Reviews - Ordinary Grace | The StoryGraph

2.5k reviews for:

Ordinary Grace

William Kent Krueger

4.15 AVERAGE

margo21658's review against another edition

4.75

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

christinaa12310's review against another edition

5.0

I read this for a book club and we all had mixed feelings about it. Some of my friends said it was too slow and not interesting while others were extremely invested in the characters and plot. I fell into the latter group - I found parallels to the Sandlot & A Christmas Story and I liked the nostalgic feeling this book gave me. Frank and Jake were adorable/funny and since I have two younger brothers, I connected with these two.

blackcrow17's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoyed the narrators style and the sibling relationship of Frank and Jake. A tragic but beautifully told story of a family’s loss and how they were able to carry on and find peace.

coreyinscoe's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jenbsbooks's review against another edition

3.0

This Tender Land was my first by this author, and I really liked it. This one ... as I waited a couple days to write my review, I struggled to remember what it had even been about. Perhaps not helped by my reading Dandelion Wine (different, but also a coming of age for a boy and his younger brother in a small town in years past) recently.

1st person/Past tense - all from the POV of young Frank, a 13-year old kid in 1961. Several deaths throughout the summer, starting with a young boy on the train tracks. Then a dead man out by the tracks (a little The Body vibes). The other deaths would be spoilers to discuss, although they are alluded to early one (the #, not who it would be) SPOILER

sad when it was Ariel, and then Karl ... was there another?

I felt like it turned into more of a murder mystery than I was expecting from the blurb. I wasn't super surprised at the reveal ...

Basic chapters (no headers), 39 of them, plus a prologue and epilogue. I didn't feel the need to stop and make notes (I had this in all three formats, went primarily with the audio). One instance of proFanity. It felt a little heavy on the religion (the father is a minister, there's some scripture quoting, the mother has some issues with religion too, the "ordinary grace" title tie-in). Other words I note: sneaked, preternatural, seldom, carom (that was a Wordle word not long ago).

I appreciated the discussion questions and the author interview (in audio) but it wasn't enough to bump this one up for me.