Reviews

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

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dilchh's review against another edition

2.0

I honestly felt bad about giving this a two star, because it made it seem like it’s on the same level as The Glittering World; while the story itself felt as stale and pointless as The Glittering World, The Gracekeepers had an interesting premise and at some point it did seem promising, even more so than The Glittering World. I like how the author weaved the world in this story, it was definitely interesting and felt very magical to me, sadly it almost feels like the author does not have any passion whatsoever as she was writing the story. It felt lifeless, I almost felt like this was an unfinished manuscript of a novel.

For a fantasy story, The Gracekeepers definitely is very interesting, but the story just felt pointless. I have been reading halfway through the book and I still am not getting the feel or the point on where the story is going. To make matters even worse, the characters were in no way making this story bearable. There’s not a single character that shine through, not even two of the main characters, Callanish and North.

Three chapters to the ending of the book, the speed of the story suddenly took its pace and it almost (emphasise on the word ‘almost‘) felt somewhat exciting. But then the story just ends like that. I’m very thankful for the author did gave us an ‘After’ or an epilogue to the story, but it just made everything worse. As I finished reading the epilogue, I asked myself, ‘so what is the point of the story?’. I seriously cannot grasp my thoughts on this book. I’m so very sad, because this book does have an interesting premise.

Oh one thing that I would like to complain is that I’ve seen several reviews of this book that mentioned about The Night Circus, in the sense that if you like the latter then you should give this book a try. Tell you what, don’t buy that! This book’s circus is in no way comparable to The Night Circus. I get that obviously the two offers different kind of circus, but what I’m complaining about is not the circus per se, but how lazy the circus was being portrayed in The Gracekeepers. Also, what’s with the title? The Gracekeepers. It insinuate that there were more than one Gracekeeper,which actually is true because there is Odell, who is also a Gracekeeper, but let’s be honest here, Odell is not even an important character to the story, so I don’t get the use of plural on the title. Alright, now I feel like I’m just complaining nonsense.

julianimal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

hollyrebeccasmith's review against another edition

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4.0

Eerie, sad, yet somehow uplifting.

christineb85's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This concept had a lot of potential, but the execution was weak. The plot was slow. There were too many POV characters and despite that, I cared about none of them.

There was an opportunity to develop a connection with North and her bear and it was underdeveloped and wooden.

The backstories were never really clear and neither was character motivation.

I wanted to like it, but it was a struggle to finish it.

cahlacarla's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I feel like this book had so much potential , that instead was drowned by too many ideas, too many voices, and a slow plot. The imagery and ideas were haunting and beautiful, but you couldn’t connect to a character or cheer them on when you only got snippets before you were interrupted . You don’t get to know the histories of characters , just snap shots. I feel like I picked up 4 fanfictions where the author abandoned them or lost their muse and then thought why don’t I shove these things together ?

The combination of waterworld, the circus, possible merpeople, etc. could have been so fabulous . Instead it’s 300 pages of wasted possibility.