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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Everyone who doesn't like the book seems to be describing it as 'Twilight with witches' which, in my humble opinion, insults Twilight by comparison. Twilight may have been poorly written (though the prose did sharply and markedly improve over the course of the series) but at least it was a fun read!
The so-called 'twist' of The Graces was, to me, not a twist at all and, more problematically, just kinda boring and poorly paced.
It is VERY hard to get me to dislike a piece that features witches (my personal favorite sub-genre of fantasy fiction) but congrats, you did it!
Everyone who doesn't like the book seems to be describing it as 'Twilight with witches' which, in my humble opinion, insults Twilight by comparison. Twilight may have been poorly written (though the prose did sharply and markedly improve over the course of the series) but at least it was a fun read!
The so-called 'twist' of The Graces was, to me, not a twist at all and, more problematically, just kinda boring and poorly paced.
It is VERY hard to get me to dislike a piece that features witches (my personal favorite sub-genre of fantasy fiction) but congrats, you did it!
Read- September 2021
- I read 89 pages of this and just decided to DNF. I didn't hate those 89 pages by any means but I just knew I wasn't going to love/like this book that much and I am trying to get more comfortable with dnf'ing books so went ahead and did it.
- I read 89 pages of this and just decided to DNF. I didn't hate those 89 pages by any means but I just knew I wasn't going to love/like this book that much and I am trying to get more comfortable with dnf'ing books so went ahead and did it.
I really wish this was a standalone novel. It could have been something gloriously spooky and self contained but instead it ended abruptly with some pseudo-Craft cliffhanger. For all its flaws I enjoyed it, but the ending was super rushed.
This book was really not great at all. The plot was pretty much non-existent and I didn't particularly see the point? I feel like that's harsh to say that it was pointless but it kind of felt like it.
I detested the main character and I don't know if I was supposed to or not. River thought she was better than everyone else and that she was so special, it kind of made me feel sick. She was also quite misogynistic to the girls in her school. Except the Graces, they can do no wrong. River was like a piece of cardboard. So incredibly flat and boring but the Graces just happened to pick her to be apart of their 'family'.
The Graces weren't great either. They weren't great people and even when I was supposed to feel sympathetic towards them, I just didn't. Most of the characters didn't feel very real to me. They seemed like ghosts, the way they acted was just off to me.
The setting was also hard to picture. For a good bit of the book I thought it was set in the US until I started noticing some of the words they used and thought it was probably set in the UK by the sea. That's all we got really. No town names or any vivid descriptions of places at all. It made me feel distant to the story.
Excuse this mess of a review but overall this book was just a waste of time. I might even be being a bit generous with the 1.5 stars.
I detested the main character and I don't know if I was supposed to or not. River thought she was better than everyone else and that she was so special, it kind of made me feel sick. She was also quite misogynistic to the girls in her school. Except the Graces, they can do no wrong. River was like a piece of cardboard. So incredibly flat and boring but the Graces just happened to pick her to be apart of their 'family'.
The Graces weren't great either. They weren't great people and even when I was supposed to feel sympathetic towards them, I just didn't. Most of the characters didn't feel very real to me. They seemed like ghosts, the way they acted was just off to me.
The setting was also hard to picture. For a good bit of the book I thought it was set in the US until I started noticing some of the words they used and thought it was probably set in the UK by the sea. That's all we got really. No town names or any vivid descriptions of places at all. It made me feel distant to the story.
Excuse this mess of a review but overall this book was just a waste of time. I might even be being a bit generous with the 1.5 stars.
Cheap cousin of Twilight. Exactly the same story line!!! Ending was better than the rest of the book but still plain and simple YA read. Perfect for teenagers!
2.5 stars
This book was really eerily similar to this past summer's [b:Wink Poppy Midnight|23203106|Wink Poppy Midnight|April Genevieve Tucholke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456506698s/23203106.jpg|42747167]: you have an unreliable narrator, the question of whether something mystical is going on, the cringe-worthy "deep" conversations between teenagers, the Occurrenceâ„¢ in the middle of the novel that changes everything, and the the twist that shows that what you were led to believe was all wrong.
So here's the thing though: I liked Wink Poppy Midnight. I thought it was beautifully written. But I think Wink Poppy Midnight had one thing going for it that this book missed the mark on: atmosphere. I don't think the style of writing really leant to the mysterious, magical vibe it was going for, and I might have been able to forgive some of the story's faults if it had.
Faults like the super cliché characterization of several characters (for real, don't get me started on Niral) and the entirely unnecessary girl hate portrayed throughout the novel. Like alright, we get it, River is obsessive and possessive and pretentious, but referring to every female around her that wasn't a Grace as "prattling" and "screeching" etc etc didn't actually do anything to further this point that some other less insidious behaviour couldn't have done.
Because on the one hand, the reader is expected to intuit the girl hate and thinly veiled slut shaming as bad behaviour that is not normal, but the big reveal at the end needs to be spelled out to us so overtly it's almost embarrassing This leads to a disjointedness in the intended reader that really just didn't sit well with me.
So I don't know, I didn't dislike this book- it was engaging, there were a few really good lines, and I do think in a lot of ways it represented the fear of not belonging really well. So if this is a series, I do think I'm going to pick up the next one, and I'm hoping the story can grow into something more than it was. Because what it was, was a whole lot of potential and a little disappointing.
This book was really eerily similar to this past summer's [b:Wink Poppy Midnight|23203106|Wink Poppy Midnight|April Genevieve Tucholke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456506698s/23203106.jpg|42747167]: you have an unreliable narrator, the question of whether something mystical is going on, the cringe-worthy "deep" conversations between teenagers, the Occurrenceâ„¢ in the middle of the novel that changes everything, and the the twist that shows that what you were led to believe was all wrong.
So here's the thing though: I liked Wink Poppy Midnight. I thought it was beautifully written. But I think Wink Poppy Midnight had one thing going for it that this book missed the mark on: atmosphere. I don't think the style of writing really leant to the mysterious, magical vibe it was going for, and I might have been able to forgive some of the story's faults if it had.
Faults like the super cliché characterization of several characters (for real, don't get me started on Niral) and the entirely unnecessary girl hate portrayed throughout the novel. Like alright, we get it, River is obsessive and possessive and pretentious, but referring to every female around her that wasn't a Grace as "prattling" and "screeching" etc etc didn't actually do anything to further this point that some other less insidious behaviour couldn't have done.
Because on the one hand, the reader is expected to intuit the girl hate and thinly veiled slut shaming as bad behaviour that is not normal, but the big reveal at the end needs to be spelled out to us so overtly it's almost embarrassing
Spoiler
when the Graces literally state "YOU ARE THE VILLAIN." Wow, okay, I hadn't grasped that yet at all.So I don't know, I didn't dislike this book- it was engaging, there were a few really good lines, and I do think in a lot of ways it represented the fear of not belonging really well. So if this is a series, I do think I'm going to pick up the next one, and I'm hoping the story can grow into something more than it was. Because what it was, was a whole lot of potential and a little disappointing.
so the story is very slow paced. I kept wondering when something big was abou to happen. it all stays a bit mysterious. near the end things started to spice up a bit and I found that I didn't se some things coming. which was really good. Rives kind of irritated me. I found het quite annoying l.
the ending had some fast pace changes and the ending of the book was good. it's got a closed ending so if you're not interested just reading this book is fine.
I am kind of curious as to what will happen next to the graces and River.
3 stars!
the ending had some fast pace changes and the ending of the book was good. it's got a closed ending so if you're not interested just reading this book is fine.
I am kind of curious as to what will happen next to the graces and River.
3 stars!
I really liked the beginning of this book. I felt connected to River and I enjoyed the way the author writes. A shame that later in the book, I stopped liking it and had a hard time to finish reading it. It's really personal, but I didn't like the choices River and some other characters made in important situations and I lost interest in the story. It's an 'okay' book and some people will really like it, but it's not my thing.
Very middle of the road 2.5 stars for me. There wasn't anything that I hated, but nothing that really grabbed me either.
I had the fortune to see Laure Eve at a library event, and she was so charming I immediately borrowed this from my library. Sadly to say, it disappointed. For me, it was a mash-up of several things that could have been great, but something about the execution didn't work for me. It seemed to be a mixture of The Craft, a little Practical Magic (book not movie) and a bit of (ye gods) Twilight. River is a new student, and she is fascinated by the Grace siblings. Thalia and Fenrin, the twins who are a upperclassmen, and Summer, who is in River's year. The town whispers that they are a family of witches, and River wants desperately to be accepted by them. A friendship forms between River and Summer, and it seems like River is going to get what she wants. Until things go wrong.
I honestly can't think of anything I either liked or disliked about this, and I just finished it a couple of hours ago. Bad sign. I guess there were a couple of moments when River was hanging out at the Grace house that were nice? I wish I had liked this more, but I doubt I'll continue the series.
I had the fortune to see Laure Eve at a library event, and she was so charming I immediately borrowed this from my library. Sadly to say, it disappointed. For me, it was a mash-up of several things that could have been great, but something about the execution didn't work for me. It seemed to be a mixture of The Craft, a little Practical Magic (book not movie) and a bit of (ye gods) Twilight. River is a new student, and she is fascinated by the Grace siblings. Thalia and Fenrin, the twins who are a upperclassmen, and Summer, who is in River's year. The town whispers that they are a family of witches, and River wants desperately to be accepted by them. A friendship forms between River and Summer, and it seems like River is going to get what she wants. Until things go wrong.
I honestly can't think of anything I either liked or disliked about this, and I just finished it a couple of hours ago. Bad sign. I guess there were a couple of moments when River was hanging out at the Grace house that were nice? I wish I had liked this more, but I doubt I'll continue the series.