Universe of Grace

by Rachel Calnek-Sugin

For fans of Beautyland and Everything Everywhere All At Once, a captivating, kaleidoscopic debut novel about the life of a precocious girl trying to figure out who―or what―she is.

One afternoon, on a visit to the Bronx Zoo, a jaguar tells six-year-old Grace Goldberg-Li she isn’t human. Not that this comes as a total surprise. Her life looks normal, but no one else, not even her beloved sister, seems to be experiencing things as brightly and painfully as she does. As she approaches adolescence, Grace begins to think that she might be an alien. Maybe this would explain the urge to steal every beautiful object she can find, or the peculiar voice that’s started issuing apocalyptic warnings inside her head.

In adulthood, Grace still can’t figure it out. Is it the world that’s crazy and falling apart? Or is it her? She will attempt, over and over, to remake herself and find her place in it. She will fall recklessly in love with a gorgeous doctoral student; she will live as a tree in a backyard during the pandemic; she will become the best employee that Wendy’s has ever seen; she will travel to the ends of the earth and keep going.

Moving, imaginative, and endlessly surprising, Universe of Grace is at once a tender family portrait, a queer love story, and an epic quest for self-discovery in a world that’s uncertain and wondrous in equal measure. Covering the span of a single life and everything it touches, Universe of Grace shows us that we are each more interconnected and vast than we can ever know.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult, Literary Fiction, Lesbian

336 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication November 17, 2026

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of imaginative wonder and delightful weirdness. Through the eyes of Grace, who is many things but never normal, it challenges us to confront where we draw the line between uniqueness and psychosis and to ask ourselves why we put human thought and behavior in such tight boxes when the world itself is so bizarre.

I can be hesitant to read books from the perspective of a child. Because the people who write books are adults, and only know kids through the lens of a parent or other authority figure looking down on them, there’s often something that feels off. Not here. This kid felt so authentic and the shift in voice from the delight of childhood to the tumult of adolescence was expertly done. From the perspective of an adult, Grace would be a “bad kid” - I mean she steals, she lies, she sets stuff on fire. But because you are on her level, you never think of her that way. She’s simply an alien! (Not literally, but like, as an allegory for her Otherness, her queerness, for being a second child and a child of two cultures.) I loved this little misbehaving freak.

Then Grace enters adulthood and the whimsy of the first chapters of the book are replaced with a much more serious tone. Grace navigates the many mundane aspects of life - the slow demise of a romantic relationship, a mindless job, going in and out of closeness with family members. There are still fantastical elements in the second act, but the older Grace gets they start to feel sad. She's talking to stuffed animals. She identifies as a tree. When I found myself reading about Grace struggling to navigate through the Covid pandemic, active suicidal ideation, and climate change, I kept wondering if maybe it was all a vibe misdirect and Grace would get abducted by aliens after all and discover the secrets of the universe and live in blissful weirdness! In the end, I just wanted her to take her medication.

Still, I hope this author keeps writing.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company for the ARC. These are just my opinions.

[El Fish | libro.vermo · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

The beginning of this book really worked for me. It felt almost like a memoir (though it wasn't written in first person), with stories from Grace's weird childhood and teen years that kept me super interested. I loved Grace as a kid dealing with her uniqueness while trying to make sense of the world.

Unfortunately, as Grace became an adult, I became a lot less interested in her story. It really was the Universe of Grace because she didn't seem to think about much other than herself and how different she was. And she didn't feel like a very layered character. Her only trait was "weird." I think it lost me around the time she became a tree in her sister Mei's backyard. I love weird stuff, but it has to make some sense and that whole part just... didn't. She was having conversations with Mei that may or may not have been real, I'm still not sure. It sounded like she was a tree for several days. How did she eat or drink or sleep while her feet/legs were buried? Did she really just stand there pretending to be a tree for multiple days in a row? I don't know!

The rest of the book made a bit more sense but I felt like it kind of dragged and it was hard to stay engaged. It took me longer to finish than a book of this size usually would because I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time (and the chapters were long).

Many thanks to Henry Holt & Company for the ARC of this book.

[Tara Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the marketing for this book is actually doing it a disservice. The comp titles of beautyland and everything everywhere all at once are just…not really accurate to what’s happening here. At the end of the day, this is a book about a woman who has a mental illness and how her life goes with that. She hears voices, she’s depressed, and she’s (at times) suicidal. She’s convinced she’s an alien, but in a way where the world is just so unbelievable. At about 70% the book goes really off the rails, but again not in a multiple universe or sci-fi way. In a destroying your life kind of way.

And I really did enjoy this. If you’re not expecting something this book isn’t going to be, you’ll get an enjoyable story. The characters in here are so fleshed out, the family dynamics all work. We get to see Grace through her whole life, as a child doing reckless things to an adult doing reckless things. But it feels real. And Grace feels like someone we all could be or know, if we didn’t have something holding us back.

I thought this had a lot of heart, and a lot of love. I related to the feeling of alienness. To the desire to be nonconformist. I can see this book not performing well for many reasons. The book is trippy, it’s confusing. You have to figure out what’s going on for yourself. But at the end of the day I think it has a beautiful message, and I hope that the people who need it will find it.

[Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really hoping to love this book at the end, but like other readers, I walked away feeling bad and confused. And maybe that's the point.

We follow the story of Grace, our unreliable and unlikeable (at least to me), main character. We follow Grace through her childhood and into her 20s/30s. In the childhood years her voice is clear, and though she's a pain in the ass, she's understandable. The Grace we come to know in act 2, still feels like someone close. Someone trying to navigate adulthood and their 20s. But, Act 3 goes off the rails about halfway through, to the point that I didn't know what I was reading for anymore. And maybe that's the point, maybe that is what it feels like to be Grace. Maybe that's what it feels like to be the family member of a "Grace". If that was the author's intent, it was well accomplished. It was unsatisfying from a purely readers POV, and that's okay, maybe that was the author's intent too. But if you're looking for a happy ending, maybe steer clear

[Ember · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of an E-ARC, thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Co., and Rachel Calnek-Sugen for the opportunity to read this early in exchange for my honest review!
3.25 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
When I first picked this up, I admit that it caught my eye because of the gorgeous cover and also the premise making it sound like Grace was an alien?
I kept waiting for that to come to fruition, and well - spoiler, Grace is fully human!😂

To be perfectly honest, I’m not much of a literary fiction reader - so this was good, I think, but perhaps just not really for me. But objectively good, hence my rating.
We follow Grace from 6 years old into, I think, her 30’s, and through the whole journey of waiting for her to find herself, we watch her don and forsake a lot of different identities. She wrestles with the existentialism of being human, of what it means to live in a body and be in relationship and community with others.
She wrestles with the expected scripts and behaviors versus how she actually feels, thinks, and sees things.
Shes simultaneously a being of immense wonder and a black hole that consumes and discards people, identities, and roles in life.
Her extreme climate change anxiety was real af, and I thought the author handled the themes well, but for how much it preoccupied Grace as a young woman, the latter half of the book didn’t feel as preoccupied with it.

I admit I was sad and worried for Grace through a lot of the second act, which was her teen/young adult/adult life.
As soon as she quits cello and becomes a teen, she kind of spirals and feels empty constantly. In many ways I wanted to see her learn to live her best life with her mental health struggles. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety since I was a child, and I know how that can impact the experience of growing up.
Her brief stint in the hospital psych ward after contemplating public violence (💣) for climate protest, and her suicide ideation, was tough throughout. Again, relatable insofar as the depression goes, but we never really see Grace reach any kind of catharsis as far as finding happiness with her life and who she is.

Probably most readers will be rooting for Grace to stop saying yes to everyone who wants to sleep with her even when she doesn’t want to, and to find things that light her up the way cello and the cello teacher did earlier in the novel, and to take her meds and stay in therapy.
And when she falls in love with Andrea, for a while it seems like maybe things will get better.

But then she spirals again and the existentialism returns full force - as someone whose wrestled hard with the existential nature of being human, and who is very fond of concepts like pluriversality, praxis, and ontologies, there is a through theme here of the very rigid and somewhat meaningless nature of the forced ‘normal reality’ that capitalist, imperialist, colonialist, and modernist ontologies have imposed on us.
So I have appreciation for Grace seamlessly transitioning in and out of different pluriverses - for instance, in one of her realities she can speak to animals. In another she can suddenly and miraculously speak fluent French. In another she’s a tree. In another a machine. In another she works at Wendy’s in a random town and buys wood that this character version of herself, who she calls Wendy, will eventually carve, but never actually does.
But I felt sad that she was mostly just running away from all the people who loved her and into the unknown. On the one hand, it’s a commentary on free will and finding your best life. On the other hand it’s tragic to watch her float in and out of different realities and lives and never truly feel she belongs in any of it.

As you can see, I’m of two minds. I really adored Rachel Calnek-Sugen’s writing. Lyrical, flowing prose that was easy to be carried along by, and characters that were well written. Mei and Grace’s relationship was my favorite. I also really loved Carmen. Andrea was really cool as well.

The ending is where I really was left with mixed feelings. I understand that author’s point isn’t to have everything figured out in the end. If anything, we do have a beautiful realization from Grace that we’re never truly alone, because we carry our ancestors and everyone we’ve loved and everything we’ve experienced with us wherever we go. Our own little world within ourselves.
But then she walks to the edge of the Antarctic Ocean and onto an ice sheet drifting out into the ocean. And….dies? Like a poetic interpretation of her choosing to end her life as a human?
It definitely felt like a sad ending given how much Grace had struggled with her mental health throughout the book, even purposefully overdosing on pills at one point.
It felt like a melancholy and existential message overall. One that I appreciate in some ways, and in others feel sad and frustrated by. No denying this is a unique reading experience, carried on a journey of self discovery by an unreliable narrator who never does what you expect. If that’s your jam read this!

Content warnings:
Frank depictions of suicide ideation, suicide attempts, intense climate anxiety, kleptomania, & briefly mentioned SA & drug abuse

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book, typically love literary fiction, enjoyed the beginning, and REALLY wanted to like it, but I feel like Grace just started feeling insufferable as the story continued. The feeling of always feeling out of place, alone, and misunderstood is so real and raw, I wish I enjoyed Rachel Calnek-Sugin’s exploration of it through Grace more. Imo if there’s no action plot, there needs to be character development, or at least have stagnation feel challenging/affective/evocative somehow, esp for something like this that just follows a character throughout their life. Maybe it changed in Part 3, but since the writing and characters dragged in Part 2 I didn’t feel the desire to continue.

[moodreadermal · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

This book follows Grace across the different stages of her life, moving back and forth in time as we piece together everything that has shaped her. This is a wild character study type of book about a queer, neurodivergent young woman who makes mistakes, struggles to speak up for herself, and keeps putting herself in harm's way, all while knowing deep down that she's different from everyone around her.

I spent much of it frustrated with Grace's choices and, at the same time, loved her unwillingness to bend who she is. As someone who has often felt like an "other," I recognized so much of her longing to fit in, and that struggle is what kept me turning pages.

The publisher comps point to Beautyland and Everything Everywhere All at Once, but those have more scifi elements so I'd steer readers toward the weird girl lit shelf instead. Think Earthlings by Sayaka Murata meets Death Valley by Melissa Broder: Grace has the same sense of “otherness” as Murata's narrator, paired with the mental spiral and internal monologue that make Broder's book so immersive. It's not a dark read, but the subject matter can get heavy.

This was a fantastic debut for the weird girl lit genre, and I can't wait to see where Rachel Calnek-Sugin goes from here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the advanced listener copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Buck]

I received a free e-ARC but I just couldnt get past the formatting of the ebook. It was impossible for me to read/focus on, unfortunately :/

[Bora Linda · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co. for this arc. This is my honest review.

---
3.5 Stars

I don’t know what I just read. I truly thought we’d get aliens. Sort of took it literally, whoops.

I looked forward to seeing Grace fall in love. Truly, my mistake for romanticizing this moment (I’m sure I wasn’t alone in this). Can’t tell you why this always draws me in. Perhaps I was looking for answers. If Grace could figure it out, then surely so could I? And I say mistake because in the end, did it really change much for her?

I fully agree with the synopsis: fans of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will love this book. The existentialism and absurdism!!! I felt it all!!!

Grace and her talking stuffed animals. I loved you. I felt a kinship with her instantly. I can’t explain WHY, just that, it is what it is (or maybe I can explain, it’s not like I myself have a collection of stuffed plushies with all varying personalities and voices, nooooo). GRACE AS A TREE!!! HAHAHA. I enjoyed every minute of it (I cried).

What you can take away from this book is the fact that you’ll spend your entire life looking for answers and finding a place to belong. It never ends. Overstimulated just from existing. Just from THINKING. Since there are no manuals or how-tos, all you can really do is grasp onto the goodness, as much of it as you can. Whatever symbol goodness embodies for you, seize it! In whatever way it comes to you.

Isn’t it crazy how we all had to figure out WHO and WHAT we are from a young age? It’s really not fair. Why were we given this task? I was sick of it as a 7-year-old. I am still sick of it as an adult. Grace really did go through it.

The themes in this one are raw. I don’t think the point was to have it all figured out by the end. You’re just there. To enjoy (or not) the time you have with Grace and her many worlds. Her universe. Maybe that’s enough. I laughed a lot. Worried for her immensely. She’s quirky. The only one of her kind. An alien, I guess.

The more I think about this book, the more I appreciate it.

[simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC from NetGalley.

My expectations for this book were wrong when I was going into it. I thought that it was sci-fi, but it is just literary fiction. I liked the premise, and I enjoyed the beginning of the book. As the story progressed, Grace became more insufferable to me. I did not find myself invested in or caring for any of the characters. I really liked how the story included the feelings of being out of place, misunderstood, and alone. That was something I connected with, and it felt so real. I just wish that I had enjoyed the story more, and I enjoyed Grace’s experiences and explorations of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC.

[Nick Artrip · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

I requested and received and eARC of Universe of Grace by Rachel Calnek-Sugin via NetGalley. One afternoon, on a visit to the Bronx Zoo, a jaguar tells six-year-old Grace Goldberg-Li she isn't human. Not that this surprises her. Her life looks normal, but no one else in it seems to be experiencing things as brightly and painfully as she does. As she approaches adolescence, Grace begins to think she might be an alien. In adulthood, she still can't figure it out. Is it the world that's crazy and falling apart? Or is it her? She attempts, over and over, to remake herself and find her place in the world. She recklessly falls in love with a doctoral student, lives as a tree in the backyard, and becomes the best employee that Wendy's has ever seen. No matter what, she will keep going.

Universe of Grace is absurd, strange, and deeply human. Calnek-Sugin has a talent for cleverly injecting emotion into each scene in a way that really mirrors the inner emotional chaos experienced by Grace as she tries to make sense of the world and herself. The prose is lyrical and immersive, really allowing the reader to experience the reader as Grace does. Unfortunately, this requires cringing along with those in her life as she confesses her love to her music teacher and demonstrates a persistent curiosity for things that defy unspoken social norms. Grace is such a unique character. In one scene she may make you deeply uncomfortable, before making you feel seen in a way that you never have before in the next. She is truly unforgettable.

Universe of Grace really exceeds as a coming-of-age novel that isn’t afraid to take a hard look at the messiness of young lives. Grace’s voice matures as the novel progresses, but the narrative never loses any of the awkwardness or sense of absurdity that makes the story such a pleasure to read. I was never quite sure what direction her story would take or what uncomfortable situation I might find myself in next, but I didn’t mind that. This is a very well-constructed character study that doesn’t attempt to soften or sanitize the protagonist. The pacing was great, I raced through the chapters about Grace’s early childhood. The final act was bizarre, but also moving in the most interesting way possible.

[Mag Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the opportunity to read and review!

⭐️3.5/5⭐️

To start with, my expectations were completely wrong going into this novel: NetGalley tagged it as "Sci-Fi & Fantasy," so combined with the blurb that hints at Grace being alien or telepathic, I was reading this assuming there would be speculative elements. This was all very misleading, as the novel is fully literary fiction.

Grace is a middle class, neurodivergent, millennial, mixed-race queer woman growing up and surviving in the increasingly capitalistic and algorithmic hellscape of America. With family roots in the Cultural Revolution and the Holocaust, Grace now faces the struggles of her own generation in a world that is both stunningly beautiful and achingly apathetic. From a chaotic, passionate adolescence to environmental activism, mental health, the daily grind, falling in love, and rediscovering herself multiple times over, Grace's story is both intensely personal and also maddeningly relatable.

There are definitely places where the story drifts into somewhat self-conscious territory — calling it "preachy" would be too harsh, but being inundated with social media buzzwords (or at least, what have become buzzwords to the point where we all are already inundated with them anytime we doomscroll) pulled me out of Grace's head in several parts. I would have preferred a more organic contrast. Beyond that, I did love the absurdity of Grace's attempts at identity and different modes of existence. Again, I feel the marketing is way off — these events aren't speculative so much as the result of active imagination and mental spiraling — but it works for the novel to emphasize the interconnectedness of everything from Grace's ancestry to the stone she carries around in her pocket.

If you enjoy queer literary fiction and unchallenging politics, this is a surprisingly quick and easy read. If you were looking for actual aliens or talking jaguars, you might be disappointed.

[rebeccareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Universe of Grace is a sometimes charming, sometimes unsettling, sometimes indulgent story about a wayward girl finding her place in this wild, wonderful, brutal, painful world.

I’m ND and have always felt like an alien amongst other humans, and have struggled with existential OCD for most of my life, so I saw much of myself reflected in Grace. It felt so good to be reminded that there are a lot of wrong ways to live in this world, but a lot of right ones, too.

What didn’t work for me: I’m not a magical realism fan, to be fair, but the approach felt off here. That part of the story is so lightweight, bordering on underbaked, and just so unmagical as to not really seem like anything other than severe mental illness. My personal experience with mental illness has not been at all magical, so I’ve never enjoyed the association between the two. But YMMV with that one, I guess.

Calnek-Sugin also gets pretty preachy at times - or, at all times really, but it only grates sometimes. Those times are usually when basic political concepts - mostly liberal, occasionally the teeniest bit leftist - are being explained like no one has ever heard of them before. I’m pretty sure the target audience for this book will have heard of them, and they didn’t add anything to Grace as a character or to her story.

On the whole, I found Universe of Grace to be in equal measure self-absorbed and life-affirming, but above all deeply human - 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Sam Zinke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, Henry Hold and Company and Rachel Calnek-Sugin for the advanced reader copy of “Universe of Grace” in exchange for my honest review!

The Universe of Grace is a true “unreliable narrator” book, that explores mental health, family, relationships, and not feeling like you’re a part of this world. The narration is very strange (in a good way) jumping through main character Grace’s life from childhood to adulthood. Grace never feels that she is a part of this world, and comes face to face with a jaguar in her childhood telling her she was an alien. This kicks off her very hard trajectory of her life, trying to figure out where and how she belongs.

This book has in depth depictions of mental health struggles, which are written in a way I’ve never experienced before. The author frames things in a way that you’re sometimes confused at Graces POV, and you can’t really tell what’s going on in “real life” vs in her mind. The writing in this book was beautiful and I was shocked that this is a debut author!

The characters in this book are all great, in depth, and flawed. I really loved the connection Grace had with her grandparents especially. I loved this book for most of the journey but the end got a little murky for me. I understand why the ending is the way it is, but I guess I was looking for something a little more finite. But overall I really enjoyed the journey that the author took me on.

3.5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Get “Universe of Grace” starting November 17th!

[sea ʚ♡ɞ · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co for the Advanced Reader's Copy of this one! This review is voluntary and my honest opinion ♡

Provocative and strange, this book goes from childhood to adulthood in the eyes of Grace, a character who you can never quite grasp who she is just as she is trying to figure it out herself. I like that the book makes you question what is real and what is just in Grace's head. There's things in here that you think are just a child's imagination as she grows older you realize there either is some mystical strange happenings or Grace needs help. It toes the line between mental health crisis (which they acknowledge) and someone who just maybe is more tied to the world than we are. I love how raw and honest this book is. I know it may not be everyone's cup of tea as it leaves a lot of ambiguity here but I found this very enjoyable. I love that it doesn't just wrap up neatly because the message there is that we can't just define ourselves and it's something ever growing and changing and there's a beauty in the conclusion here that leaves so much more to be said and yet nothing needed. I would recommend it!

[Devin · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

I loved the first half of Universe of Grace, and then she lost me in the second half. I loved the spunk and the push and pull between reality and fantasy for young Grace. I worried for old Grace and I was waiting for a sci-fi element (à la Beautyland) to hit and make things make sense for her in a meaningful way the whole time. There were fantastical elements throughout the book, but when Grace is an adult, the difficulty in discerning what’s really happening made this feel overly complicated and a little drawn out. I think maybe if we got an alternate perspective, it would have felt more like positive mental health representation, though I see where it would be hard for Grace to get a fair shake through anyone else’s eyes. I’m still not sure if Grace was failed by a support system with good intentions who never understood her (did they want to? I think sometimes), or if there was more to Grace than a human could ever understand. Maybe it’s both! Eunice Wong’s narration kept me going through this one even when I was feeling a little lost in space.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ALC!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpectedly beautiful and emotional story. I was drawn in by the bright, playful cover, but surprised to find the heart-wrenching coming-of-age story of Grace. Grace isn't quite sure she's human - she never fully feels like she belongs - and we get to follow her through her discovery of sex, music, activism, and love. Slow and meandering, sometimes sad and sometimes confusing (a bit like Grace's mental state?) the book helped me understand more about what it's like living with depression. It's dark, so be prepared, but also peppered with love and friendship and hope for a better world.

I loved the way it was written. Grace is an unreliable narrator and the magical realism keeps me guessing. At times I really related to Grace's struggle to understand why she is labeled 'crazy' and the rest of the world is normal. Overall, a good reminder that everyone yearns to be understood and feel like they belong. Just be prepared for triggers: unflinching portrayals of abuse, self-harm, and eating disorders.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy.

[Gabi · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for an ALC of this novel. The narrator did an incredible job and I really appreciated her voice work throughout.

Grace felt so real and this book feels deeply personal. The author did such a good job with Grace’s voice and I was particularly impressed with how she writes children. It can be so hard to do and I think she did an incredible job. I loved all of the chapters with Grace before adulthood and it was so fantastical and weird.

Once adulthood and the pandemic hit, the book took a big dip towards sad which is fitting but made it a little less enjoyable for me. The absurd parts were still there but it just made me wish Grace had help. I really enjoyed her journey and her character.

It did bother me that the coronavirus or Covid-19 was never explicitly mentioned when so many other events were. It really consumed a lot of the back half of the book and the descriptions were so vivid. Grace’s fears about it were so real that not naming it really turned it into the boogeyman. The pandemic is still going so it really felt like a disservice not to name it.

[Kate Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

This book was billed as sci-fi, but is 100% literary fiction, no science fiction to be found (It refers to itself this way, I'm imagining, because Grace imagines other versions of herself in other universes). It's not bad, but it's not what I went into it expecting, and that definitely had an impact on my experience.

When Grace Goldberg-Li is six years old, a jaguar at the Bronx Zoo tells her that she isn't human. She decides she must be an alien because she isn't 'normal' and other people experience life differently than she does (welcome to the human experience). Grace has voices in her head and the urge to steal most things she thinks are beautiful. As she gets older she is also quick to jump into bed, until she falls in love with a woman she meets at a bar. When COVID strikes her life becomes insular, and some of the voices come back.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.

[Stephanie Peterman · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

such an interesting concept, but felt like it ran out of steam (and went a bit off the rails) near the end. i enjoyed getting to know grace, her older sister mei, and their family from the jump, and appreciated that the author didn’t insult my intelligence with each chapter fast forwarding several years at a time without warning, but as we get into the pandemic portion of the book, things take a turn into the weird. and maybe this is intentional, since the lockdown made weirdos of us all — especially new yorkers, like this author — but this goes a step further into grace’s psychosis and manic behavior. it’s raw and real and very well written. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Sarah · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Grace never feels like she belongs-she is has always been in a state of “something is missing” “what’s my purpose” “am I an alien?” These are themes we see as she grows up. While we do see Grace grow in a lot of ways, she cannot ever let go of being different than the people around her.

It gets to a point where the sci fi elements start to play a roll and it becomes almost fever like. Is this really happening or is it all in Grace’s brain? Parts of this book reminding me of Earthlings, but without the horror.

Overall I enjoyed this. While I enjoyed the ending, I would have loved to see a bit more from the book. This is a queer coming of age + finding who you are.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Universe of Grace is strange in the best way. Grace’s voice feels intensely real, capturing that sharp, overwhelming way of experiencing the world that never quite fades as she grows up. The story moves through surreal moments and grounded ones seamlessly, making you question what’s real right alongside her.

It’s ultimately a thoughtful and quietly emotional look at identity, belonging, and what it means to feel “other.” The book can be a bit meandering at times, but its originality and heart make it stick. I found it both moving and oddly comforting. Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

[Scott Stelter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc of this book!

I'd give this book a 3.5-3.75 out of 5. This book does a fantastic job of capturing someone sort of mentally unravelling due to not fitting in and trauma. Then Covid hits and things are amplified. I think the thing that I most appreciated about this novel is how emotionally resonent this book hits. Almost so much so that I am not sure if I would casually recommend it to friends without warning them first. I did like Grace and how much I could relate to her millenial style attitudes and thinking.
Reminded me of 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation' but more millenial, if that makes sense.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sonic, surreal journey through the life of Grace, a mixed-race queer neurodiverse woman finding her way through life and feeling like an alien in this complicated world.

UNIVERSE OF GRACE is a gorgeous character study of someone who feels like they don’t belong, and has voices in their heads telling them to panic; the end is near. But Grace has a lovely support system in the form of wonderful parents, and older sister, and a brilliant girlfriend. This book explores mental health in an honest and immersive way. Being in Grace’s head is often challenging and chaotic, but you will fall in love with her and the amazing cast of characters that surround her.

[Brynn · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. We go on a slow, meandering journey through the life of Grace, who is queer and neurodivergent. She is relatable in many ways - speaking with stuffed animals, her escapism, her climate worries - and unrelatable in others. You go on a journey with Grace, as she tries to find meaning in her life and understand who she is, and who she is meant to be. 

I loved her relationship with her sister Mei. 

I also loved the inclusion of an aroace character. 

There are mentions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Grace dealt with that. 

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and review. 

[Kailee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how I love weird girl lit fic 🛸

Grace spends her life believing she’s not human. Honestly, girl, same. I found her to be so painfully and unfortunately relatable.

This book probably isn’t for everyone (nothing is) but I really enjoyed it. Weird as heck, but that’s what made it such a fun read. I definitely need some friends to read this so we can discuss that ambiguous ending. So many questions! And like….is she actually an alien? Or does she just have schizophrenia? Love a book that’s open to interpretation and conversation!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to check this out early!

[Heather (Batcitybookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a character driven story vs a plot driven story, without any real place it is headed. There’s a lot of interesting prose here, exploring what it might be like if you could actually escape your life every time it starts to feel like too much. Our main character is deeply empathetic about society as a whole, but struggles when it comes to individuals, something I suspect is probably a common experience, but this can make her difficult to like. If you enjoy a complex character, and a story that explores depression that is vague but heavy, this story might resonate with you.

This is a weird one I expect will have a niche audience, but I enjoyed myself anyway!

[Mary Nuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This book was an interesting ride and I loved it. This is for fans of Big Swiss, All Fours, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. If you like weird and disconcerting reads, sign yourself up. One of my favorite quotes from the book was “When Grace had first told her about them, she’d shrugged and said that every couple had a language that they spoke only with each other.” I reflected on those special touchstones from my past and present and found it a unique observation of the human experience.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and wonderful. I was hooked right at the beginning, finding myself a bit baffled and yet delighted as Grace’s story unfolded. I wasn’t expecting something I would typically think of as a difficult struggle to also be so beautiful and hopeful. I have an auto timer on my bedside lamp to force myself to go to bed on time, but I even found myself reading in the dark by the light of my kindle screen when I just couldn’t put it down. Looking forward to this publishing date so I can add it to my “real live books”.

[Anna Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
This story is told entirely through the protagonist Grace's eyes, and I enjoyed seeing the world through her unique perspective. This book reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and My Year of Rest and Relaxation in terms of narration style. I was very moved seeing Grace's somewhat bizarre outlook on the world and watching her find herself. I took off half a star because I felt like the pace picked up a bit too much toward the end, and I think the author should have slowed down and unpacked Grace's experiences a bit more.