Grace

by Marília Bonelli

How far would you go for 24 hours if they were to be your last? Grace....For those living in the land of Tretion, it is a kindness a gift. A reprieve from the pain of death for some, a little extra time to say goodbye and make preparations for others, or even to go wild and jump from cliffs and do all the things you always wanted to do....As long as you can do it in 24 hours. That's how long you have: one day in which the body is healed from injury, postponing death itself for the duration. One day to make a difference between life and death. And then it's over, and if you were meant to die, you die...That's the grace, and ere are two things every child knows: everyone is born with grace, and no one can take it from you. So what happens if one is false? A series of murders has been baffling investigators in both Tretion and Allea. None of the Victims used their grace period. Unfortunately, no one was left alive to say why, until now. The answer brings forth a terrifying possibility. The murderer is out there and has to be stopped. The ruler of Tretion has ordered him captured, but a consensus on who to send cannot seem to be reached.The people must not know the truth. Finally a decision is made and it seems obvious, who better to hunt a man who steal live than a man who has none left?

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal

506 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2012

About the author

Marília was born on a snowy winter day in Ithaca-NY, and after learning the word "bus", relocated to the sunny Natal, in the northeast of Brazil, where she spent most of her life (give or take 254km to the south) with her parents and her cats. Now she lives in Ohio with her husband and, sadly, no cats.
Whenever real life doesn't get in the way, she's doing her best to finish all the other stories she's dreamed up over the years.

Reviews

[Joshua Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marilia Bonelli’s Grace is a truly creative novel. In the fantasy kingdom of Tretion, when you’re about to die you receive Grace, a twenty four hour period of life where you can do whatever you like. But when a murderer kills several people without allowing them to use Grace, the kingdom calls upon Luke to solve the murders. Luke is a dead man walking, having already entered his Grace period. It’s a perfectly tense, fascinating mystery that had me enthralled to the very end!

[Eisah Eisah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest (non-reciprocal) review.
(Spoilers within)

PROS:
- I liked the two main characters, Luke and Anya, and they had some good lines. I particularly liked Anya's thought:
"Maybe she could throw the couch at him, all she'd need would be a forklift."

At the end I was genuinely interested in what would happen with Luke and Anya.

- The plot was quite good and I was interested in what was going on with the reaper and the graces.

- The world was constructed well enough to paint a pretty good picture.

- I really enjoyed the parts where they were attempting to solve the crime, as well as the confrontation near the end.

CONS:
- Sometimes the hatred made no sense to me. For example, in this part:

"What am I allowed to do?" He asked finally.
"Nothing we haven't allowed." Immogy said quickly.
Luke frowned at him, which always seemed to irritate Immogy more for some reason. As if to illustrate that, Immogy scowled at him. "Don't look at me like that, boy. If it were up to me, you wouldn't be allowed to look at me at all."
Luke nodded silently and tried to change whatever expression was on his face to a more neutral one. "I just want to understand what's expected of me."
"Really? Is that what you want?" Immogy asked, narrowing his gaze on him. "Does it matter what you want?"

To explain, Luke is discovering that he's going to be sent after a serial killer. He hasn't been out in the world for probably over a decade. He asks what he's allowed to do, and for some reason the question is treated as an offense. It just makes no sense. He's not defying orders, he's asking what permissions he has in order to complete the given task. It would make sense for them to want him to have a clear set of rules he must follow.

- Repetitiveness. This was a pretty big issue with the book. Here's an example:
Chapter 15
"She could probably argue temporary insanity. Yes, that was it, Anya thought, she was insane. Or maybe it was the bump on her head, or maybe she was still passed out on the floor of her apartment, hallucinating all this. No, probably not that last one, her feet were complaining too much.
She could blame it on the pills the doctors had given her, or on the bump on her head, or even the pain."

Or a smaller one:
"His muscles complained at the movement when he ordered himself to move..."

It wasn't just the same words or phrases being used close to each other, but many of the same descriptions or actions would be used again and again. If you start reading this book, try to count how many times there's darkness in Luke's eyes.
Another was having characters roll their eyes, which I thought was even a larger problem when characters of high status did it. For the average person, such as Anya, eye rolling might be expected. But when it comes to someone who is meant to be the leader of a country, eye rolling comes off as childish and seems like something they would avoid doing.

- It took me a long time to get into this book. I was probably about 35% in before the story picked up. Maybe around 65% in it started dragging again for another long while, and picked up at the end. Part of this was because of what I pointed out above; different points were constantly being pounded on over and over in the story.
There were also parts that I think could have been eliminated altogether. Chapter 1 could have been deleted entirely. The story starts off with Luke, then in chapter 1 it switches off to a bunch of different people, only to switch back again and stay with Luke almost the entire story. It was disorienting, and when the story finally got to Anya I don't think I'd learned anything in chapter 1 that I needed to know.

I liked the story, but how much it lagged at parts really brought it down for me. If I hadn't been reading it to do a review I probably would have stopped reading it early on; which is too bad because there are good parts in there.

[Sheela Word · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Grace” is based on a simple, but brilliant, magical concept: people who foresee impending death can forestall it for 24 hours, granting themselves the opportunity to wrap up their wordly affairs and even to choose a more instantaneous, less painful way of dying. It’s a wonderful premise that has all sorts of spiritual and practical implications, and the author upped the ante by creating a hero who lacks this special ability and a villain who not only savagely murders others, but deprives them of the “grace periods” they would otherwise have.

The opening chapters make it almost impossible to put this book down. We are presented with two equally compelling mysteries….What will happen in the end?...and…What has happened to the hero (Luke) in the past, to make him such an outcast?

I cared a lot about Luke, whose suffering and isolation seemed very real, and I liked the slow and delicate development of intimacy between him and the villain’s sole surviving victim, a forthright and funny woman, whose sanity is constantly under siege as the events of the novel unfold.

I also liked the imaginary world described here, although oddly, the shadow wolves of the badlands seemed more realistic to me than two of the human members of the Advisory Council, whose beliefs and feelings seemed incongruent with their behaviors. In fact, the ending seemed a bit unconvincing to me, because I never fully understood the motivation of certain characters.

The ending seemed too quick, but I thought the middle needed trimming. Much of the novel focuses on a long quest undertaken by the two protagonists, and some scenes felt static or repetitive. The writing was also a bit unpolished and repetitive at times (e.g., there were many times when “eyes rolled”).

But on the whole, I really liked "Grace." It was more than just a thrill ride. I’ll probably remember it until the day I die.

[E.D. Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC!

I’d like to start this review by saying that Grace by Marilia Bonelli is one of the most polished and well written books I’ve read in a long time. Ms. Bonelia is a master wordsmith with the ability to pull you into her world and make you feel as though you’re really there with the characters.
Grace is a strange phenomenon that happens right before someone dies. It’s a grace period, another twenty-four hours to live, to say and do the things you never did before you depart.
Luke, the main protagonist, is born without grace, and therefore condemned to a life of servitude and torture. When a strange string of murders occur, Luke is tasked with finding the ‘Grace thief’. He is given a choice: find the murderer, which would probably mean his death, or not, which will definitely be the end of him.
Luke must put the pieces of the puzzle together, and perhaps find a reason for wanting to live again.
I would recommend this story to anyone. It’s beautiful told, fast paced and exciting. Bravo, Ms. Bonelli.

[Laura Libricz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grace is the story of Luke, who as a young boy was confronted with the fact that he had no grace, a special gift that allowed someone who was dying or seriously injured to summon an ethereal power that would allow them twenty-four hours to live. Because of this, his mother thought he was cursed and brought him to a temple where he was enslaved and tortured for years.

Years later, he was chosen by the elders in the temple as the most likely candidate to go back into the real world and hunt for a murderer who was not only killing people, but thought to be stealing graces from his victims. And one of these victims was still alive. Luke found her and together they went on a quest to find the killer.

I started this book twice. The basic idea is a strong one, clear and well-developed. And the grace itself is the ticking clock that picks up the speed. I felt the middle lagged a bit and the book could have used one more edit to tighten up the repetition.

I would recommend this to those who like a serious YA novel like The Hunger Games.

[Laura May · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 100 pages showed good premise, the middle 100 were a bit like "hurry it along", and the last 100 pages were UNPUTDOWNABLE. I read it on buses, trains, while walking along the street, while cooking dinner. I was dying to find out what would happen in the end.
Honestly, this was a novel and fascinating premise, and while the text overall could use a bit of editing (there were a few English fails, and some material could have afforded being cut) it was absolutely worth reading, and I'm glad I picked it up! I'm looking forward to hearing more of this author.

[Dovile · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a long novel, but it easily kept my interest to the very end. I won't recap the plot, as it's been done in the other reviews here, but I'll just say that this is a book about a journey, and the journey is more important than the destination. If you'd like to take a trip to another culture, then this book is for you.

[Cassiareginavet]

I am in the book!!!!!kkkkkk!