“The Graces” Will Appeal to Fans of Cliché Paranormal

The most disappointing thing about The Graces was that it had such huge potential. When I read the summary I was immediately hooked: An entire town worships a rich, secretive family and rumors circulate that they are magical—a family of witches. The plot sounded so cool and I couldn’t wait to pick it up.

I was expecting a mysterious look at a closely entwined family, but you know what I got instead? Beautiful Creatures 2.0.

Meet River, our lonely “normal” main character who is obsessed with the Grace family (much like Ethan was obsessed with Lena). River claims that she’s different from other girls: “I was not like those prattling, chattering things with their careful head tosses and thick, cloying lip gloss.”

Besides the fact that she put down other females, the most annoying thing about River was her obsession with Fenrin. Fenrin Grace was the embodiment of a stereotypical hot guy. Blond, muscular, with a “lazy smile” that made all the girls swoon.

“A long wave of his sungold-tipped hair had slipped from behind his ear and hung by his cheekbone. I actually caught a waft of him. He smelled like a thicker, manlier kind of vanilla.”

The plot follows River as she becomes close with the Grace family, but she can never quite be sure if the rumors about them are true. Thalia believes her family is cursed, but Fenrin brushes off the “accidents” that happen every year on his and Thalia’s birthday.

“The Graces. We want to be them, and love them, and for them to love us. It’s a curse. Don’t you see? The Grace curse.”

I didn’t like how each of the Graces were hugely stereotyped. Thalia was the cool, calm hippie who ran an organic store, Summer was a goth who listened to heavy metal, wore all black, and loved blood, and Fenrin was the perfect hot guy who had a ton of girlfriends. None of them felt real.

The dialogue was stunted, cheesy, and unrealistic, and the showdown at the end was laughably bad. There was a plot twist that caught me by surprise, but it felt like the author added it for the sake of shocking the reader and it didn’t fit the story.

This intriguing idea was wasted on a high school drama and an obsessive main character. I have to give props to the author, though—I was completely shocked when Fenrin didn’t return River’s lustful feelings. In fact, there was no romance between them at all, which was great in a genre that promotes way too much insta love.