Review of Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

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July 31, 2018 by mmileti

 3.5/5 

It has been a habit of mine to very rarely read book’s description before I read it.  It most cases, this does not make much of a difference, but Grace and Fury pleasantly surprised me.  There is a trope within the YA genre (a trope of which I am generally NOT a fan) where a young commoner girl enters some kind of competition to become the true love of the handsome prince.  When I first started this book, I immediately thought that it would fall into this category, but relatively early on the story took a rather large turn, and I realized instead that this novel is a pro-feminist play on the aforementioned trope for a post #MeToo world.

It is the story of two sisters, Serina and Nomi, who live in a world where women have no rights and every aspect of their lives is decided for them.  Serina has been trained her entire life to become a Grace, a demure and perfectly-behaved companion to the heir to the throne.  But when Nomi is unexpectedly chosen as a Grace in Serina’s place, and Serina takes the blame for an act that Nomi has committed, Nomi is the one to end up in palace while Serina is taken away to a place where she has to fight for her very survival.  Both girls are thrust into a world of deception in which it is impossible to know who to trust, and even surrounded by people they are utterly alone.

Though this novel is pretty typical in its tone and prose, I still found myself very entertained by the story it told.  Not only is it a love-letter to feminism, but also contains many surprises and twists that kept me turning the pages.  Serina and Nomi have alternating POV chapters, and even after they are separated their stories blended rather seamlessly.  They also both show incredible growth as characters, though I found most of the secondary characters to be rather static.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for an easy and enjoyable read, or anyone who is interested in a feministic take on an old trope. 3.5/5

I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in return for an honest review.