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neowitcher · 1 year

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SCORCHED GRACE | ARC REVIEW

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy ★★★

Expected release date: 21 February 2023

Genre: LGBTQ+ Mystery, Crime

Summary:

When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding community are thrust into chaos. Unsatisfied with the officials' response, sardonic and headstrong Sister Holiday becomes determined to unveil the mysterious attacker herself and return her home and sanctuary to its former peace. Her investigation leads down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets in the sticky, oppressive New Orleans heat, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way.

Sister Holiday is more faithful than most, but she's no saint. To piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must first reckon with the sins of her checkered past-and neither task will be easy. (Netgalley)

[Storygraph] [Goodreads] [Amazon]

My review:

If anything is going to draw me to a book, it has to be a smoking, queer nun on a stained-glass-style cover. Douaihy brings a character to life who has to solve a crime a little too close to home and it is intriguing and beautifully written however, sometimes not enough to the point to really keep me engaged.

The gorgeous writing style is already apparent in the opening lines and continues throughout the rest of the book. At times, nearly every paragraph ends with some type of wisdom or at least quote-worthy text and there are detailed descriptions. This is great for anyone who enjoys very wordy books however, it does take away from the action a bit.

The action happens a little too late as well, making me wonder halfway through when it will get exciting. Luckily, the eventual climax did end up being pretty good. Again, very well written and it shows a lot of cinematic potential. The thing that really intrigued me, however, is Sister Holiday's past that slowly but surely gets revealed as the story progresses. It ties in well with the present conflict and the parallels add a lot to the story’s quality. I think if the overall mystery had been as intriguing as the backstory, I would have loved it a lot more.

Through the backstory, Sister Holiday's motivations and character become a lot more clear. Her ideas of God and religion as a whole make her both complex and relatable, which her queerness definitely adds to. Having "a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun" as the main character is an automatic win but with her cleverness and again, her backstory, she ends up being an incredibly interesting and refreshing mystery lead. I would read more novels with her, or even a prequel about pre-nun Holiday. With the other characters, I feel like some were almost equally interesting while others faded into the background a bit too much, but overall, I liked a lot of them as well.

Note that Scorched Grace may have a queer character to root for, but not quite a queer relationship, as it isn’t giving space for a present romance, which definitely favours the tone of the book. There are a lot of homophobic scenes and flashbacks (see down below for more content warnings) but the queerness is overall very relatable which I appreciate. Aside from that, many dark themes are being explored, which definitely makes this an adult book. Think a dark, queer, religious crime novel is right up your alley? Absolutely check out this Sister Holiday book and get ready to be drawn in by its linguistic beauty and thematic gruesomeness.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for a chance to read an ARC of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.

content warnings (slight spoilers): homophobia, sexual assault, animal death, incest, fire

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