"...the island was dying long before anyone realised it. If there'd been some early symptoms of its sickness, then nobody had the good mind back then to see them. And now it was too late. Croaghnakeela had become a black heart festering in the bay, its inhabitants no better than maggots writhing in its salty air, waiting for dark wings to descend and devour them".
Grace by A.M. Shine is a dark, unsettling modern Gothic horror, rooted in ancient Irish myth.
Grace
A haunting, atmospheric modern Gothic horror tale based on traditional Irish mythology, from the author of smash hit The Watchers. Ancient evil is awakened on a lonely isle off the coast of Ireland.
TO LEARN THE TRUTH
WOULD YOU DESCEND INTO HELL?
Off the west coast of Ireland lies a lonely island, isolated and wilfully forgotten. Some say there hasn't been a child born on the island for thirty years. Other speak of strange deaths there, decades ago. But no one really know what happened. Locals believe that the dark times are behind them.
They are mistaken.
Grace, adopted at four years old, has never known where she came from. A mysterious phone call leads her back to the island where she was born - and where a terrible evil has been disturbed.
As the evil starts to spread, Grace finds herself dragged back into a living nightmare that threatens to engulf anyone who steps into its path.
Grace is perfect for fans of horror classics, Paul Tremblay, and Kealan Patrick Burke.
Beyond the reach of the mainland Ireland lies a god-forsaken island that maps barely remember. It's a haunted place lashed by the Atlantic storms, wrapped in an eerie silence. The locals avoid speaking of what's happened all those years ago, of a string of macabre unexplained deaths and of the locals, who were buried quietly in haste. There have been no children born on the island in the last thirty years.
No one wants to mention the name of the old evil. Most prefer to exist in silence and alcohol-induced stupor which numbs the pain of loss. No one agrees on what's really happened, and they try to convince themselves that the darkness has passed. They are survivors whose memories are truncated by the unwillingness to remember.
Grace was adopted at four years old, her origins sealed in a secretive silence. She has spent her life with a hollow space where her beginnings should be.
"Somewhere in that empty space that her adoptive parents so carefully guided her around like a bottomless pit, there was still something. Maybe it wasn't anything as appreciable as a memory. But it had always been there, in the periphery of her life, some residual feeling that time couldn't clean away".
Then a single phone call shatters everything she knows about herself, and summons her back to the island where she was born. Grace finds out that her biological mother has passed away. The priest, Father Richard O'Malley, tells Grace she has inherited a house, which he is happy to sell for her, to save the inconvenience of travelling. She is adamant that she wants to go and see where she came from.
And the island has been waiting all this time. Something ancient has been reawakened. This evil force does not forget or forvive. As it seeps into the present, Grace is drawn into a walking nightmare. Coiling around the island, it tightens its grip on anyone who dares to uncover the truth.
Some places do not forget, some evil is never laid to sleep, and some doors once open, will never close again.
Though the book is called after Grace, she is but one of the two main protagonists. The other one, Father O'Malley, is looking after his wayward flock on the inhospitable isle. We learn his backstory and inner struggles with acceptance of his rare gifts.
Robin is a newcomer to the island, transferred to Croaghnakeela six years earlier. He was hoping for a fresh start.
"Croaghnakeela had its secrets too... The waves there broke the shore in a light mist that tasted too much like death. And it wasn't the sleepy kind of silence that kept the island so still. Whispers don't work when they're all a people speak. Something happened there that it wanted to forget. Sealing their lips was a way to pat down the soil. Talking only disturbed it. But Robin knew better. The truth never stayed buried, and the silence never got any easier, no matter how they may pretend".
Grace's arrival spurs him into action,and he starts asking questions that he has been avoiding to ask. Only to uncover the truth, he has to descend into hell.
The claustrophobic setting of Croaghnakeela is top-notch. The elements of the Irish myths and the introduction of the arch-villain Bodach in this remote location create a powerfully sinister and uncanny piece of writing.
Grace is a bleak chiller, a disturbing parable of the human greed, silent acquiescence, and even endorsement of evil. It might be a fiction, but it makes you think of how ordinary people are prepared to live alongside the unmentionable horror by pretending not to notice it, not protesting or trying to do something to fight it.
This horror story presents an uncompromising, desolate view of humanity, or the lack of it. Read it if you dare!
Grace is my first encounter with the author, A.M. Shine. I somehow missed his previous books and The Watchers on Netflix, though I am going to remedy that, as I bought The Watchers on Kindle.
Many thanks to A.M. Shine, Head of Zeus and Rachel's Random Resources for my proof copy.
Purchase Link - https://geni.us/GraceCR
Author Bio –
A.M. Shine writes in the Gothic horror
tradition. Born in Galway, Ireland, he received his Master's Degree in History
there before sharpening his quill and pursuing all things literary and macabre.
He is a member of the Irish Writers Centre. His debut novel, The
Watchers, has been made into a major motion picture produced by M. Night
Shyamalan. Follow him on @AMShineWriter and www.amshinewriter.com
Social Media Links –
https://www.instagram.com/nocturn_al_shine/
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.JPG "A.M. Shine")
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