Charles de Lint

The Mystery of Grace is a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel about loss, love, redemption and the power of the human spirit. Charles de Lint blends contemporary fantasy and magical realism to create a story that is both familiar and otherworldly.

The novel follows Grace, a hot-rod mechanic who dies unexpectedly and returns to the world of the living as a ghost. She falls in love with John, an artist who is haunted by the death of his younger brother. Together, Grace and John must learn to let go of their attachments and find peace. The characters are complex and well-developed, and their journey is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

[Disclaimer: I am not very good at writing reviews so I asked Bard, the Google AI, for help]… (mais)

As the young student of the brilliant Vincent Rushkin, Isabelle Copley discovered she could paint images so real they brought her dreams to life. But when the forces she unleashed brought tragedy to those she loved, she turned her back on her talent - and on those dreams. Now, twenty years later, Isabelle must come to terms with the memories she has long denied, and unlock the power of her brush. And, in a dark reckoning with her old master, she must find the courage to live out her dreams, and bring the magic back to life.

I think I spent just about this entire book wondering exactly how unreliable our unreliable narrator is...and I think that’s fascinating. How much of this can be chalked up to influence, or to mental illness, or simply her humanity? Because Isabelle truly is very flawed -- she’s a pushover, she’s the archetypical abuse survivor before realizing she’s being abused, she makes excuses and finds ways to make things her fault. She chews on things in her anxiety until they lose all meaning. We have no idea how much to trust her, because her own friends wonder at her motives and actions and if she truly did things she claims she didn’t.

A story that brings the concept of 'creating our own reality' to life -- and that truth is only the story we tell ourselves.… (mais)

3.5 stars

Lillian is 12-years old and lives near a forest with her aunt. When she is in the forest looking for fairies, she is bitten by a snake, and in order to save her, some of the cats she has been feeding help by magically turning her into a cat. And now, Lillian can talk to the cats and the other animals in the forest. But her aunt doesn’t recognize her and she can’t explain what happened because her aunt only hears meowing. What to do!?

I enjoyed this! It is an expansion of de Lint’s “A Circle of Cats” (which I did read a long time ago, but don’t recall). There are some nice illustrations throughout.… (mais)