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A review by skylarkblue1
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm torn between recommending this or not. I'm not fully sure if it's just, I'm not a regular to the crime fiction genre or if there is just something amiss about this one. I liked the characters well enough, story was ok even if fairly predictable.. It just left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. Maybe it's because I'm not religious at all so the ending (which got very religious, even compared to the rest of the book) just didn't interest me whatsoever?
The characters where not the worst, the detective was very cliche and 2d feeling, the other cops where kinda feeling like cardboard stand-ins that did not much at all. Sister Holiday first started as a "not like other girls" kinda vibe but I grew to actually kinda like her. The rest of the sisters where ok, but I did absolutely keep confusing who was who even at the end aha.. The kids where fun though, Prince was cliche but not the worst character at all, the other kids didn't appear enough to feel like they where actually important which was weird as their storylines felt very important overall? I think there was just way too many characters and the author only wanted to mainly write about Sister Holiday and Riveaux and what they did together.
The story felt pretty standard and predictable, the reveal at the end wasn't shocking at all to me. The "mysterious" events that happen throughout either have throwaway answers or uh, don't really get answered at all? How on earth did no one realise who the shadow was going through the school in the first fire? Like genuinely, they got spotted multiple times. But it also meant it was a very easy read that didn't take much thinking or brain power so I did kinda like that.
Idk, maybe this book just caught me on a good mood where I just wanted something to zone out to but it wasn't the worst book I've read. The writing was pretty good, and the way the dialogue was written also wasn't that bad. I don't know if I agree with the "cozy" tag this keeps getting, there's a hell of a lot of heavy topics discussed and it's not exactly what I'd call "cozy" (especially with the animal death part.... would have been nice if storygraph had that as a content warning on graphic or like... at all🙃).
The characters where not the worst, the detective was very cliche and 2d feeling, the other cops where kinda feeling like cardboard stand-ins that did not much at all. Sister Holiday first started as a "not like other girls" kinda vibe but I grew to actually kinda like her. The rest of the sisters where ok, but I did absolutely keep confusing who was who even at the end aha.. The kids where fun though, Prince was cliche but not the worst character at all, the other kids didn't appear enough to feel like they where actually important which was weird as their storylines felt very important overall? I think there was just way too many characters and the author only wanted to mainly write about Sister Holiday and Riveaux and what they did together.
The story felt pretty standard and predictable, the reveal at the end wasn't shocking at all to me. The "mysterious" events that happen throughout either have throwaway answers or uh, don't really get answered at all? How on earth did no one realise who the shadow was going through the school in the first fire? Like genuinely, they got spotted multiple times. But it also meant it was a very easy read that didn't take much thinking or brain power so I did kinda like that.
Idk, maybe this book just caught me on a good mood where I just wanted something to zone out to but it wasn't the worst book I've read. The writing was pretty good, and the way the dialogue was written also wasn't that bad. I don't know if I agree with the "cozy" tag this keeps getting, there's a hell of a lot of heavy topics discussed and it's not exactly what I'd call "cozy" (especially with the animal death part.... would have been nice if storygraph had that as a content warning on graphic or like... at all🙃).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Addiction, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Homophobia
Minor: Rape, Incest, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, and Self harm
Animal Death: Death of a pet cat. Quite a long scene, quite a lot of detail. Death isn't on-page but there's a lot about the aftermath and a lot about how the death happened.