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A review by chaosandbooks
The Graces by Laure Eve
3.0
This book was a bit oversold in my opinion. It does in fact have amazing description and prose. I give the author major props for being able to write something that feels like small town, gothic magic contained in pages.
It's the characters and dialogue that makes it feel a little flat. River, the main character, is the archetype "I'm different" girl that falls in with the popular kids, the Graces. River has bitter, cynical attitude towards life that could be endearing if she was funny or awkward. She tries to be but it comes off as robotic and she's just downright a jerk at times in the way she acts. The Graces are their own archetypes, first is the goth rebel, the second is the golden jock, and the third is the nature flower child. If they weren't so all molded into these characters and instead had an ebb and flow in personality and style that mixed, but was still distinguished it would have been better. It's also just really unrealistic to think that three siblings are such vastly different people, which nothing in common.
The book itself has the vibe of being a modern take on The Craft. I think, in that sense, it makes the problems of the book a little bit more understandable. The Craft is pretty ridiculous in itself with outrageously larger than life personalities. It makes sense that if this book is drawing inspiration from it, that it follows in that dramatic sense.
Overall, I love a witch book and think that this was a fun read that I may or may no follow through on the sequel with. I just wish it had been less vague and more forthcoming about itself. I'm also not fond of the way the last chapter ends.
It's the characters and dialogue that makes it feel a little flat. River, the main character, is the archetype "I'm different" girl that falls in with the popular kids, the Graces. River has bitter, cynical attitude towards life that could be endearing if she was funny or awkward. She tries to be but it comes off as robotic and she's just downright a jerk at times in the way she acts. The Graces are their own archetypes, first is the goth rebel, the second is the golden jock, and the third is the nature flower child. If they weren't so all molded into these characters and instead had an ebb and flow in personality and style that mixed, but was still distinguished it would have been better. It's also just really unrealistic to think that three siblings are such vastly different people, which nothing in common.
The book itself has the vibe of being a modern take on The Craft. I think, in that sense, it makes the problems of the book a little bit more understandable. The Craft is pretty ridiculous in itself with outrageously larger than life personalities. It makes sense that if this book is drawing inspiration from it, that it follows in that dramatic sense.
Overall, I love a witch book and think that this was a fun read that I may or may no follow through on the sequel with. I just wish it had been less vague and more forthcoming about itself. I'm also not fond of the way the last chapter ends.