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.

The Graces

Opus Clopus

Ana Luiza

pqp toda vez que lembro q li isso da uma raiva

Mythos

1/5 stars 


  Possible spoilers:

I really tried to like this book but couldn't bring myself to.

Summary: 
Our main character, River, is obsessed with the Grace family, which has a complicated history. She is in love with Fenrin Grace, who's supposed to be the most attractive guy at school. He also has two sisters, Summer and Thalia Grace. Summer is gone, whereas Thalia is both beautiful and untouchable. River wants to be a part of their group but knows that they tend to switch friends rather quickly.

My problems with these books are:

1) This book is the Walmart version of Twilight. Twilight was more enjoyable because I could actually find enjoyable moments within all that mess.

2) We have an all-white cast with one token, possibly a South Asian character. I wasn't really sure what her ethnicity was. All the characters are either problematic or show no growth throughout the book. Thalia has no other interesting character traits other than how she dresses. Summer is transparent. She doesn't hide anything and just tells River everything. Fenrin is only shown as unattainable and hot. It is stated that he is possibly bisexual, but this is used to show how the other characters are biphobic/queerphobic. Trigger Warning: From River to Fenrin's own mother, they both use the word "disgusting" to describe Fenrin. River because Fenrin's kissing another boy. His mother likely called him that for the same reasons. This was a breaking point and they almost immediately dropped it. 

3) River is practically obsessed with the Graces. This is shown through their thoughts and is a recurring problem as they can be creepy and borderline stalker-like. We learn that River isn't her real name. She does everything she can in order to become a different person. She does so in order to please others. Specifically, people she doesn't even know well. She is constantly putting other girls down. From judging their mannerisms to how much lip gloss they have on. Again, I know sometimes you can read a book and not like the main character, but she has no redeeming qualities, and this affects all the other characters, who barely have a personality.

4) SO MANY TROPES THAT I DESPISE. I can usually excuse tropes I dislike. I'm not like other girls' tropes, using diverse characters to give other characters "development", "mean girl" status, etc. All these tropes combined can only make a mess of a book. Perhaps they would work with a better set of characters, but the current set is not worth reading. In addition, the writing isn't that good either. It's a rather slow story, and there are parts where you feel as if the problem was just added to create drama or some form of plot which there was none of.

5) I skimmed the book all the way to the end. Without any spoilers, given the ending was a set up for you to go read the other book. It leaves you with a cliffhanger.

To summarize, the characters suck, there is no plot, there are so many bad tropes used, and this book has no redeemable qualities. Go read Twilight or any other book that's better than this one.

"A secretive loner discovers her own hidden powers when she's taken under the wings of three glamorous witches"--

Gillian Rose

Technically 3 and 1/2 stars. It's been a while since I read a book about witches. Unfortunately, I felt it hit most of the major tropes instead of exploring something new. Also, I disliked River. A lot. But I liked the Graces, especially Summer. I'll probably read the sequel but my hopes aren't high.

Kirsten Simkiss

My real rating would be more like 3.5 stars, but I rounded up for Goodreads's purposes because it would tip the average a little closer to my ideal rating.

This book is not initially as magical as one might anticipate. In fact, most of the first two thirds of the book remains fairly mundane. It isn't until part two where the magic really starts to come out, which is sort of a pity because that second part is, by far, the better part of the book. I actually think the book suffers from the first part being too long. The first part is lengthy and, while it builds character relationships fairly well, it makes the book feel more like it's about economic class differences and unbalanced relationships than magic. Maybe that was the goal. I'm not sure. But it felt way too long.

The other thing that I found unsettling about this book is that there's never any sense of happiness in the book. Not one moment feels truly joyful. The whole book has this feel of an overcast day - not necessarily raining, but without any sunlight. It's an interesting thing, to be sure, but it's not particularly fun to read for any length of time. It felt like you were always waiting for that final penny to drop and, when it eventually did in part two, it was a relief.

I got interesting hints of the Great Gatsby, the Grace family and their relationships being similar to how the public treats Gatsby and his parties, and Bridge to Terabithia from this book, with the friendship with the class difference and the sense that the magic both was and wasn't real, as well as Twilight from the way that the Grace family is constantly described as being surreal and beautiful much like the Cullens. It was an interesting combination of things. 

I didn't love the book, but I do feel like I want to read on to see what happens. The second part was far more satisfying, despite the unreliable narrator who I distrusted from the jump because of the unhealthy basis of her friendship with the Graces, so I'm optimistic that later installations won't suffer from the now aired secret revealed in the final chapters.

Elisa Bieg

This book has a lot of tricks up its sleeve (do books have sleeves? Figurative sleeves, at least give me that — I’m too tired to come up with something better 😬)

Don’t trust it. Just when you think you know what kind of story this is and where is going, it totally throws you for a loop. Then it tricks you into a false sense of security, and a moment later it whacks you with something shocking and upsetting.

So it’s not predictable — some aspects may be (like with whom Wolf is in love), but not the story, I promise. 

And yet... I felt a little betrayed. And that made me lower the rating. 

So I’m going to rate it 3 STARS, and apologize for this somewhat cryptic review, but any more info than this and I might spoil it for you!

Veronica Shuttleworth

Alexa Auerbach 

More like 3.5. I just can't tell if I liked it or disliked it.

allie

Hannah Derzanovich

This is one of those books that needs to be paced better or to be longer, but even so I know I won't be reading the second one.

Grace O'Callaghan

This book was really not great at all. The plot was pretty much non-existent and I didn't particularly see the point? I feel like that's harsh to say that it was pointless but it kind of felt like it.

I detested the main character and I don't know if I was supposed to or not. River thought she was better than everyone else and that she was so special, it kind of made me feel sick. She was also quite misogynistic to the girls in her school. Except the Graces, they can do no wrong. River was like a piece of cardboard. So incredibly flat and boring but the Graces just happened to pick her to be apart of their 'family'. 

The Graces weren't great either. They weren't great people and even when I was supposed to feel sympathetic towards them, I just didn't. Most of the characters didn't feel very real to me. They seemed like ghosts, the way they acted was just off to me.

The setting was also hard to picture. For a good bit of the book I thought it was set in the US until I started noticing some of the words they used and thought it was probably set in the UK by the sea. That's all we got really. No town names or any vivid descriptions of places at all. It made me feel distant to the story.

Excuse this mess of a review but overall this book was just a waste of time. I might even be being a bit generous with the 1.5 stars.

Jelke Lenaerts

original rating 5/5 stars 
This was so different and intresting. I was so addicted to it. And oh my god that twist towards the ending. Yas !!! Big fan ! Big fan !

 REREAD MAY 2019 

This book has a trigger warning for homophobia.

I forgot how infuriating River is. Damn! She's just so self centered, hypocritical and just obvlious to the real world when it doesn't match what's in her head. Uuuuugh!!! I genuily just couldn't stand her at all. For the rest I really get why I loved this book so much, because most elements I still do. I loved the plot from it and it switched tones about halfway through. I absolutely love the Graces. They are such an interesting family and I can't wait to learn more about them in the sequel. Summer might be my favourite character from the book and I was so happy when I found out we follow her in the sequel. I really, really liked the book and I highly recomend you go check it out because it is worth it. The main character is just unstandable.

Comme tout le monde, River Page est fascinée par les Grace, frère et soeurs. Comme tout le monde, elle est persuadée qu'ils ont la magie dans le sang. Et, comme tout le monde, elle brûle d'envie de devenir leur amie. Elle se rapproche de Summer, la benjamine, et tombe sous le charme du ravissant Fenrin, l'aîné. Mais, au grand désespoir de River, la magie ne résout pas tout les problèmes...

Jurassic Jones

Coup de coeur ❤
J'ai vraiment adoré ce roman énigmatique, mystérieux et sombre. La manière dont est racontée le récit est prenante et originale. Le personnage principale est très ambiguë, elle laisse planner un doute chez le lecteur jusqu'au bout. J'aime ce récit où tout n'est pas tout blanc ou tout noir. 
La magie prends une autre forme. J'avais l'impression de lire une série américaine assez angoissante sur les sorcières. C'était addictif, je l'ai lu en 3 jours.

Elke

I am not sure if I like this book or not. There happened a lot of things in the beginning of the book and it went so fast. The ending made the book a lot better though, with all the mysteries and plot twists.

Cecilia Giordano

Chelsea Hogg

The story follows a girl named River as she navigates her life in a new sleepy coastal town with her distant and mostly absent mother shortly after the disappearance of her father. She develops a deep obsession with wanting to know more about the Graces and the rumors of them being witches. River will do anything to get close to the Grace's, especially Fenrin - the beautiful boy every girl wants but none can tame.

I loved how River's character developed throughout the book. You want to be in her corner because she's lonely, bullied and scared of her new surroundings but as the book progresses you begin to see her layers fade away and reveal the actual monster she is. She's a loathsome and toxic person desperate for the love of the Graces and willing to mask who she really is so they don't find her out. You follow River as she befriends Summer and Tahlia, while trying to win the affections of Fenrin. Her crush and need to be needed turns into an obsession and she begins a downward spiral that literally had me screaming at her the entire time. Her motives for their friendship are not what they think and once they figure her out, her web of lies and deceit slowly begin to unravel. It's a very "single white female" vibe right before and after the main plot twist and for the last third of the book which had me at the edge of my seat until the very last word.


You can check out the full review to this amazing book here! - https://cosmicreaderr.blogspot.com/20...

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

3.5 stars!

I haven't read too many witch books, so you could say I was pretty intrigued when I saw The Graces show up at my door. The gorgeous cover doesn't hurt either. What a beauty!
 

  


River is a hard nut to swallow. She has recently moved to a new town, though the reasons for this move aren't known to us right away. Her desire is to remain under the radar and not stir up any trouble with her new students... but at the same time she's extremely drawn to a group of siblings at her school, The Graces, who are thought to be witches. With all the surrounding rumors of the crazy things that happen when the Graces are involved, it's no wonder that the assumed fact is that magic is involved.
 


River's obsession with the Graces was honestly a bit off-putting and hard to accept at times. I didn't understand her fascination with the family and why she wanted so badly to be a part of their group. I understand being curious when you hear fellow classmates are witches... but the infatuation with all three of them was hard for me to accept. It does make more sense as the story goes on, but in the beginning I did struggle with it a bit. And the Graces desire to befriend River was quite odd to me as well. Why were they so drawn to her? She's a pretty ordinary girl, so what was this weird connection between them all?

This story has a few surprises and ends with quite a bang. Though I'm not normally a fan of series and prefer things to be wrapped up in one book, I am curious about what will happen next in this one. Especially since I still have a few questions, including what is River's real name??? She chooses to have the Graces call her by the name River, but her real name is never revealed, and I'm quite curious why that is and what the significance behind that lack of disclosure is. I wish book two was out already since this seems like a good series to binge read. I've seen this compared to Twilight and The Craft, and I can definitely see the similarities to both. I will say this... I'm truly happy I gave this story a try. Though it's not my usual type of read, I was extremely intrigued by the premise and ended up really enjoying it. I'm even considering a re-read after that ending!

 

  


(Thanks to Amulet Books for the review copy!)

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Cath

This book had so, so much potential. From the synopsis, I gathered a paranormal love story involving witches and secrets. Well, what a disappointment this book was. I really enjoyed the first part of the book and the last part of the book. That was it. I had no care for anything else in between. I had to actually push myself to get to the very end.

I couldn't stand the characters one bit. They were awfully flat and boring. River could have stand out to me as a relatable protagonist from the start because of how she was first introduced. She was an independent, observant and reserved girl who's just trying to fit in, but not exactly 'stand out', that is until she met The Graces. She completely changed into a lovestruck fourteen year old girl and it was painful having to read about how desperate she was to befriend and eventually be a part of them. I really did not like how River chose to 'play safe' throughout the whole book either, like being a part of the Graces is her ultimate goal in life and that she is actually willing to submit herself to them. There was no development, and by the end of the book, the Graces still did not appeal to me and River was just angsty and stiff as ever.

Also, nothing about this book was realistic. Yes it was about witches but everything literally revolved around The Graces and River. It was tedious. It was more like a sad journal of a teenage girl who continued to put up with the most eccentric people with the expectation of them being able to somehow change her life completely. Some parts teased you with a bit of tension and a plot twist but nothing happened until the very last part of the book. It was pointless. I wish the story started with the ending and then went on from there. Maybe then I would have liked it better. Otherwise, there was nothing exciting about it.

The book was basically all about River trying to fit in with the Graces. It was like she had so much spare time in her hands. You know almost nothing about the protagonist except she is somehow 'broken' and not 'normal'. She moves into a new town, befriends supposed witches, gets popular all of a sudden, talks about how she and her mother don't get along very well, and then continues her daily life of being the Graces' sidekick. If you can't even understand the main protagonist and her intentions, how would you make sense of the whole story?

All I can say is that I hope the sequel is better. The ending gave me a little bit of idea for what's to come in the second book so I'm expecting better things.

Thank you SO much to Allen & Unwin for sending this book over in exchange for an honest review!

Beth Bartholomew

I really wanted to like this book, really I did! I met Laure Eve at YALC and she was lovely, at that point I was in the middle of this book. That was July, I finished it at the end of November and that was only because I got the audiobook in the end. I am sorry to say that I just couldn't stand this book, nor could I stand the audiobook narration! The narrator made the characters sound even more idiotic than I already read them as. 
 
Essentially this book is about a girl obsessed with this family that are supposedly witches. She is pathetically falling over herself to impress these characters and fall in love with them. It's completely ridiculous, she has no self respect or idea of how to live her own life. I think books should at least offer some sort of inspiration for their reader, but this one offered none. 
 
The narration was monotonous and drab, it left nothing to be interested about. It painted the characters as obviously 'cool' stereotypes that let nothing original about them. I think I just disliked the characters so much that it affected the rest of the book for me and unfortunately there was nothing I enjoyed about this reading experience. I don't like writing negative reviews, but in this situation, I needed to.

The Graces

Reviews