The Grace of Wild Things
Heather Fawcett
Storytide
Published February 12, 2023
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About The Grace of Wild Things
An inventive and fantastical reimagining of Anne of Green Gables—with magic and witches!—that explores found family, loss, and the power of a girl’s imagination, from the acclaimed author of The Language of Ghosts and The School Between Winter and Fairyland. Perfect for readers who loved The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Serafina and the Black Cloak.
“A magical, witchy, and thoroughly successful homage to a classic.” —Kirkus Reviews(starred review)
Grace has never been good at anything except magic—not that anyone believes her.
While other children are adopted from the orphanage, nobody wants Grace. So she decides to make a home for herself by running away and offering herself as an apprentice to the witch in the nearby woods. After all, who better to teach Grace to use her magic? Surely the witch can’t be that bad.
But the witch is that bad—she steals souls for spells and gobbles up hearts. So Grace offers a deal: If she can learn all 100½ spells in the witch’s grimoire, the witch will make Grace her apprentice. But if Grace fails, the witch can take her magic. The witch agrees, and soon an unexpected bond develops between them.
But the spells are much harder than Grace expected, and when a monster from the witch’s past threatens the home Grace has built, she may have to sacrifice more than her magic to save it.
My Review
I didn’t read the back cover copy before I read this book. I remembered that a friend had read and loved it, so I’d had it on my reading list. The only thing I remembered about the book was that it was a reimagining of Anne of Green Gables. So, at first as I read, I assumed the witch-y things were Grace’s imagination. Ha! Then she woke up in the oven, and I was like, wait a minute.
At first, I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of a Marilla character as an evil witch. The story really won me over, though. I liked the way that her grumpiness and solitary nature gave way to fondness for Grace over time. And Patrick, the rain cloud! I thought that was a very clever way to introduce a character like Matthew from the original story.
The character I was immediately sure about was Grace. She was so thoroughly Anne, from her imaginative nature to her daydreaming and tendency to goof things up. I loved her friendship with Serena, too. That reminded me a lot of Anne and Diana.
Grace’s commitment to work through the spells in the grimoire gave the story more structure than I imagined. I loved those adventures and ways in which the spells worked out differently than Grace intended.
The Grace of Wild Things is the only book by Heather Fawcett that I’ve read so far, but I have already added others to my reading list. I’m excited to check out more of her books, and I wholeheartedly recommend this one.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
Vague reference to an adult who became romantically involved with a man until she learned he was married.
Spiritual Content
Some characters are witches. One character is a faery.
Violent Content
Situations of peril. Grace wakes in an oven of a witch who plans to cook and eat her. Other bones indicate that she’s done this before. A tree appears to try to devour a boy. Nightmares appear in a forest.
Drug Content
One spell makes a character act silly, and someone assumes the character is drunk.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. All opinions are my own.
