The Gracekeepers

by Kirsty Logan

The magical story of a floating circus and two young women in search of a home.

The sea has flooded the earth. North lives on a circus boat, floating between the scattered islands that remain. She dances with her beloved bear, while the rest of the crew trade dazzling and death-defying feats for food from the islanders. However, North has a secret that could capsize her life with the circus.

Callanish lives alone in her house in the middle of the ocean, with only the birds and the fish for company. As penance for a terrible mistake, she works as a gracekeeper, tending the graves of those who die at sea. What drove her from home is also what pulls her towards North.

When a storm creates a chance meeting between the two girls, their worlds change. They are magnetically drawn to one another, and the promise of a new life. But the waters are treacherous, and the tide is against them.

• ISBN10: 1846559162
• ISBN13: 9781846559167
• Publish Date: 23 April 2015 (first published 1 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 November 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Harvill Secker
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Trigger Warning: This book features an attempted forced marriage (though not a cultural one), and sexual assault.

I've wanted to read The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan since I first heard about it; a world with very little land, a circus on a boat, a same sex relationship! It sounded right up my street! However, I finished feeling pretty disappointed.

North works as the bear girl on Red Gold's circus onboard the Excalibur. She has only ever known the circus life, having been born to parents who also performed on the Excalibur with their own bears - before the bears they killed them. Red Gold wants North to marry Ainsel, his son, and has everything planned for them; he's saved up to buy them a house, and looks forward to Stirlings being back on land again, like he used to be. However, North doesn't want to marry Ainsel, and she can't think of anything worse than living on land, she only wants to be at sea. But what Red Gold says, goes, and if she doesn't obey, she'll be thrown off the Excalibur and the only life she's ever known. It doesn't help than Avalon, Red Gold's wife and Ainsel's stepmother, has a huge dislike for North, and believes the house Red Gold is going to buy is for them, and their unborn baby. But North also has a secret of her own, and that itself could get her kicked off.

Callanish is a gracekeeper; someone who holds funerals for those who die at sea. It's an isolated job; she lives on her own, on a house that has no land, but floats on the sea. She keeps graces, the birds used to measure the time the friends and family of the departed should mourn; when the grace dies, mourning is over. Being a gracekeeper means leading a lonely life, full of hardship and lack; the only people she sees are those who run the supply boats, the messengers, and those who come to request a funeral, she gets very little to eat, and she's not allowed to leave her home and go elsewhere. This is her life, for the rest of her life. It's a life meant as penance, a punishment for wrongdoing, and Callanish is filled with guilt and regret over what she did to her mother.

When North and Callanish meet, they are drawn to each other. They both begin to imagine the idea of a different life. Their meeting is brief, but the seed has been sown. Callanish wants to seek forgiveness, and North wants to put a stop to her marriage.

I was absolutely captivated by the writing. It's enchanting and magical, and has this fairy tale quality to it that I absolutely adored. However, The Gracekeepers is so very slow, because nothing happens. For North, her story is pretty much trying to talk to Ainsel to get him to talk to his father to stop the wedding, trying to keep her secret hidden, which gets harder as time goes on, keep her bear calm, because he's growling and baring his teeth a lot more than normal, and just waiting to see what happens. She's so passive.

The story is told for the most part from North and Callanish's perspectives in alternating chapters, but sometimes there would be the odd chapter from the perspective of some of the other circus performers, and the odd other person that because important as the story goes on. It was far more interesting reading the chapters from those other circus performers, because we got their view of what was happening, and their own smaller stories. It gave an insight to other things happening on the boat, that were important to North's story, but that she didn't necessarily know about. We got to see how manipulative Avalon is, how delusional Red Gold is, how Ainsel has secrets of his own. And it all affects North. But nothing really happens for her until the end, when everything happens very quickly, and feels rushed. It's all much the same, going from island to island and performing. Callanish's story got more interesting when she decided she was going to leave her home and seek forgiveness, even if it was against the rules. But still, there was a lot of time just sailing. And that didn't really lead to much either, except for a few heartbreaking scenes. There is just a lot of nothing.

Saying that, I loved the world building. It's not outright stated, but it's pretty obvious - from the revivalist boats, who are a religious group, there's very clear Virgin Mary imagery - that this is our world in the very distant future, after the seas rose and claimed so much land, leaving very little for people. So now there are landlockers - the people who live on land, and the damplings - the people who live on boats on the sea. There's quite a lot of prejudice and discrimination between the two groups, and both hate the thought of living like the other - except Red Gold, who has been both.

I really loved how some people are born with webbed hands and feet, like Callanish, who may be the offspring of mermen or selkies or some other underwater creature. This elements isn't gone into that deeply, so it does have a magical realism feel to it, but I do wish it was developed more. However, I was a little disturbed by how these people were conceived; it would only happen when a woman fell asleep on the shore, and wake up to find someone on top of them. There is no consent here. They have woken up to someone sexually assaulting them. It doesn't matter that in each case they consent once they have woken up, the fact is that this creature or creatures start while they are asleep, and that is sexual assault, as they cannot consent. When one woman thinks back to what happened decades ago, the woman thought it was her newly married husband - it wasn't, so she's not really consenting anyway. And it all happens in this dreamlike state, and the women are never really sure if it actually happened anyway. So these women aren't in complete control, they aren't completely sure what's happening, and it starts before they're awake, it's a lot like date rape. And this is never really dealt with? I think it's do with that magic realism element, where things are never really explained, but when it comes to sexual assault... this doesn't sit right with me. It made me feel really uncomfortable.

I'm so disappointed that there wasn't more to this book. I so enjoyed reading the words, but the story itself really let me down. There is going to be a prequel to The Gracekeepers coming in April, The Gloaming, which sounds incredible. It'll probably give some insight into how the world ended up like it did, plus is being billed as a queer mermaid love story, so I'm sold. I just hope more happens in The Gloaming than in The Gracekeepers. However, there are a lot of people who really enjoyed The Gracekeepers, so do read other reviews before deciding if you want to read this or not.

Thank you to Vintage for the review copy.

[violetpeanut]

Originally posted on:


Meh.

That’s what I feel about this book. I had such high hopes. I love reading about possible futures for the Earth and I love seeing an author’s view of how humanity will adapt. This book was no exception. The idea of an Earth almost completely covered in water is intriguing. Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing that intrigued me.

The book is told from multiple viewpoints and is mostly about North and the group of circus performers that she travels with. As Damplings, they live on the water and earn money and food by performing for the Landlockers. Along the way, she meets Callanish, a Landlocker who lives by herself performing burial rituals for the dead. Sometimes multiple viewpoints can enhance a story by showing the reader a more complete picture of the world or circumstances. In this case, all it did was keep me feeling very disconnected from all of the characters. I never really felt anything for any of them. Callanish is lonely and North is lonely and the poor Bear is lonely and they are all trapped by their circumstances…and so what. I didn’t feel bad for any of them. I wasn’t rooting for any of them – except maybe the poor bear.

There wasn’t really much of a plot, either. I kept waiting for something to happen but nothing ever really did. We’re just strung along watching life happen to these people. There are a couple of more exciting and sad scenes, but even these didn’t really sway me much because I had such a disconnect with these characters. I didn’t feel as sad as I think I should have and I wasn’t on the edge of my seat at any time during my reading. Granted, that may not have been what the author was going for anyway, but even if a book isn’t exciting, I expect to feel something and I just didn’t.

There were also parts of this world and social structure and customs that I just didn’t understand. Why is everyone so hungry all the time? The sea is full of fish and plants and other creatures, yet everyone is always hungry all the time. I don’t get it. I also didn’t get why the Landlockers held such sway. It’s a mark of your superior status to own land in a world where land is so scarce, but that would mean that there are many many more Damplings. I would think there would be a huge black market and a lot of piracy in a world such as this. The burial traditions include caging a bird – a Graceling – and letting is starve to death. When the bird dies, the period of mourning is over. Where do these birds come from? Callanish worries about leaving her post and doing things properly but who is she afraid of? We’re never introduced to a governing body or any type of authority other than the soldiers who are called to arrest people. Who gives them their orders? Is there a council, a governor, a king…what?

Overall, I didn’t hate this. There are some really interesting concepts and I didn’t dislike it enough to stop reading it. I finished but felt unfulfilled. I’m sad about that because I love the idea of an Earth covered in water and humanity starting to evolve to its new circumstances. However, there were just too many holes and a lack of character depth and plot that left me feeling very blah about this book. For those of you wondering, this book is definitely more Literary than Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Also, just a comment about the comparisons to The Night Circus. I loved The Night Circus and while I can definitely see the comparisons, I don’t really feel like if you loved that book you’ll love this one – obviously. However, if you loved The Night Circus, this might be worth checking out. It has a similar surreal quality to it that many readers will love.

[Beth C.]

Imagine Earth, 100 years from now. Humans have decimated the planet and the seas have risen until there are only small patches of land here and there. The military enforces a sort of martial law, as much as it can, traveling from island to island and boarding boats of those who live at sea. Prison is not uncommon for small violations, and bribery is rampant. And as is typically the way of humans, even those who live at sea and those who live at land divide into factions and have a love/hate relationship with each other. Within this world, people survive as they can. Two people, a dampling and a landlocker, are about to have their destinies intertwine in a way that neither could ever have imagined - and both will be forever changed.

"The Grace Keepers" is not a book with action-packed pages. It moves along in such a way that one can imagine the Fates weaving the cloth that bound the characters together. The descriptions are lovely, and the characters are well-developed during the course of the story. Most of all, it manages to demonstrate how the old adage of "The more things change, the more they stay the same." is accurate even with the changed reality of life during this unnamed time.

Kirsty Logan has written a lovely book, about love, friendship, regret and hope. It is definitely worth reading, and would make a fabulous book club choice, just for the conversations it would inspire.