Fairytale this ainât: A Review
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?
CRYPTIC SPOILERS AHEAD AGAIN...
I actually read this book in Nov 2016, but there was no way I could put into words how I was feeling about the book right after finishing it. There was some emotions I wasnât sure of, some Iâm still not sure I understand -Â but at least I felt something.Strange as it was (strange feels this book is not lacking!) I hate books that I am meh about.
One thing I liked about this story was the atmosphere; the place its set is quaint, I had a picture of the seaside town in my head, and I can imagine buying 99 flakes and walking along the shore. But Eve didnât leave it that way. With the Graces comes this edge, this sense of magic and marvellous things, and that was an interesting contrast - to see a low key town brim with life because of one family.
Itâs hard not to want to be a Grace with the way they are described in this book; money, beauty, power, but as with all of those things, they are more curse than gift. They were a vehicle to also show other peopleâs shortcomings in being so obsessed with them.
What I liked is that Eve captured the basic instinct of all humans, and especially teenagers, to be accepted. Iâm definitely past my teenage years, but some of the social scenes and rejections had me remembering what it was like being at school and wanting people to like me and invite me to things. I laughed, I cringed, and I wanted people to be punished / succeed, so well done Eve :)
At the moment Iâm big into character development; thereâs nothing that makes me salivate more than when an author really turns the magnifying glass on their characters and makes their book an inquisition, and, an arena of learning, all whilst the stakes are mounting. Thatâs where the fun and the feels and even the hatred come from when we get into a story. Donât get me wrong, through Riverâs eyes we see the cracks in the Graceâs perfectly constructed personas. They are NOT who they seem to be at the beginning. But with River I didnât get any sense of who she is. Just âsomethingâ about her at the end, but even then, I was like ERM, WHAT? I think if Eve had shown Riverâs character a bit more Iâd have understood what she was better and the two would have felt more natural. Plus, she had all this great stuff about her dad, and her relationship with her mum that could have been used to give the reader more to analyse.Â
Also, I really liked the opening chapter where it suggested River was going to ensnare the Graces, and that first interaction with Fenrin had me rooting for her, and intrigued. But after that, River didnât really live up to her promise. She simply followed Summer around, and didnât insert her way into their lives at all. I like it when the MC drives the story, and honestly, she wasnât driving the plot forward for me at all. She merely served as a television screen on which I watched 3 perfect peopleâs lives unravel.
I am NOT going to give away the ending, but it was pretty edge of your seat, intense, and kind of uncomfortable. No, scrap that, it was DAMN uncomfortable. And totally gripping as a result. However, it did take TIME to get there. Lots of needless TIME and pinning from River and âtransformationsâ that I didnât get, since she hadnât changed AT ALL in the book.Â
All in all, I think the plot chugged along because the author knew she had a huge reveal coming, which did make me want to get my hands on the 2nd book, but didnât quite justify why I read the rest of the book.
Having said that, itâs one of those books that I actually really, really enjoyed despite there being not much plot. (Doesnât make sense, I know!)
Playing a guessing game about where the plot is going to go, if magic does exist, and who your MC is going to be
Watching âperfectâ crumble
Climaxes that hit you like a tidal wave
For me, The Graces gets 3.8 BookWorm Squeals - because I love anything ritualistic and witchy, and do want to see what happens next!
