Grace

September 27, 2010
Grace is an Angel, a suicide bomber, chosen for this fate at an early age by her father. Grace was born into a war-torn society, where children are raised on hate and ideology and are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. On one side are "the People," who live in the Hills and pray to the Saints; on the other is "Keran Berj," both a place and a dictator, who believes he's been given absolute power by God. Through this dystopian world, Scott (Living Dead Girl) explores the hopelessness, fear, and anger of children forced to live in a time of conflict, who are caught between two sides fighting equally extremist causes, and, as a result, feel similarly righteous about their mission to eliminate each other. Though beautifully written and undeniably jarring, Grace's story as a failed Angel is confusing at times. Scott keeps readers in the dark about Grace's background and the events leading up to her current situation, but rather than building tension, this uncertainty lessens it. Nonetheless, it's an emotional meditation on a timely topic. Ages 14–up.

August 15, 2010
In a hellish country ruled by megalomaniac Keran Berj, Grace has been raised by the People, a freedom-fighting sect dedicated to the overthrow of Keran Berj, to be an Angel. Like the rest of the girls in Angel House, Grace trained for the sacred day when she would strap on a bomb in front of a political target and blow herself up. But Grace has never truly felt like a child of the People, and when the moment of truth comes, she chooses not to die—though she still sets off her bomb in the village square. Now she's on the run from her own people and from Keran Berj's. This brief, atmospheric novella follows Grace's train journey to the border of Keran Berj's country. Accompanied by the strange boy Kerr, Grace contemplates her own past, that of her homeland and the choices that led her to this moment. Moody and compelling, without the easy moralizing so common in dystopian settings. (Science fiction. 12-14)

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November 1, 2010

Gr 8 Up-In a possible future, Grace is an Angel, training to be a suicide bomber for the People, a group of rebels who fight against the totalitarian regime of Keran Berj. While the boys fight as Rorys, or soldiers, certain girls are offered as sacrifices to the cause. But Grace is different: she doesn't want to be a sacrifice. So, on the day she is to kill herself, she instead sets off the bomb and escapes. Now she is riding on a train, disguised as the sister of a mysterious boy named Kerr, and on her way to the border and possible freedom. But the threat of discovery is always there, and Grace knows that her fragile disguise could fail at any moment. This is a terse, tight, powerful book that's heavy on atmosphere. The beginning is written as a series of flashbacks, and it's through them that readers get a somewhat confused, disjointed view of events. It is only in the latter third of the book, once the story focuses more on Grace and her relationship with Kerr, that the action moves more steadily and clearly and she comes into her own. It is during this part that Scott's writing shines as Grace questions whether purposely killing people is ever right, even if it is done in the name of freedom. Give this novel to fans of dystopias who want darker visions than Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008).-Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2010
Grades 9-12 Although its never quite clear whether this is set in another world or a near future in ours, the parallels Scott (Living Dead Girl, 2008) strives for are patently evident. Grace was raised by the People to become an Angel, a girl whose single purpose in life is to strap on a bomb and blow up a chunk of disputed leader Keran Berjs society. When Grace balks at the last moment and disgracefully survives the explosion, she attempts to flee the country along with another obviously haunted boy. The book takes place, with flashbacks, on the grueling train ride to the border, as the two evade the suspicions of guards and tentatively draw out each others shameful secrets. In all, its a fairly one-note affair: choose life, however hard, over an idealistic death. Surprisingly, this lacks a climax, but the terse writing effectively portrays Graces harrowing inner turmoil as it speaks to the part of the psyche that wonders how a person could willingly become a walking bomb.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
Grace detonates the bomb that had been strapped to her body--but not before stepping far enough away to survive the explosion. After years of extreme manipulation and deprivation, she realizes she deserves a life of her own. The story unfolds during a harrowing train trip--Grace's slim hope of escaping punishment for disobeying orders. Scott's near-claustrophobic dystopian tale is intense and riveting.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2010
"I never thought of [my body] as something other than a vessel -- an Angel is a messenger and nothing more -- until I looked up at a cloudless blue sky and thought not of the Saints or even the People. I just thought it was a pretty sky, and was glad to see it." Grace, in the last few seconds before the bomb strapped to her body goes off, decides to live. She detonates the bomb, killing thirty-four people at a government-sponsored festival, but not before stepping far enough away from it to survive the explosion. The political situation in this intense, riveting, near claustrophobic dystopian tale of course brings to mind the Middle East; but even more than that, Scott's themes echo those of Living Dead Girl (rev. 11/08), her devastating previous novel told from the perspective of an abducted child. Both narrators endure years of extreme manipulation and deprivation, which culminate in a realization that runs counter to everything their captors ever told them: they deserve lives of their own. Grace unfolds during a harrowingly described desert train trip -- the narrator's slim hope of escaping punishment for disobeying orders -- that is filled with intrigue, close calls, and a revelatory encounter with a boy from the opposing political side, also running toward freedom. Neither readers nor Grace are told much about the destination, but they will hope along with her that, as she puts it, "I will be in a place where I can be Grace, just Grace...I want that more than I have ever wanted anything." christine m. heppermann

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)