The Graces (The Graces, #1)

by Laure Eve

Picked for BBC Radio 2's Book Club

Everyone said the Graces were witches.
They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair.
They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different.
All I had to do was show them that person was me.

Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

This beautifully-written thriller will grip you from its very first page.

• ISBN10: 0571326803
• ISBN13: 9780571326808
• Publish Date: 1 September 2016 (first published 30 August 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 1 April 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

Initial thoughts: There’s so much I disliked, I don’t even know where to begin. Can we just say that the Grace siblings were a carbon copy of the Cullens from Twilight? Minus the vampire part, replaced by rumours of them being witches. The protagonist was so obsessed with them, she was maniacal. It was uncomfortable to read.

“Oh, Fenrin, you have no idea the lengths you’d have to go to get me to hate you. I’m not going anywhere.”

She may not have verbalised her thoughts but it made me downright cringe. The phrasing didn’t help.

Speaking of the protagonist, what even was her name? No, technically it wasn't River. River was her “secret name”, the one she wished she had been called because she didn't like her given name. Funny that her “secret name” came to be the one she was called by while her given name remained a mystery.

“It started in dorm room, while the teacher, Miss Franks, called attendance. She said my name.
[…]
Niral's eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You mean River?’
[.…]
Miss Franks waited for me to say something, then cleared her throat. ‘Her name is not River, Niral.

Okay, so what was her name? So much time was spent on her given name and yet nobody utttered it, instead opting for “new girl” when addressing her. This might not seem like such a big deal but in combination with everything else, I was considerably irritated.

The last few chapters picked up a slight bit, adding plot twists and surprises that led to a cliffhanger. It's those developments that lifted my rating from 1 to 1.5 stars and really, I have zero interest in continuing. When most of the book is that boring and elicits so many eye rolls from me, it's not worth reading the sequel to find out how things continue.

[readingwithwrin]

"We always have to find reasons to make order out of chaos, but the worst horror is when the reasons are totally banal, or when there isn't any reason at all."

I'm not going to lie I ended up requesting this book due to how much hype it had surrounding it, plus just look at how pretty that cover is. But sadly that's where the enjoyment really ended for me. This book kind of just goes in one big circle.

We have River who is new in town and lives with her mother who is almost always working. So what does River do? Well she like almost everyone else in the town is interested in the Graces.
"They were one step removed from the rest of the school, minor celebrities with mystery wrapped around them like fur soles, an ethereal air to their presence that whispered tantalizingly of magic."

Which I don't really understand because as we get to know the graces we see how they will use almost anyone to get what they want. Yeah sure one of them hates using people it appears at times. But she seems to get over this as time goes on or just pushes it to the side. Either way the Graces aren't good people. Sure they have money and good looks which makes the rest of the town interested in them, plus you also have the added thing in of the mystery that happened at one of the kids birthday parties a long time ago.

The first half of the book I found to be pretty good though I'm not going to lie, sure I didn't really care for most of the Graces. But I liked getting to know River and was constantly trying to figure out what happened to her father. (We get to know in the second half of the book.)
The second half though while there was a twist to it, just fell flat to me. We saw how truly awful the Grace family could be and how while they might seem to have Witch powers they also kind of don't. Or at least not as much as what a certain someone appears to have.

Sure there were still many questions left to be answered in the next one. But as of right now I just don't have any interest in reading it.
"You have to learn to be happy with who you are and what you've got."

Thank you to Amulet and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
3.5*
Well, this was an unusual sort of book, wasn't it? It wasn't what I expected, though not really in a bad way. Just... different. See, The Graces are a family who people flock to. I know some others I know who read this had some trouble with the fact that The Graces are so... captivating to everyone in the town. But I feel like we all know people like this, no? Sure, maybe the enamor with the Graces was a little exaggerated, but I feel like this is a thing that happens. I knew (well, I still know) a family who was a lot like this. No, no one assumed they were magical or witches or whatever, but for some reason, people flocked to them. They quite literally did nothing to provoke this, but nevertheless, they always had "clingers". (I once told them that they must somehow hypnotize people, but they denied it ;) )

My point is, I kind of saw where River was coming from, even if I didn't exactly like her. Fine, truthfully, I despised River as a character. But (and this probably doesn't say awesome things about me as a person) I also kind of felt for her, and even related to her at times. Like, she says this:

"More than just.... this, this life, every day, on and on, until I'm dead. There's got to be. I want to find it. I need to find it."

And I am on board, I feel like I do kind of understand her, even though I don't necessarily agree with her actions more often than not. And often didn't agree with her thoughts, either. She kind of thought she was "better than" everyone in the town, that she (and only she) could really "get" the Graces. Of course, to the reader, this comes off as sad and needy. Which it was.

"I was different. I wanted to see beyond the glamour to the real them."

 

So I get that this sounds like I didn't like it! But you'd be wrong. I did! See, the whole thing is, despite River's complete suckitude (shh it's totally a word) as a person, I wanted to know what was happening in this town! And with the Grace family in general. And yes, even with River! Because she might have been a hot mess, but it was like a train wreck, and I simply couldn't look away.

 Anyway, there were some awesome things about this book! Here's a few more:

• It was a very quick read, engaging and entertaining. I was sucked in, and even when I was rolling my eyes at River, or kind of confused by some of the plot direction, I was eager to find out what happened.


• The Grace siblings were quite intriguing characters, too, which helped me want to know their stories even more- perhaps even more than I cared about River's story.


• I enjoyed the friendships, especially the dynamic between River and Summer Grace. Despite all the strangeness and the infatuation with the Grace family, Summer was pretty damn genuine.


• It was twisty, and I like that! I wasn't expecting some of the twists and turns, so that was a huge bonus for me. Plus, I think it set up the sequel phenomenally!

And what I didn't quite love? Well, yes, there was some of that too! 

• Parent-in-YA Syndrome. These parents were the actual worst. The Grace parents were just irksome, but River's mom was so... ugh. Literally cannot come up with a better word for her. Because she seemed to not care if River was safe at home, or in a ditch somewhere.


• It was weird. So much of this story was flat out strange, and most of it was in a good way, but there were a few things (spoilery, naturally) that left me scratching my head. I do think that some of it will be answered in the sequel, or at least I hope so!


• The characters weren't likable. I disliked each of them at one point or another, some more harshly than others. But I think that we aren't meant to like this group, so I didn't really hold it against the story too much- but it is worth mentioning while reviewing, of course! And sometimes, River made me roll my eyes, hard. I have little flags saying "eyes rolling" in several spots in the book, all because of nonsense that River is saying/thinking.

Bottom Line: This is a strange, yet compulsively readable book. As much as I disliked River, I can't wait to find out what happens next in her story. Go figure.

*Copy provided by publisher for review

[Sam@WLABB]

The Graces are this family shrouded in mystery and secrecy. Their circle is very small, and seemingly, impenetrable, but newcomer, River, is able to become one of the chosen few.

This book is filled with broken people, who are hiding from their own secrets. I hinged on every sentence as Eve fed us the truth, bit by bit. I loved the tension, and the build up. The ending caught me off guard, and that was a good thing. I like surprises, and am looking forward to see where this series is going.

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I really wanted to like this book. And I did like some parts of it. But River felt a little too stalker-y, and she pretty much re-made herself in the image she thought was most likely to get her what she wanted.

It was apparent early on that River is broken. And soon after she gets in with the Graces, you realize that all of the Graces are broken too. All of them are good at hiding it, and all are broken in different ways. I liked Summer the best of all the characters. She was the most human one of them, and behaved in the most believable ways.

The beginning was the best part of the book. The way the characters were described, the hints of mystery surrounding the Graces. All of it drew me in and I wanted to know more. But then it bogged down. It got really slow in the middle, and just dragged. The ending was fairly predictable, based on what happened during the book. I'm a little bit curious as to what will happen in the next book, but this one dragged so much I'm not sure if I want to read the next one at this point.

I really felt bad for River in the beginning. I hoped she'd be able to make friends with Summer, Fenrin and Thalia. And then towards the middle of the book all that changed. I didn't really like River as a person much, and I started felling bad for Summer and Fenrin.

Fenrin presents himself at school as the classic bad boy. Gorgeous and with a different girl every week. River falls into insta-lust and decides that she is the girl he's been waiting for, and once she has him he'll never stray. But she ignores signs and clues, doesn't really get to know HIM, just imagines his personality.

Summer makes friends with River, and later they end up as best friends. But again, River doesn't really listen to what is going on or pay attention to what her eyes are telling her. She has an ideal for both Summer and Fenrin, and that's mostly all she sees. And then when something bad happens in the book, and things start to blow up, she's taken by complete surprise. Everything is about her and how it's affecting her. She's not really thinking about how it affects the Graces, unless it is an off-shoot of how it's screwed up her own life.

This was very much a teen angst fest, which is not usually a type of book I would pick up. I may or may not read the next book, it depends on what characters it centers around. And if River wises up at all. If I do read it, it'll be a library read, I can't see buying it after not liking the first book much.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

Where to even start with this book. I was on such a rollercoaster with it. One minute I wanted to fling it across the room and not even finish, the next I was reading as fast as possible to see what happened next. Then I would go back to the flinging. And the ending? WTF. OMG. The ending left me like this:



I honestly don’t know how to write this review without spoilers. But I’ll do my best.

*crickets* *thinking* *more crickets* Ok, here we go.

Everyone said the Graces were witches.
They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair. They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different.

All I had to do was show them that person was me.

We experience this story through the eyes of River, a 15-year-old transplanted misfit to a new school and new town. She and the rest of her school are obsessed with (and frequently manipulated) a family of alleged “witches,” 3 of which attend their high school. The life goal of most of the students seems to be to be “in” with the Graces, who not only have their own popular circle of friends, they have their own style, and their own rules. Rumored to have their own “abilities,” but this has never actually been confirmed.

Drama llama, high school drama llama, everywhere.

River refuses to stoop to groveling, like the rest of the school. She is much more experienced in manipulation, we see right from the start. Yet she seems to be such an unconfident, scared little rabbit.

Sometimes they’d paralyze me, the “what ifs” of action, and I didn’t do anything at all because it was safer.

But why? How? I had so many questions for River, about River, right from the beginning. I was both confused and rather bored through almost the first half of the book. High school politics and teenage drinking (this is one of my pet peeves with SO many YA books – does no one notice these kids are drinking? who provides the alcohol?) really don’t interest me. Though, for once, the author actually explains the drinking somewhat. And, I couldn’t figure out if we were supposed to take magic seriously, or not, or…what. Until the last third of the book, it seemed like all shadows and smoke, nothing else, even though the Graces have all the appearance of a family practicing modern paganism of some type.

That was the first half. I was repeatedly irritated by the amount of time we seemed to spend in the school cafeteria. Teenage angst and drama, wan-wan. But even through all that, I kept getting this odd little 2+2 = 5 feeling. Something wasn’t right.

“We all hide our true selves.”

River’s continuing obsession with the Graces (particularly the youngest, a girl named Summer), and numerous other little red flags I kept seeing out of the corner of my eye, had me convinced at about Chapter 18 that something was seriously wrong with our little narrator. She is intriguing and yet insufferably irritating. Her dependence on her new “friends” is disturbing.

I just had to drift along like the ghost I was before, no Summer to anchor me, feeling like the last three months had never happened, and how fragile my existence was without her for even one afternoon.

^This is my "getting-a-leeeeetle-creeped-out-now" face.

And then things start to happen fast enough to keep me entertained. I started to suspect everything, everyone, nothing could be as it seemed…or could it? Could it?? What? I stayed up until 11:30 on a work night (I’m usually in bed by 9 or 9:30) to finish it and at the end…well, you saw the WTF already. I was completely blown away. I had to go back and re-read, I had to look for clues. I despise – repeat, abso-freaking-lutely despise – sudden twists that have no buildup. Deus ex machina is never an acceptable plot device with me. Well…Laure Eve isn’t using it. The clues are there. You just have to recognize them. And then, naturally, she pulls a cliffhanger. SUCH a cliffhanger. Like, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me-that-did-NOTJUSTHAPPEN cliffhanger.

They used truths to tell lies, and they were very good at it.

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book and had to think about it for awhile before I could rate it. In the end, the things that bothered me so much in the first half brought it down to 3/5 stars. There’s at least one little error in description that REALLY irked me. I still feel all the high school drama fest was really unnecessary. I mean, set the scene and forget it. No one wants to relive the awkwardness and horror of the high school lunch room. Over. And over. In a book, no less.

Besides all that, it was a good story. The characters were interesting when not particularly sympathetic. I love actually being surprised by a book. I’m exceedingly annoyed that I will have to wait an entire year to read the conclusion. If you like twists, off-beat characters, and a bit of pagan woo-woo thrown in definitely give it a try!

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing an early review copy in exchange for an honest review!

[katie]

Review:

I’ll take the blame myself for this one. I’ve got to stop reading the reviews that say “this book is for fans of ‘insert favorite book here’ and ‘insert favorite tv show here’!” because IT IS NEVER TRUE. (In case you were wondering, The Graces is apparently a perfect mix of We Were Liars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Even books that I really enjoy are never exactly the way they’re advertised when they’re marketed like that. So that’s a part of why I didn’t finish this book. But the biggest reason is...

British books that I didn’t realize were British confuse me. I’ll be reading, feeling like maybe I’m getting into a groove, and then all the sudden they’re going out to pubs (in high school, too, which… isn’t a pub like a bar?) and eating beans on toast. And I’m just staring off into the distance like… what?

So, yeah. The Graces was not the book for me. I did not finish it, so I cannot say with any authority that it does not get a million times better after the beginning, but I’ve decided to leave it. Maybe you can finish it. Maybe you’ll love it. I hope you do.

Well Wishes & Candy Fishes,
Kait

[Jo]

ETA: Since reading this book, I have discovered that it is problematic due to biphobia. Because of this, I can no longer recommend this book with a clear conscience - but I am leaving my review here for purposes of transparency. Read more in @eternaldelicacy's thread (though it contains spoilers).

---------------------------------

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

My interest in The Graces by Laure Eve was sparked when I went to the Faber Children's Blogger Event. Eve read out an extract, and that, along with her telling us she was inspired by the movie The Craft, had me in desperate need of this book. Once the proof arrived, I flew through it! I cannot tell you just how brilliant this book is!

Thalia, Fenrin and Summer. You'd know the Graces as soon as you saw them. There's no denying the draw they have, their magnetism. You can pretend you don't care, but you will. You'll be intrigued by them, want to know them, want to be close to them. There's just something about them; they're beautiful, sure, but it's something more that has heads turning as they walk by. It's rumoured that they're witches, and it's not hard to believe. River is new to town, and only just learning about The Graces, rather than growing up with them - but even she isn't immune. River is completely enamoured by them, and does all she can to be the person they'd want to be friends with. But when Summer, the youngest Grace, takes an interest in her, River becomes obsessed. River won't stop until she knows everything she can about the Graces, about their witchcraft, until she becomes one of them.

Oh my god, this book! It is so absolutely gripping! This book is everything I was interested in as a teenager, and so it wasn't hard to fall in love with it. I was so interested in magic and witches as a teen; I had varioud teenage spellbooks, I had an oracle, a dream dictionary. I was so interested in the occult, and while I can't say I believed in it all, I so desperately wanted it all to be true. So The Graces would have been perfect for me back then, and reading it felt very nostalgic. This isn't about witches that wave wands, say magic words, and have lightning flash from their fingertips - The Graces are more Pagan witches, or Wiccan witches. Witches that use the natural world; crystals and candles and feathers and water; chants and will and energy. And I was captivated. The Graces are my kind of people, and the mystery around them was delicious. Like River, I was desperate to know more.

But River herself is really fascinating. She and her mother have moved to the town after her Dad disappears. Her mother says he's been in touch, but River doesn't believe her. She so desperately wants him to come back, and believes the Graces' magic could help. But her interest in the Graces is more than just because she wants her dad back, but because she is completely sucked in by them. She seems really troubled. Her every thought is for The Graces. She buys spell books and studies them like her life depends on it. She is enchanted by their power - not just as witches, but as people, how everyone wants to know them, how everyone knows who they are. She wants it, she wants to be a part of it, and she can think of barely little else.

I don't want to say too much more about the plot, because this really is a story that should be discovered as you read it. But that ending! Oh my god! The ending was unbelievable! Stakes get so high and things become dangerous, and this is exactly where I can see the influences of The Craft! I was on the edge of my seat, desperate to know what was going to happen! It was such an electrifying, terrifying, heartpounding climax! And we finally get some answers, and I was so surprised by all we discovered! I had an inkling, but no real theories, and it was just so brilliant! It works brilliantly as a standalone, but there's enough left open for there to be a sequel, and there will be! And I am so excited!

The Graces is absolutely incredible! I was completely swept up in the intrigue surrounding the enigmatic Grace siblings, and fell as much under River's spell as I did the Graces'! Buy this book and clear your diary. You're not going to be doing anything else until you're finished.

Thank you to Faber Children's Books for the proof.