Grace
I loved, loved this book! I have been telling everyone I know about it. Why do authors do this to us? Why do authors drag us along, get their readers emotionally invested then, decide to type out an ending that leaves their readers clutching the novel like it’s a winning lottery ticket. As I was retelling my mother about this novel, her words expressed exactly what I felt, “that was it? the author left you with that, after everything you read?” and I signed and replied, “my thoughts, exactly…...”
The year is 1962. We begin with two brothers (14 and 10) and their parents moving from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. Money is tight for the family right now and the family has to move. Suffering from a serious disease, father is now paralyzed and the family is moving into their grandparents vacated home which has acres of land attached to it. Father prognosis is good but in the meantime, mother will work. The boys are not happy about the move, Eric the older brother gets picked on at school. The brothers build a clubhouse amongst the trees on the property and I liked how they find comfort in each other’s company. Eric gets a job and his life changes one day when he notices a girl from school digging in the dumpster behind his place of employment. Madeline Grace says she is not dumpster driving but as he talks to her, she mentions that she is running away. Eric offers Grace the clubhouse as a place to stay and Grace accepts.
Eric is excited to have Grace in the clubhouse and he begins to bring Grace leftover food from work. He also buys her food with his own money and I could feel an attraction building between the two. He is soon smitten with Grace but I didn’t feel that she fell for him as fast as he fell. It was so sweet and innocent, how the two of them were around each other.
They start to get intimate. She kisses him a few times, quick, gentle, tender kisses. Finally, Eric kisses her: “Our lips touched and she closed her eyes. It was incredible. It was like Christmas, my birthday, and scones for dinner all rolled into one. When we finally parted there were big smiles on both of our faces.”
They talked about love: “Do your parents love each other?” she asked. “Yeah. I think so. They still fight sometimes, but they always make up.” She pondered my reply then asked, “Have you ever been in love?” “I don’t know,” I said softly. “How do you really know when you’re in love?” She stopped walking and smiled at me. “When you don’t have to ask.”
Grace stays hidden in the clubhouse even after the school and the police ask about her whereabouts. Eric tells Grace that he would never tell anyone where she was. He liked having her there, they were living in their own little world. This was his first attempt at love, his first kiss and he was finally being accepted for who he was. He was saving Grace.
One day, Grace gets upset with Eric and the truth of the situation comes out and I was overwhelmed. Like Eric, I was speechless and dumbfounded. The truth hurt and what lies ahead was unsettling. The rest of the novel had me on edge and I was not ready for what happens at the end. No, never ready for that ending. I truly loved this story, loved it for its beauty, its freshness and its hope. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
