September 24, 2010

Grace - Elizabeth Scott







GraceYoung Adult
Pages: 208
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: September 16, 2010

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, this tale of a dystopian near future will haunt readers long after they've reached the final page.

This book was shocking. I already knew Scott could rock dark/scary type of reading from Living Dead Girl, but this was a different kind of scary. A horrifying, painful kind of scary. She deals with stuff we don't even want to imagine. Terrorism, viewed from the terrorist's POV. Actually, from a teen female suicide bomber's POV. Hit some buttons there? Yep, try to swallow that! She efficiently plays with our concepts of reality from an imaginary dystopian world. She questions and makes us realize the fact that we are a sum of what we learn from what is taught to us, plus our experiences. Nothing more.

The premise was terrifyingly original and trapping. Grace's world was a well constructed totalitarian society facing terrorist threats on daily basis. Grace is a trained killer with her mind carefully manipulated pro-cause and against her enemy. So my only complaint will be, that I expected to be more sickened and more nauseated. I know that sounds terrible, but as a dark realistic and dystopian lover, I felt this doesn't offer the emotional earthquake that a premise like this was supposed to bring. Everything happened too quickly. I probably needed a longer book. But still, I felt that Scott's wonderful talent to use words to steer up your insides so you literally feel the book, was not at the best with this one.

The writing was great, of course. The world, like I said, was very well constructed, so much so that I wanted to know more. This was definitely a very different side of Elizabeth Scott, and I sure cannot wait to read more from her. If you're like me and enjoy disturbing books this should be at the top of your list.


4 comments:

  1. This looks great. I never read Elizabeth Scott (I know shame on me) so maybe this will be my first one? Great Review!

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  2. I liked this one too. I continue to be amazed by how versatile Elizabeth Scott's writing is. Just brilliant.

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  3. Can you believe I still haven't read this yet? I actually forgot I had the ARC just sitting in my review box to read. Must get to it fast!

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  4. Ooh. I love it when I come across books like these...especially if they're by E. Scott. It seems like this one is unique though...I've never touched a book about terrorism before. I'm quite excited for this one now!

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