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A review by missprint_
Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
3.0
Everyone in this book is exhausting. Everything about this is upsetting.
In general with this book, I'm having a hard time buying into any of the interpersonal dynamics here. Daniel isn’t a compelling love interest and I think he’s intentionally messy because unpacking trauma is messy. But also I don’t like that Grace is still with him at the end of the book after he breached her trust. It’s not a good look. Mercy is completely impenetrable as a character. Like entirely opaque. Her motivations remain a mystery. Not sure how I feel about a toddler dying as a plot device even though the author sort of explains where she’s coming from with that in the author’s note. The gothic elements are okay but also weird with how they relate to Grace losing a week of time.
It’s strange to me how we go from the father refusing to acknowledge his possibly moving to a different room is an option and forcing Grace out of her room to him talking about therapy and trauma. Like that seems very out of character.
The imagery is beautifully vivid and it’s very feminist but the characters are wooden and I didn’t like anything here. I might try whatever Guadalupe McCall does next but thematically this was just hard.
In general with this book, I'm having a hard time buying into any of the interpersonal dynamics here. Daniel isn’t a compelling love interest and I think he’s intentionally messy because unpacking trauma is messy. But also I don’t like that Grace is still with him at the end of the book after he breached her trust. It’s not a good look. Mercy is completely impenetrable as a character. Like entirely opaque. Her motivations remain a mystery. Not sure how I feel about a toddler dying as a plot device even though the author sort of explains where she’s coming from with that in the author’s note. The gothic elements are okay but also weird with how they relate to Grace losing a week of time.
It’s strange to me how we go from the father refusing to acknowledge his possibly moving to a different room is an option and forcing Grace out of her room to him talking about therapy and trauma. Like that seems very out of character.
The imagery is beautifully vivid and it’s very feminist but the characters are wooden and I didn’t like anything here. I might try whatever Guadalupe McCall does next but thematically this was just hard.