Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Grimoire of Grave Fates

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

Okay, writing nerds: Did any of you play the writing game “Round Robin” when you were younger? Heck, maybe some of you still do. You know, you start a story, then you fold the sheet of paper over so only the last line or so is visible, and the next person in the circle only has those two lines to go off of to continue the story…and so on until the circle is completed and you see how the story played out under those limited circumstances.

That’s part of the vibe I got while reading The Grimoire of Grave Fates. An overarching concept story, each of the chapters done by a different author (which gives it an almost-anthology feel due to the variations in each author’s writing style and voice), and each author carrying their assigned character through the story with only the limited knowledge of what’s already happened in the story prior to their chapter to guide the way. It’s a sophisticated game of Round Robin, with Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf playing the roles of (essentially) comperes: checking for continuity and other possible goofs so that, when the individual chapters are collected from the contributing authors and put together, the story blends almost seamlessly into a single compendium made of many disparate parts.

The most important part of this book, which I didn’t realize when I requested it, is that the release date on the first Tuesday of June (HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!) was not coincidental: The Grimoire of Grave Fates is a book where every chapter is written from the POV of a marginalized member of society. Minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ people, mentally ill people, and even a young criminal who’s no stranger to jail. Not only that, but more than one allusion is made about the school in this book (Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary) that likens it to the Hogwarts of the transphobic JKR’s brain (and points out how inaccessible castles like that are to the disabled), and the central mystery of the book centers around the murder of a professor at the school who is somewhat like Snape, if Snape cared about money.

(But, the castle also wins points for being able to fly like a gyroscope and Howl’s Moving Castle is mentioned. So mad props.)

See, I get what Owen and Alkaf were trying to do. I don’t know if it’s my age (I read YA all the time, but this felt like maybe it was made for the younger section of the YA set–maybe closer to 13 than 16-18?), but this book felt a little simplistic in the writing and ran too long for my tastes. It’s not the book was bad; it’s just that the book seemed to go on far too long and I started to feel like Owen and Alkaf were just trying to shoehorn in as much diversity as possible.

By all means: Do that. We need diversity. We want diversity. It’s necessary. The more diversity there is on bookseller websites and library bookshelves and home bookshelves the less excuses there will be to take them down. I’m all for publishing diverse reads in ever genre and every format possible.

Will that change my mind about how I rate this book, though? No, it won’t. But I can tell you this is a book I’d recommend to someone like my 13 year-old niece. She’d probably give it 5 stars and a place of honor on her bookshelf.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the creators/editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Amateur Sleuths/Disability Representation/Fantasy/Gothic/Boarding School/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Mystery/Paranormal Fantasy/Standalone Novel/YA Fantasy/YA Fiction/YA Mystery/Young Adult