Grace by Elizabeth Scott

It's no secret I love Elizabeth Scott. You can read my review of The Unwritten Rule if you want to figure out just how much. The answer: a lot. Her writing flows, her characters scream, her words belt.

Grace was a little different than most of her other books, though. The main character is meant to die. She's an Angel - and not in the paranormal sense. She was born to be a bomb, or more technologically speaking, the holder of a bomb. A suicide bomber. That's who her society and family raised her to be. But Grace wants a name and a life for herself.

This was much more political than anything I've seen from Scott. I love how diverse her books can be, but at the same time I can see classic elements that define her writing. She usually writes in sparse prose that hits home. It's a unique kind of writing, and it's always been very effective to me.

Grace wasn't my favorite EScott. It might even have been my least favorite. That isn't saying I didn't like it; it's saying I didn't like it quite as much which, when relating to Elizabeth Scott, might mean I didn't like it quite as much as, say, breathing. Or coffee. (Those two apparently equate each other.) I still really enjoyed it. Mainly because it made me think.

This is a society that's fictionalized - sometimes described as dystopian - but is also very, very realistic. There are so many civilizations we don't even know or think about that have their own society and views on life. And some of them are dark. Cannibals, anyone? This book explores a civilization that believes in raising children to die: but that's all that civilization has known.

The main character goes against her society's beliefs and honor system for one reason only: she wants to live, above all other things. Is that selfish? You immediately want to answer no, right? But after the main character uses her bomb as a distraction, killing innocent people so she can escape, it makes you think again. And then think again.

One of the things I didn't like was that I couldn't connect with the characters, which is what I usually love most about Scott's books. It's hard to like a character in a realistic novel who has intentionally killed other people (yet somehow it's easier when they're a vampire : *cough* Damon). But at the same time, her situation was so desperate and tragic that you want to connect with and understand her. It was just harder for me to be sympathetic when I didn't relate or connect with a lot of what she said or did. It's such an estranged situation, but I greatly admire EScott for tackling it.

What I really liked about Grace were the questions it brought up. The main point of this book is something entirely important but also one that isn't delved into a lot in YA:

What is your life truly worth?