As soon as I saw AM Shine had announced this book, it was pre-ordered so I was so grateful to receive this ARC. I started reading it straight away and was not disappointed. I didn’t feel the same dread as I did from The Creeper but there was definitely tension and I enjoyed the mystery of the story. There were a number of twists that I didn’t see coming and so many POV’s which I love. I thought this story was creepy, atmospheric and full of secrets.

Dark, chilling, and steeped in Irish folklore, Grace is a haunting modern Gothic horror that lingers long after the final page.

Grace was adopted at four years old and has never known the truth about her origins. When a mysterious phone call draws her back to the remote island where she was born, she finds a community bound together by decades of secrets, guilt, and whispered tales of strange deaths and vanished children. But something ancient and malevolent has been disturbed – and it is beginning to spread.

A.M. Shine delivers an atmospheric, oppressive setting that almost becomes a character in itself, with the island’s isolation amplifying the creeping sense of dread. This is folk horror at its core, exploring how far people will go for survival and the moral compromises made in the face of fear. While I would have liked more detail around certain elements, such as the orphanage, the tension and mythology woven through the story kept me gripped.

An unsettling, evocative tale of buried sins and the darkness that refuses to stay hidden.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I just finished this book and really really enjoyed it! It eas the perfect mix between eerie scary and horror, all set on a remote island.

The only things that didn’t make this a 5 star read were: Graces backstory, I would’ve loved to know more about her adoptive parents, and how that whole thing came to be. Also the ending? I thought there were pages missing but I guess I was wrong haha

I’ve read another book by the author which I didn’t really enjoy so I’m really happy that this was right up my alley!

Steeped in folklore the island of Croaghnakeela and its small community are isolated from the Irish mainland, the once weekly ferry brings supplies, its owner refusing to set foot on land and after thirty years Grace, adopted as a child is returning following the death of a mother she never knew, an unknown force calling for her to return to the place of her birth

The author has a real talent when it comes to scene setting, the desolate, bleak windswept island with a small scattering of homes that were falling into disrepair was very easy to visualise.

This was an unsettling read that my spidey senses tingling from the outset, like Grace the island drew me in, its community intrigued and the end wasn't what I expected. Told in multi-narrative with flashbacks to thirty years ago this novel was difficult to put down once started. Totally recommended.

My thanks to Aria & Aries for the early read, all opinions expressed are my own

When Grace’s mother dies, she returns to her birthplace to find answers, invited by the island priest, Father O’Malley.

Croaghnakeela is an eerie island in the Irish sea, avoided by outsiders. No children have been born there in thirty years. There’s a good reason that Grace’s mother put her up for adoption at four years old, hoping she would never return.

The islanders are brimming with old secrets and live in the shadow of the Bodach, the boogeyman. In inviting Grace back to the island, Father O’Mallet stirs up an evil that has been dormant all these years.

Another creepy and compelling Irish folk tale from A. M. Shine.

When you see a book is being released by A M Shine it's definitely a must grab book. Reading the blur I was like yip another hit on the way.....upon reading i now have to disagree with my opinion. The overall plot is a fantastic idea the first half of the book had me hooked but soon after I have to admit I got bored. There were bits where I thought it's making a comeback but then it just nose dived for me......I so badly wanted to enjoy this book but just cant. Chapters started off well the just seemed to go off on a tangent ......it was nearly a dnf for me. This won't stop picking up his books in the future just because this one wasn't my cup of tea.

There are no words for how excited I was to get the email with an invite to read and review this book, I've been patiently waiting for a new A.M. Shine book since I finished Stay In the Light, and I was not disappointed at all.

A.M. Shine knows exactly how to creep me out (in the best possible way), every single time, which is why he has become one of my favourite authors. But this book… Wow.

I left writing this review for a few days after I finished the book (which I could not put down) because I didn’t know how to put my thoughts about it into words, but it didn’t help; I still really don’t know how to explain it besides “Wow”. Everything about it is amazing. The writing, the characters, the setting, the plot; everything is just perfection.

If you like Gaelic folklore, eerie atmospheric settings, creeping horror, beautifully flawed characters, and twists you won't see coming; add this to your list asap. You won't regret it.

I can't wait to see what Shine comes out with in the future because I will be there for whatever it is!

Set in a quiet Irish island during off-season, A.M. Shine's Grace is an eerie horror story about an ancient evil coming back to life. The protagonist, Grace, who was adopted at four years of age, has no memory of her past, but strange telephonic information got her back to the island where she was born. At the core of the story is an evil that has been haunting the island for years and is now being awakened. As the darkness grows with strength, Grace is not safe anymore, along with everyone else around her.

Grace's experiences thrust her into a journey of self-discovery as she learns to deal with the supernatural. She must now step into harms way to confront past evils and learn the secrets of the island. Some people help her, while others set her back as she seeks to survive through these events. The side characters, especially Robin, demonstrate different facets of the curse and of Grace's identity. With greater strength, Grace confronts her fears and seeks her roots to battle evil. She develops bonds, copes with trauma, and investigates the ways the past retain influences on the present.

The themes in the book signify a kind of loneliness; ancient evil continues to exist; and truth can be hard to swallow. These themes depict a modern agenda: how past trauma haunts families, the fear of the unknown, and how communities confront (or sidestep) their histories. The island's solitude mirrors neglect toward orphans. The problem is simply unresolved.

Shine excels at describing realistically scary haunted locations. He combines contemporary horror with Irish myths to send shivers down your spine. His prose creates a feeling of tension that follows with melancholy and mystery in an island map. There is the ever-present wondering of doom that keeps the Gothic aura discuss. Suspenseful revelations owe much to Shine's sleight of hand. The horror is utterly believable; thanks to his point of view, Grace's fear and feelings are transferred to the readers.

From reading Grace, one is left with feelings of discomfort and pity for what Grace is suffering. With tone and horror moments, this pulls you into the story even more, making it much more than simply horror. It makes you reflect on unknown evils and how to deal with the past. It concerns how people and communities deal with their histories. It is a memory to have all through their lives.

Grace combines modern Gothic horror tendencies with Irish mythology. Akin to Shine's The Watchers, yet Grace's tale is quite personal and intimate. Old stories are woven into the current issues, separating it from others of its kind. The horror aspects then are traced over with themes concerned with identity and the weight of the past. Those touches connect it to modern life.

What went far in strengthening the atmosphere of the book was its sense of sadness, solitude, and agonizing realization of doom. The island, in a way, makes the story. Shine doesn't tell everything, leaving the reader enough space to draw assumptions out of the story, giving it yet another layer of mystery.

Grace combines emotional depth with horror elements, making a story both terrifying and emotionally impactful. It serves as a prime example of how modern horror explores the depths of human existence. It pushes difficult questions on identity, the past, and fear. The present narrative is based on the struggle of confronting external and internal struggles. It is also about how the past continues to shape the present. This makes for an unforgettable and chilling read.

A.M. Shine has quickly become an instant-read for me. I didn't look at a synopsis, just requested an ARC purely on faith in the author to deliver another story oozing with gothic folk horror, atmosphere, and gorgeous writing. I'm happy to say I was rewarded for my faith. Shine continues to deliver.

There's something in the way Shine crafts his sentences that pleases me in a way few authors can. His style is distinct and evocative, with the beauty and horror bleeding together in a messy marriage of prose. His writing just scratches an itch for me, to put it as mundanely as possible. While I can speed-read through many books without issue, with Shine I find myself slowing down and really immersing myself in his stories. A few scenes in particular were so brilliant in their tension and world-building that I could vividly picture those drafty houses, colourless landscapes, crumbling cliffs, and shadows in the fog. What a feast.

While the ending didn't quite reach the heights that were promised by the early outstanding chapters, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every second of my time with it. I finished this hungry for more and wishing I had discovered Shine later in his (hopefully decades-long) career so I'd have more of a back catalog to dive into next.

I simply know by now that when I open the pages of a book by A.M. Shine that I'm going to be mesmerised. The writing! The imagination! The imagery! The atmosphere! The suspense! This author takes a whisper of a folk tale and breathes life into it with such skill that it becomes one of those books that I both can't put down but don't want to finish. My words feel feeble just trying to describe how incredible this author's work is. The stunning cover illustrations don't hurt either.

I loved the first 75% of this book - super creepy and full of unease. I really enjoyed the island setting and small town secrets. However, I liked it less when Grace stopped being the main POV and felt the ending was rushed and it fell a bit flat for me.

A.M. Shine has quickly become one of my favourite writers, when I came across his Watchers series and I quickly want to pick up anything he puts out. Shine, well, shines when writing gothic horror, and is excellent with tone to create atmosphere, His characters are always charming (even when we need to hate them), overall, just excellent.

Grace is a masterclass in slow-burning, folkloric horror that seeps under your skin. Set on a remote Irish island steeped in mystery and myth, the novel follows Grace—a woman haunted by a past she doesn’t remember—as she’s lured back to the place of her birth. What unfolds is an atmospheric and chilling descent into isolation, ancestral secrets, and the creeping sense that something ancient is watching. Shine’s prose is darkly elegant, and his command of gothic tension is relentless. With its eerie setting and psychological depth, Grace isn’t just a horror novel—it’s a haunting experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries | Aries for providing me with the ARC.

I really liked this book. I found the lore building a bit on the lighter side and I definitely came for this so this part is a bit of a put off for me. But the plot is excellent and I loved how A.M Shine developed their characters with so much depth.

This story goes from an usual inheritance received in a creepy hometown with weird past and lore to a dark mysterious tale of children snatched and creepy local population. Grace came back for the first time since she was a little child, to a hometown she never knew of. As an adopted person, she cannot resist the pull of her past, to find out where she came from and who were her biological parents. But the Irish island is not so cute and warm and more the epicenter of a dark and gritty past binding together the local population of insular and the strange lore of a creature snatching children for the greed of their parents.

The multi POV is a bit heavy for my taste but the plot et the atmosphere are so well done that you forgot about it after a few swaps.

If you are in a mood for a gritty, creepy and eerie Irish folk horror story with a great character development and unsettling insular Irish folklore, go for it. It's a quick read and you are hooked from the very beginning.

The novel Grace is pure, unadulterated horror of the darkest and creepiest kind. It’s atmospheric, unsettling, and vividly written by A.M. Shine, who once again returns to Irish folklore to create a macabre tale worthy of keeping us awake all night.

The main character, Grace, is lovely; it’s hard to not fall in love with her. She owns a bookshop specialising in rare books. One night there’s a loud knock on the door, yet no one is there. Then she receives a call telling her that her birth mother, whom she does not know, has passed away, leaving Grace a house on a remote island. So off she goes.

The island is shrouded in myths and deep fears. There’s the fog that never lifts and the sounds of cracking bones. The ferryman taking Grace to the island refuses to even step on the bleak land. Then there’s the priest, Father Richard, isolated in mystery both current and past. The characters are well developed, as are the plot and storylines. However, I had difficulties towards the end. The tension was building and the pace accelerating, and there were too many POVs involved, which left me confused. Otherwise, I highly recommend this haunting horror.

Thank you to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you like your reads creepy, brooding, grim, hopeless and claustrophobic, then Grace is the book for you. I do, and I adored being led by the hand under gloomy skies of grey across stark landscapes and into ancient lairs.

The tale starts off lightheartedly enough as we meet Grace, who runs what many of us would deem a dream shop of rare copies of books. A call from the blue informs her that the biological mum she never knew has died whose house and estate is bequeathed to her. It's on an island off the coast of Ireland.

Grace sets off to meet the priest of the island, who called her. However, the priest isn't privy to the evil secrets of the island and was under strict instructions to keep Grace away. And that's when things begin to take a darker turn. And darker. And more grim and WHAT THE HELL?

So oppressive at times it left me breathless, this book is perfect for dark nights with a candle burning and a glass of whiskey. Intelligently written (as we have come to expect from AM Shine), with twists and turns we simply do not see coming and a gradually tightening belt of foreboding and angst that pays off in dramatic and bloody ways.

An utter joy to read, I am so thankful for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Grace by A.M Shine. Oooh this book was so different! I loved it. It’s about Grace, a woman who gets summoned to a strange little island off the coast of Ireland when she gets a mysterious phone call. The ferry operator won’t even step foot on the island, so she’s a bit apprehensive about why this is. Grace was adopted when she was 4 years old, and this little island had something to do with that… something sinister… because there hasn’t been a child born on that island for 30 years, and it seems she was lucky to escape. There’s definitely something evil afoot and as the story unfolds it gets creepier and creepier. I enjoyed the ancient evil, there’s something very scary about a force that can’t be reasoned with. This is a slow burn mysterious horror, the uneasiness sneaks up on you. Lots of suspicious characters that had you second guessing yourself.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Thankyou to NetGalley, A.M Shine and the publishers for this advance copy in return for my honest opinion.

4+ ⭐

Shine is an autobuy author for me.
Here, as with all his books, he hits just the right notes of creepy, then ratchets it up with a sprinkle of horror.
It all starts innocently enough, but certainly doesn't end that way.
Dark and atmospheric, and a very good read.
Exactly what I expect from this author.

Grace is set on a small island just off the coast of Ireland. Titular character Grace was born on the island, but she was adopted as a young child and hasn’t ever returned; that is, until she gets a phone call that beckons her back. Instead of being greeted with a warm welcome, Grace finds herself faced with a mythological horror.

I loved the setting of this book—Shine’s descriptions of the island are so atmospheric and creepy. The descriptions of the supernatural elements are also incredibly creepy, which I appreciated (there's a scene in a pub that I won't be forgetting anytime soon!). I also thought that Robin—the island’s priest—was a fantastic character. I actually wish that the story had been told entirely from Robin’s perspective, or at least from only Robin and Grace’s perspectives. I found myself feeling a bit lost with characterizations when we started jumping between all of the islanders.

If you’re looking for Irish mythology horror this one definitely hits the spot though!

First of all, may I just give the biggest thanks to Zoe Giles, Marketing Manager for Head of Zeus, for inviting me to read Grace, via NetGalley. I absolutely did not expect it, and was thrilled when I received the email, as a longterm fan of A.M. Shine's work. Thank you so much for inviting me for the opportunity to read it before it actually hits the shelves, I appreciate it more than you know.

Now, on to the actual review.
I adored this. I adored this even more than the Watchers, and that's saying a lot.

I wasn't entirely certain about it at first, not really knowing what I was going to get into. But, once Grace set foot on the island, and I got a glimpse of what I was strapping myself in for, I was sold.

It's definitely not for the faint of heart, and if you scare easily it will definitely keep you up at night. But, if you like horror, especially horror based on Irish folklore & mythology, this is definitely the book for you.