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Suman

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Forged in Grace

by Jordan Rosenfeld (Goodreads Author)

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in February 2013

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Suman said: " Beautiful, painful, dark, and yet ultimately uplifting, the layers upon layers in ‘Forged in Grace’ completely captivated me. ..so much so, that I’ve started rereading it as soon as I finished, to ensure that I notice and savour every nuance and deta Beautiful, painful, dark, and yet ultimately uplifting, the layers upon layers in ‘Forged in Grace’ completely captivated me. ..so much so, that I’ve started rereading it as soon as I finished, to ensure that I notice and savour every nuance and detail I might have missed in my fevered zeal to know what happens next. For, this is so much more than the wonderfully crafted suspenseful, psychological fantasy novel that Amazon sent me an email about (after e-noting that I had been reading up on it online)! 
Right from the very first chapter, the intimate writing style in first person completely hooked me in. The pain and hopelessness (it seemed) of Grace’s inner thoughts and feelings, so heartbreakingly tinged with hope and wishes; her damp, cold, cluttered surroundings, her difficult life - I couldn’t help but immediately empathise with this mysterious, scarred and lonely woman. As for the setting, I don’t even need to close my eyes to experience the North Californian town, so evocatively described with imagery and words I can only call a miraculous amalgam of impressionistic and expressionistic writing only an expert writer can pull off.
Enter Grace’s lost friend from the past, “bad girl” Marly, and a shift of locale to Las Vegas. At once the glamour, glitter and excitement, and yet artifice, underbelly and sizzling heat of an unforgiving desert town transported me; not to mention intriguing new characters, exciting new events, and engrossing new beginnings to old friendships. Wonderfully creative as a story, and yet displaying deep understanding of human beings and relationships, growth and decay, past and present, secrets and closure, deleterious friendships and dysfunctional families. I found it impossible to hate any character, because I understood why they behaved the way they did, thanks to the incredible writing. The only reason I give it 4 stars is because I gave 5 stars to Dostoyevsky, Pasternak and Bronte, and I want o be completely honest. ...more "

Apr 04, 2013 09:54PM · see review