Grace: Review

Title: Grace
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Release Date: September 16th, 2010
Published By: Dutton
Goodreads Rating: 3.60 stars
Amazon Rating: 4.00 stars

Synopsis: Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

Told in spare, powerful prose by acclaimed author Elizabeth Scott, this tale of a dystopian near future will haunt readers long after they've reached the final page.

Review: I had pretty high expectations for this book because of Living Dead Girl, and I wasn't disappointed. Grace was powerful and haunting, and made for a frightening but original dystopian world. It takes place largely as Grace is escaping on a train, and she flashes back numerous times to past events and memories.

Though this is a short book at only a little bit over 200 pages, it manages to discuss quite a bit. While reading this, I felt like I was really there with her in the train, watching horror after horror unfold. Elizabeth Scott does an excellent job painting a miserable future, and I have to say, I really envy her writing ability.

Kerr was one of my favorite characters because of his complexity. There are secrets about him that I don't want to reveal here, but they add so much to him, and the reader will feel just as conflicted about him as Grace does. I kept wishing I could just break through the pages and hug him, although that probably wouldn't work out on so many levels.

This book was a little depressing - or, rather, a lot depressing, but it did have some notes of hope within it. I highly recommend this to those who loved Living Dead Girl even if you're not usually a fan of dystopias or science fiction. This was, after all, more of an introspective, character-driven book than anything else. The one thing I will say is that this book didn't suck me in as much as I thought it would, but it was still an excellent read.

Grade: B