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A review by sarahbythebook
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio arc of Scorched Grace.
I wanted to like Scorched Grace so badly. I highly tattooed, lesbian, smoking nun sounds like a character I could get behind, but it wasn't meant to be. In fact, I almost DNF'd this book at 45%. We'll get to that in a bit.
Summary:
Scorched Grace is told from the perspective of Sister Holiday, a new member of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood puts her sleuthing skills to the test when it appears an arsonist and murderer is targeting the order's school. While she tries to unravel the mystery, she walks us through her life at the convent as well as what lead her to taking holy orders in the first place. With a lack of face in the police, a questionably stable fire investigator, and her own intuition, Sister Holiday does what she must to protect her school and the new life she's created for herself.
What I Liked:
The first quarter of this book, I thought I was going to have a new favorite. The first chapter reads like a love letter to the city of New Orleans, and the main character, Sister Holiday seems to be truly interesting. I was excited to see her backstory unfold over the course of the mystery. The general dislike of the Catholic diocese leaders was entertaining since I have my own dislike of them, and this might be the first book I've read in a long time that paints Christianity in a generally positive light.... sort of anyway. Unfortunately, that's about all the positives I have for this book.
What I Didn't Like:
I wanted to like Scorched Grace so badly. I highly tattooed, lesbian, smoking nun sounds like a character I could get behind, but it wasn't meant to be. In fact, I almost DNF'd this book at 45%. We'll get to that in a bit.
Summary:
Scorched Grace is told from the perspective of Sister Holiday, a new member of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood puts her sleuthing skills to the test when it appears an arsonist and murderer is targeting the order's school. While she tries to unravel the mystery, she walks us through her life at the convent as well as what lead her to taking holy orders in the first place. With a lack of face in the police, a questionably stable fire investigator, and her own intuition, Sister Holiday does what she must to protect her school and the new life she's created for herself.
What I Liked:
The first quarter of this book, I thought I was going to have a new favorite. The first chapter reads like a love letter to the city of New Orleans, and the main character, Sister Holiday seems to be truly interesting. I was excited to see her backstory unfold over the course of the mystery. The general dislike of the Catholic diocese leaders was entertaining since I have my own dislike of them, and this might be the first book I've read in a long time that paints Christianity in a generally positive light.... sort of anyway. Unfortunately, that's about all the positives I have for this book.
What I Didn't Like:
- It didn't take long for me to find the main character grating and arrogant. She claims to be the school sleuth but then does virtually no sleuthing on the case? She stumbles across the answer on accident.
- Teacher uses violence against a student. Details:
I don't care how much a kid mouths off. As a teacher and as a religious figure, you don't lay hands on one of your students, 18 or otherwise. And to beat him with a ruler? Absolutely not. And then no consequences! This was what caused me to almost DNF at 45%. - The author doesn't appear to really know anything about Catholic schools in New Orleans. I have no idea why she'd say schools are closing down given that this is set in what seems to be our time, post Hurricane Katrina. At the time of this review, there are still 23 Catholic schools open, at least half of them being high schools. This doesn't even count the Catholic schools located across the bridge in Metairie, Mandeville, Covington, and other cities within an hour drive of New Orleans.
- The one that bugged me the most: the author appears to have no understanding of how diabetes works and didn't bother to research it? Details:
One of the students, the same one Sister Holiday beats as a matter of fact, is a Type 1 Diabetic. The arsonist says that they underdosed him on his insulin, and yet he had a low blood sugar episode. Underdoing it on insulin would lead to a high blood sugar and wouldn't cause the drunk-like symptoms the character experiences. On top of this, Sister Holiday grabs his emergency supplies and injects the kid having a low blood sugar episode with INSULIN. This would more than likely have sent him into seizures or a coma, potentially even killing him. I get that the author might not know a diabetic, but this is easy research. - I'm very concerned that Nina's character plays into the predatory bisexual stereotype, and it made me very uncomfortable to read about her and Holiday's relationship throughout the book.
Other Thoughts:
I don't feel like the brother's story was really relevant. I don't understand why Nina
I left this book feeling let down and frustrated. I'm sure there's an audience out there for this book, but not someone who has a knowledge of diabetes or Catholic schools in Louisiana.
CW: religion, child abuse, rape, police brutality, homophobia, incest, fire injury, arson
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Homophobia and Incest