never does, and that's to Gratton's credit.

That said, the plot does get a little cliche and predictable at times, and that is a little annoying.  One twist near the ending I guessed rather early, and I suspect many readers will guess it by the midpoint quite easily.  The book also tries to tease out an event that occurred in the past between Rhun and Arthur that has made the relationship between the two chilly, and any reader with any experience in storytelling will guess the event immediately, making the secrecy just annoying and pointless.  That said, while the major twist is particularly predictable, the mysteries the book teases in the back half are actually interesting and resolved rather well, and the trio of main characters (and our fourth wheel) are well done enough to make Strange Grace well worth a read.


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1 comment:

  1. DoraDecember 7, 2018 at 9:03 AM

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