Reviews tagging 'Racism'

This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

1 review

witcheep's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This Vicious Grace is a book that explores the themes of duty, belonging, and connection through FMC Alessa's character and offers different points of view with different characters. Even if the themes are heavy and the subjects often near traumatic, the tone of the book is quite lighthearted and makes it an easy and fast read. 

"I'm tired of being a title rather than a person, I guess."

The main character Alessa is the Finestra, a goddess-chosen magical person who holds the highest rank of the country, but in return is required to give up everything from her previous life, including her name, family, and even the ability to touch people. The Finestra is also expexted to fight an army of foes of the enemy god together with another magical person, a Fonte. She hasn't found that other compatible Fonte yet, and time is running out. Because of this, Alessa has become a secluded young woman who has been touch-deprived for years – a husk of a person, really. This seclusion and touch-deprivation echo the struggles familiar to so many from the pandemic, and makes Thiede's writing more powerful because of it: so many of us can relate to the extreme situation that Alessa is in.

When Alessa gets the chance to touch again by trying to connect with a Fonte, she takes it ravenously – and it ends in the death of the Fonte too many times because her magic is too strong for the touch. This grants the secondary foes in the book, a religious group of men, a somewhat justified claim to want to murder her as a false Finestra. After multiple attempts on her life, Alessa doesn't trust anyone, and seeks for protecion from a disinterested party by hiring a lone street fighter Dante as her body guard.

Dante says he is not kind, but Alessa decides his actions show otherwise: Dante builds Alessa's confidence up by gentle bullying, and Alessa begins to regard them as friends with the potentiality for more.

Dante squinted, and she smiled brighter. If he was going to tease her about reading smutty novels, she'd fight back by working innuendo into every conversation.

They both are lonely teenagers with recent years in their lives holding such dark times for them that they both have had to grow up fast and become as adult-like as they can to fill in the roles that keep them alive. They open up to each other about their secrets and offer each other support.
Slowly, Alessa begins to grasp how she can touch other Fonti, by practicing with Dante. With each other, they find moments of respite and become more juvenile at times. And, of course, a romance blossoms between the two of them.


Quote in spoiler:
 
" Sorry you're stuck with me, then. I'm new to this whole... cuddling... thing."
     She patted his arm with a perky, "You're doing fine."
     "You're desperate, and I'm here, eh?"
     "Exactly." She paused. "Thank you."
 

In the plot, slowly, the concrete truths and rules of ancient sacred texts are questioned by finding alternative translations and interpretations, and Alessa pieces together that the core of the sacred text is community: "Together, we protect. Divided, we unravel." This has traditionally been interpreted to mean the connection between the Finestra and their one Fonte. Gradual spoilers of plot progression: 1.
Alessa embraces a new interpretation of a larger togetherness
2.
where she surrounds herself with a group of Fontes, and goes even further than that by encouraging the whole population to unite against their common enemy god's army, leaving behind their differences in class and virtue.
3.
This is a raging success, and perhaps a too easily found one, but one that can be expected from a YA book.


Hope is what must be found in a YA book, and that is what is drizzled throughtout This Vicious Grace to finally be bathed in at the end. The ending of the book sets up the premise for the sequel, and I'm interested to see where Thiede takes the main characters from here.

Review written 17.3.2024
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...