In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other on an island prison where women must fight to survive. Serina has spent her whole life preparing to become a Grace – selected to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining example of the perfect woman. But her headstrong and rebellious younger sister has a dangerous secret, and one wrong move could cost both sisters everything.

Why did I want to read? The fact that it features two main female characters, and some reviews saying it was feminist.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Grace and Fury was….fine? I read it…quickly???

Grace and Fury is basically an amalgam of a lot of well-used (and for some readers well-loved) YA tropes, some of which it executes well, some of which it really doesn’t. I found it very readable, but if only because the plot proceeded in a predictable manner. I think, had it come out a few years ago, it would’ve felt a lot more subversive and original than it does now.


Set in a world where women are oppressed – not allowed to read or write, destined for marriage or menial work – sisters Serina and Nomi arrive at the palace. Serina is beautiful and has always been destined to become a Grace, a member of the harem belonging to the male heirs of the kingdom. Serina is prepared for her fate, while rebellious Nomi scorns it. But when Nomi’s illegal book is discovered in Serina’s possession, Serina is sent away to a female prison camp, and her sister is left in the palace alone.

 

The Good
Although my review is going to become increasingly lukewarm (in fact, the book dropped a whole star as I was in the process of writing this review), there were some things that held my attention in Grace and Fury. I did finish it in about two days.

The novel follows Serina and Nomi as their paths in the world begin to diverge, and although I found it frustrating when they were both together at the start, I think the book ends up balancing its dual narrative well. I started off being more interested in Nomi’s story, but as the book progressed I found myself switching sides to Serina, and I think that is in some ways deliberate. At the start, we are probably supposed to sympathise with Nomi’s rebelliousness and her obvious statements that her obviously oppressive world is oppressive, but as the story progresses we begin to see that Serina’s realism and pragmatism is a greater asset and actually equips her better for the world she is in. I liked that neither brand of femininity – Serina’s obedience and ability to perform the role she’s expected, Nomi’s intellectualism and disregard for etiquette – was portrayed as lesser, and both were shown to have strengths and weaknesses in different contexts. Nomi dips dangerously into ‘I’m not like other girls’ territory initially, but this opinion is deconstructed by her interactions with the Graces in her story line with some deliberate critique.

Grace and Fury also does focus a lot on female-female relationships, even if they are sometimes written with a heavy hand. While Nomi and Serina spend very little of the book together, the portion which they do share had some very nuanced discussion of how they felt about each other – particularly Serina’s feelings for Nomi, her frustration and love for her sister was well articulated. I also liked that both protagonists form strong female friendships in their respective locations, and that, in Serina’s case, there is a moment where she chooses her female friend above her love interest (which was perhaps one of the most truly original moments in the novel, which is really saying something about YA).

 

Frustrating protagonist decisions, overused tropes, and obvious plotwists
However, while there was enough to keep me reading, Grace and Fury frustrated the hell out of me in a lot of other ways.

Nomi, for one, was a constant source of annoyance. Although she is branded as the ‘intellectual, rebellious’ sister, able to read and interested in learning, chafing against a chauvinistic society, she has very little else to distinguish her from the women she often denigrates, and also very little evidence of her intelligence on page. As I said, in some ways I think (I hope) this might be deliberate, because I think it shows how that ‘I’m not like other girls’ mentality is flawed, and that her form of rebellion is actually overly idealistic with no substance to back it up. Nomi is definitely meant to be proven to be naïve, unlike her more worldly sister who is prepared to face the realities of their situation.

But unfortunately, while Nomi might be genre blind and naïve, the reader isn’t, and this meant that every one of her decisions had me groaning in frustration. Her attempts at subterfuge and intrigue were terrible, and her decision making illogical – particularly the way that she will endanger her family without a thought, despite already causing the incarceration of her sister. It didn’t help that she was at the centre of a love triangle that is basically an exact carbon copy of that of Red Queen, meaning that you can tell she’s making awful mistakes even as she makes them. Any plot twists in Nomi’s narrative were ruined by the fact that they’ve been done before, and  watching a ‘strong, independent’ female character be reduced to a personality-less placeholder who dithers over which pretty boy she likes better while she has MUCH MORE PRESSING CONCERNS is always a sure-fire way to make me lose interest.

Serina, I think, fairs better and remains more likeable, if only because she is not stuck in a “palace intrigue” story that basically boils down to a “am I desirable enough?” romance. On the prison isle of Mount Ruin, Serina must fight for food and resources against other prisoners in a gladiator arena that hosts death matches for the entertainment of the male guards…

…Yeah, you see where this is going. (There was literally a moment where she’s basically told to go directly for the Cornucopia, a la Hunger Games.)

While Serina frustrated me less as a character, her death-match competition narrative, coupled with the fact that in some ways…she was almost…too competent…able to survive fights after about a week of training, suddenly the prodigal rebel despite years of indoctrination, etc. felt predictable and dull to me. There was no moment where I felt invested. Her story runs a very obvious and typical course, not helped by the fact that the internal world building logic of the prison camp is pretty terrible. Let all your rebellious women train with weapons, let them form gangs, piss them off, don’t built your death arena with you know, actual walls keeping the prisoners in – what exactly do you expect to happen??!

 

…Feminism??
 Grace and Fury takes place in a misogynistic world where women’s rights are extensively restricted, so feminism is in theory one of its primary concerns.

In some ways – and in some very clunky, anvilicious speeches – Grace and Fury is feminist. Serina’s rallying cries against the way that women are encouraged (in a very literal way on Mount Ruin) to compete for male attention and entertainment, how they should be working together and not against each other, as well as Nomi’s discovery that, you know, the systematic subjugation of women is WRONG!! show, at least, that Grace and Fury isn’t sexist.

But I don’t feel like much is actually done to explore feminism in more depth than this. The reasons and motives behind the patriarchal world are weak and reductive, placing it all on one cause. While “deviant” women are shown on page in the multitudes of Mount Ruin, very little is done to explore their motives or experiences. Of the prisoners we encounter, Serina is falsely imprisoned, and her closest friend is there due to theft, which is simply a crime, not an expression of patriarchal oppression. There is little to no discussion of the adverse effects of patriarchy on men either, albeit one brief glimpse into the fact that two men – who happen to be the love interests – aren’t evil to the core.

Which leads onto one of the most awkward things about this book – the glaring fact that Grace and Fury is very heteronormative, and very, very white. While there is one gay side character (out of the literal! multitude! of! women! on page, including an! entire! island! of! rebel! women!), both Nomi and Serina are straight, and while their love interests are ‘nice’ (for one of them, I felt this was their only character trait) both their romances involve an inherent power imbalance (one being a ‘nice prison guard’ !!) that is neither interrogated or discussed on page. There was one moment when, as I said, I thought Serina might break the mould and reject romance in place of friendship and “sisterhood”, and she did….only for her love interest to come back onto the scene almost immediately.

And literally no named character is mentioned as being non-white on page. There is one token line alluding to the beauty of ‘dark skin tones’, and that’s it. ******SIGH******

 

Grace and Fury was a very stereotypical and predicatable young adult fantasy, with massive similarities to Red Queen, The Selection, and The Hunger Games. It was a quick, easy read, but I’m not entirely sure if that’s because I enjoyed it or because I just wasn’t that invested.

 

Overall Rating: 1.5/5

3.5 stars rounded up

<i>"It isn't a choice when you don't have the freedom to say no. A yes doesn't mean the same thing when it's the only answer you're allowed!"</i>

I really liked this book. In many ways it felt like I should have loved it, and I just didn't quite. Grace and Fury had none of the issues I keep stumbling over in YA fantasy of late. The characters were well rounded. The pace was good. The narrative was engaging. The world building was sufficiently well developed. And the story makes some important points, which I'll get to in a moment. 

To be honest my main issue with the book is actually clearly my problem and I can't exactly put a finger on why it's irritating me. Here it is: There's a trend in YA at present for girls in societies that oppress them while at the same time giving them damaging and narrows categories of 'virtues' to aspire too. Namely beauty and desirability. Part of the problem with this is, of course, that 'beauty' is a somewhat subjective concept. Yes you can quote the golden mean to me and you'd have a point, but aside from that, beauty and what it entails has varied so widely over the centuries that it's barely comparable with itself fro one decade to the next. In other words, it's an impossible goal set out for girls to achieve IF we consider beauty and desirability to be a list of attributes considered societally acceptable at any given time. I know why this keeps cropping up in YA books. It doesn't take a doctorate in  sociology or psychology to make the link between today's media and social media, and the insidious message shoved down young people's throats as soon as their old enough to hold an Iphone. So in this context to add a world where women are completely oppressed to the point of having no opportunity to be self directing at all is very depressing. I know books reflect the time they are written in. I'm not saying the author is wrong and certainly the way she handles the quandary is laudable and intelligent. But I just keep tripping over this trope and I wish for once that showing women as being superior to their circumstances didn't need to start from a position of utter submission. Anyhoo that part of things is my issue and no reflection on the book.

There is a lot to like about this book. The relationship between the two MCs - Sisters. The realistic handling of any romance. The way the author reversed tropes and circumstances on the sisters. And the important message that wanting to be desirable is not wrong unless that is literally all you are or all you are allowed to be. There's a lot of emphasis on choice here and that's a good thing. You're not free to do something unless you are equally free not to do it. I liked the way Nomi and Serina were forced to adapt to each other's perspectives and survive in worlds neither of them was suited for. Serina rather stole the show there, while Nomi demonstrated some short sightedness that was incredibly annoying. All in all, the alternating POV chapters balanced each other well and the structure held.

What wasn't so good was that at times it felt truncated. There could have been more build up to certain events. The author might have been a little less economical with the story. The ending was brilliant but really irritating since it's a cliff hanger. I would rather this had been a 500 page standalone than cut where it was tbh. 

That said I really enjoyed this and found it hard to put down. I'll definitely read the next book.

Grace and Fury is an unusual take on a couple of YA fiction's most prevalent tropes. The two sisters, Serina and Nomi, are two common archetypal characters - the beautiful sister expected to become a dutiful bride, and the plain but clever sister who sits in the background, learning what she can. Their roles are quickly subverted when Serina is imprisoned and Nomi's the one with the chance to marry into the highest echelons of society. I really enjoyed this role reversal, and it meant that both of the main characters were, from very early on, given significant opportunities to learn and grow, and break out of the roles expected of them.

The bones of the story are outlined in the synopsis above, but there's much more to the book than that. Living in the palace, Nomi's introduced to a world she's never had any interest in, and her element of the story is takes in politics, secrets, and a constant sense of disquiet. Serina, on her island prison, is thrust into a world she didn't even know existed, and literally has to fight to survive. Their storylines separate at the beginning of the book and by the end, they're starting to come back together, and I'm intrigued to see where they'll go in the sequel.

There's quite a large cast of secondary characters, ranging from the palace servants helping Nomi to the other women imprisoned with Serina on their bleak island. I felt like the other prisoners were more fleshed out characters than the palace residents and workers, but it fits with the story as Nomi is unsure of who around her she can trust, whilst Serina has to learn to rely on the women around her, at least to start, to survive in their prison. Nomi also has a romantic subplot, but although it involves a significant plot element, the romance itself is fairly minor. I do imagine though that it's going to become much more important in subsequent books, and I'll be interested to see where it goes.

Grace and Fury is a very descriptive book. From both perspectives, I really felt like I could see where the sisters were living and the people they were interacting with. For Serina in particular, surrounded by obvious and immediate danger, Banghart doesn't shy away from the brutal reality of her situation, and some of the fight scenes specifically are quite gruesome and disturbing to read (in a good way!).

Grace and Fury is a really interesting addition to the YA fantasy canon. Having the perspectives of the two sisters in such different and unexpected situations brings a great depth to the story, and I can't wait to see where the story will go next. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some new YA fantasy with great female main characters and a gripping story.

I absolutely adored this story, the character development of both sisters is amazing to see and I love how there's an abundance of so many strong female characters in a world where women aren't allowed to be free. 

I'll be updating this review with a link to my review on my site by tomorrow, I'm currently processing how I'll cope with waiting for the final in the duology!

When I started this book I had no expectations. I actually read this on my Kindle on the way to a work event, and so had no access to even the short blurb. So when this started I began to worry that this would just be a rehashing of the infamous The Selection books. I was so relieved when this book turned out to be so much more. Where The Selection focuses on the romance, this book chose the idea of sisterhood and the value of women in society. So that’s my first thought, while a lot of this book is centred around winning the hearts of various men, that’s not what this book is about.

I have read a fair few books of late that are focussed around women not having any rights, Vox, All Rights Reserved (sort of), and The Surface Breaks are among examples. Particularly in fantasy, it can be a little depressing to read books set in these kinds of worlds. I read fiction as a means of escapism and sometimes these things feel a little close to home. But I can’t judge this book based on the other books I have read, and on its own it stands pretty well. This is a world where women are basically just mothers, they are kept from reading and writing amongst other rights. The worldbuilding on this wasn’t quite as clear as I think it could have been. The focus is mostly on the reading and writing, but it would have been interesting to know how that was enforced worldwide in the story. There’s the fact that in the real world often we only know about the wealthy women who were kept from working and forced into marriage, (I’m drawing on the Greek and Roman example here because it’s what I know but there are other similar examples) while those women lower down the social hierarchy did work and did do things other than just be mothers and homemakers. I felt like I was missing the sense of different social levels. I am hoping that will be something that gets expanded on in later books in this series.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the sibling relationship in this book. I was concerned when it was set up as ‘the beautiful sister’ and ‘the adventurous sister’ that it would be fairly cliché and it would end up being the two pit against each other. While this isn’t a ‘sister power’ kind of story, the two characters are separated for most of the book, it is about women supporting one another than about being in a contest which I am here for.

It could have gone terribly wrong to have two very disparate settings, the regal court and then a volcanic island, but somehow this book feels very complete. The transitions between the two settings come at appropriate points and the balance between them is mostly pretty even. I’ll be interested to see how this changes in the sequel, will these characters suddenly have to work together or will they be divided once more?

I said this book wasn’t as romance-centred as The Selection (I feel like I’m comparing the two too much, they really aren’t similar) but there is some romance on both sides of the story. I felt this was kind of inevitable with a book like this and for the most part it’s handled pretty well. There are a few moments of ‘no stop mooning over each other people are dying’ but that’s to be expected at this point and I know some people will really enjoy the romance.

Overall my lasting impression was that this book was better than I could ever have imagined it would be from the premise and that it could be the set-up to a truly incredible sequel/series. I will certainly be looking forward to more from Tracy Banghart.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

What would The Handmaid's Tale look like set in the world of Red Queen? Whether you care to ask that question or not, Grace and Fury is here with an answer. Being ambivalent at best about Red Queen, I'd have been skeptical if you told me that a solid mashup of it and The Handmaid's Tale was possible. But that's exactly what Tracy Banghart has written.

Welcome to Viridia, a grim nation loosely inspired by Italy where women are forbidden to read, have short hair or disobey whatever orders a man gives them. Their only roles in life are as housewife, domestic servant or factory worker--that is except for a lucky, beautiful few, who are selected to be the Superior's Graces, glorified concubines epitomising feminine virtue. Tracy Banghart's world is terrifying, but if you come here expecting a 1984, you will be disappointed: Banghart doesn't spend one second longer than necessary wallowing in fictional oppression. Instead, in ever-optimistic YA tradition, her characters fight back. Change is in the air.

Following in the well-trodden footsteps of the genre, Grace and Fury chronicles the first sparks of a revolution, social and political. Hopefully, the author will stick to her plan of two books, done and dusted. If Grace and Fury doesn't succumb to the infamous series expansions that result in one book spiralling into four and a month's wait spiralling into several years', it has the potential to be a fantastic duology.

This debut travels at a breakneck pace, covering only the most important events. Characters go from meeting to smooching to plotting coups d'état in what feels like moments. In places the book reads more like the outline of a novel than the actual finished product, but at a time when some popular YA authors who shall go unnamed publish first drafts that are three parts fluff to one part content, you couldn't be faulted for appreciating Banghart's bare-bones approach. Either way, Grace and Fury demands very little time to finish for a story of its calibre, making it a must-read for feminist fantasy fans.

Though not particularly groundbreaking leads, Serina and Nomi are certainly sympathetic, although considering the way they're treated, it would be nearly impossible to find a Viridian woman unworthy of some sort of support. Both sisters have romances that can feel shoehorned in, but are handled decently. Looking at it from the lens that these women have been caged their whole lives, it makes sense for them to take what small happiness they can find. 

Tracy Banghart's website mentions that she "believes in cultivating worlds where women support rather than compete with one another, and first kisses happen en route to new adventures, instead of in lieu of them." Grace and Fury does justice to these goals; its most compelling moments are those when Serina and Nomi forge alliances with women instead of hating them as they were all brought up to do. In an especially touching scene, one supporting character describes the abuse she faced from a father who discovered her relationship with a girlfriend.

Ultimately, Grace and Fury is a tale of empowerment. As in most tales of empowerment, it doesn't take an oracle to predict that the subjugated group eventually unites in solidarity to throw off the yoke of their oppressors. With that in mind, the fact that this book's late-stage plot twists are rather obvious shouldn't be a reason not to read it, because those twists aren't the most important part of the story. That would be the fierce sisters, the relationships they forge with other girls, and the power they realise they have together. If you're in the mood for hopeful and inspiring, Grace and Fury is a fine shout.

This book was amazing, it talked real life problems in a AU world, despite this also happening in a few other YA novels, not many do it so well. it brings up points that make you think, not just about the plot of the book but also about how this is still happening in our world. It makes it seem more real. 

The character development was outstanding, at first I had settled myself in for one rebellious sister that was going to take the empire by storm but then both sisters kick a**. It was also nice to see romance but have it be slow building and not the usually, typical kind of YA romance. 

Like I said before, I struggled to get into this book because I was expecting the cheesy, overly girly sister who is saved by her backdrop but bada** sister. But boy was I wrong, the twists that this plot takes are realistic and unexpected but add so much more to the plot. 
I am definitely going to by the physical copy of this book when it is released.

"A yes doesn't mean the same thing when it's the only answer you're allowed"

* * * *
4 / 5

Grace and Fury is everything that I wanted from The Selection and more! It's a light read, an easy page turner, and the easiest way to describe it is as having the setting of The Selection, a bunch of women are jostling to become the favoured of a prince, with the plot of Red Queen. It's a fun book with some great quotes and action moments.

"We are always supposed to give. We are never supposed to fight. Why do you think that is?"

Serina has been groomed to become a Grace - basically a woman who is part of the Prince's harem - her whole life. All her family's hopes are pinned on Serina as the one who will make it out of poverty. Everything goes wrong when it is Serina's sister Nomi that is picked by the prince over Serina herself. The problem? Nomi is a die-hard budding feminist who can think of nothing worse than to spend her days preening for a man who seems to be nothing but angry. Serina thinks her sister is an idiot who cannot accept the reality of their world, but she loves her nonetheless, which is why she takes the fall for Nomi when it turns out that Nomi can read - an illegal thing for a woman to be able to do.

To begin with, Nomi and Serina are slightly idiotic and are crammed into stereotypes: the rebel and the accepting one. But then they absolutely blossom into three-dimensional characters, particularly Serina. It's simply lovely to read. Serina is dumped in a female-only prison on a remote island and becomes part of a gang, learning to shed all the ideals that society has forced upon her about what a woman is meant to be. Nomi has to learn to quell her "don't give a toss about the consequences" attitude and to find some compassion for her fellow Graces, whilst trying to figure out exactly what is going on with the two princes.

"Serina had her beauty. Nomi had her secret."

Grace and Fury has two very separate storylines, one for each sister, each with their own action plots and twists. The ending is great - the book definitely goes out with a bang - but the twists weren't particularly surprising for me, and probably won't be for anyone who has also read Red Queen. Grace and Fury is a nice breath of fresh air in the "rebel woman" and the "princess selection" tales, bringing them together in a new way and adding in some strong themes.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Grace and Fury.

I intended to sit down and start Grace & Fury... and several hours later hadn't put it down, but had finished the whole book. I loved this novel and greatly look forward to the next instalment in the series.

The story is told from the points of view of sisters Serina and Nomi, one seemingly content with the expectations of her, and the other quite openly unhappy about her 'place' in the world. The narrative alternates between point of view chapters from each character, and while I often find myself drawn to one character over another when reading books written in this fashion, I have to say that I grew to love both points of view and wasn't at all tempted to skip a chapter to get to a different part of the story. Each of the girls goes through a transformation, with Serina's perhaps slightly more compelling, though the far more violent of the two, while they struggle with the worlds that they find themselves in.

There are some elements that have been seen before in YA novels, such as the use of the two brothers as devices to move along one path of the story, and some slightly stereotypical instances of romance, but, on the whole, the plot is sound. The narrative is focused on the exploration of women's place within society, with some plain reminders that it was not so long ago that our female ancestors found themselves in similar situations to the women in the society of Grace & Fury. With this in mind, there are several effective instances of women supporting other women in the story, but there are also moments when I found myself disappointed that it seemed a female character was being 'rescued' by a man, given the overall tone of the novel.

Grace & Fury is a well-crafted novel with vivid worldbuilding and engaging characters. Serina and Nomi are obviously at its heart - and they have heart, but they are also fragile, fallible and frightened while simultaneously being brave, daring and rebellious. A pleasure to read.

I hate giving a book such a low mark but when you're just bored throughout the entire book...it's no use.

Grace and Fury is a book with promise and focuses on feminist themes but, for me personally, it wasn't told in a way that made me want to turn the page. I found the romance unappetizing and I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters.

However, this is a book that I feel that I may come back to in the future and try to read again.