Grace and Fury, a single novel with upcoming sequel written by author Tracy Banghart. This entrancing fiction novel is one that brings out the strongest emotions in people. Feelings like anger, lack of justice and determination. Emotions like love, despair and excitement.
It shows the love between two sisters who live in a world where women are severely taken advantage of and have no rights. Simple things like education, choosing your husband and job are unheard of to the women of this universe. Sisters, Nomi and Serina, share different outlooks on the way things are. Serina, having come to terms with their circumstances and recognised that her best option is to become a Grace, a women who lives at the palace and serves as the ‘perfect’ example of a women. Serina has no anger towards the way things are but rather has accepted it. Her sister, Nomi, has a very different opinion. She has so much anger towards the things that women must endure in her world. She resents the fact that she is unable to have an education or make any decisions for herself. Unlike her sister’s calm and almost oblivious outlook, she lacks control of her opinions and fury, this usually results in issues for her and her family.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story, found that the author did a terrific job at portraying an issue that occurs in the real world, as severely in some places as it is in the novel. The story is about what sisters would do for each other. That women have powerful strengths which vary from the typical physical strength, this is demonstrated for Serina at a later time, and the strength of tactfulness and intelligence that Nomi also portrays at a later state. The author shows that there is hope and while we need fury, we need to know how to control it into something more powerful.
Serina, as part of her plan to become a Grace and live in the palace, wants her sister Nomi to be her handmaiden so that she may live with her and not be separated. So while Serina received training to dance, play the harp, have extreme grace and subtleness her sister was trained to fix clothing, complete chores and clean. Nomi hates the idea of leaving her home town, which she makes clear when Serina says to her “How can you not be pleased? I truly don’t understand. We get to leave this ugly city. We might get to live in the palace. Being my handmaiden will be easier than taking care of the whole family the way you do now, and we won’t have to worry about having enough food. Mama will be able to stop working…” Nomi responds to this with “I don’t think this city is ugly. And I don’t believe in fairy tales.” While Serina dislikes the dirty unsafe streets of Lanos (their home town in which they were raised and live with their mother, father and brother Renzo) Nomi loved the city, it was her home. I found that this characteristic of Nomi’s was a very appealing one and made her more likable. Unlike her sister who I found to be a bit dismissive when it came to her family, almost stuck-up because of her reaction to the place she lived most of her life.
The two sisters travel to the palace for the announcement of who will be selected to become a Grace. Nomi is distracted by her intention to look inside the royal library and finds herself with the urge to steal a book that, because of some childhood memories, she had attachment to. Regardless of the fact that it is against the law for women to be able to read or even possess such an item, she still takes the book. It is later revealed that Nomi knows how to read because she was taught from a young age by her older brother who received tutoring. She is then confronted by the heir, Malachi, and his younger brother, Asa, who were both passing by. I find this scene to be very interesting and inspiring, it is one of my favourites. Nomi shows her strength by not cowering when presented with the presence of such power.
She instead shows her strength and disapproval. Smart or not given the circumstances, is it a relief when compared to her sister’s acceptance of their life styles. Nomi gets away with the book successfully but when it is time for the selection, Nomi is selected instead of her sister. This scene really depicts Serina’s dismay, confusion and almost jealousy. “Nomi, you’re a Grace now” Serene hissed. She doesn’t know what to do since she had trained her whole life to be a Grace, not a handmaiden for her younger sister. Despite this all, Nomi is appalled by this announcement, she never wanted to be a Grace. She didn’t know how to be the ‘perfect’ example of a women, didn’t want to be one, it was her sister’s role. I felt sorry for Nomi when this occurred in the story, all she wanted was her sister’s help but Serina was too busy with her anger she had for her loss, to provide the support Nomi so desperately needed.
The next events are a major changing point in the story line. From the start you assume that, regarding the title, Grace is referring to Serina given her training and aspiration, and Nomi being Fury since she had such opinions and never kept her disgust and anger a secret. However this assumption is questioned when Serina is mistakenly blamed for the crime that Nomi had committed by stealing the book. Serina is then sent to a prison island that holds the criminal women of the land, leaving Nomi alone in a palace where she must fill a role she was never trained to fill.
This event really puts focus on how much the roles are reversed and really caused me to see Serina differently since at the start I preferred Nomi’s fury to Serina’s obliviousness and dismissiveness. However this changed for me since I saw the value in her character when she is faced with all the desperation and hardship of the prison island. Women must fight to the death against other crews (crews being the different groups of women on the island) for basic rations. “What happens if a crew loses the fights time after time?” “They find enough food on their own. Or they starve,” Cliff said with a tone of finality. Since the island had been enveloped in lava years ago there is very little vegetation or life stock therefore they must rely on what is presented to them by the harsh and violent guards. Serina develops a sort of fury of her own once she fully realises how bad things are.
Meanwhile Nomi is learning to survive in a different environment. One that is full of lies, deceiving and cruelty of another kind. She creates an alliance with the heir’s brother, Asa, who makes her believe that he wants the same thing she does. Equality and justice for women. He leads her to believe that his brother made her a Grace as a way of punishment and wants to help her get back to her sister. This all unfolds to be a very impressive web of lies when he reveals that he never had those intentions and kills his father, the Supreme, when Nomi fails to organise to do so. This is all part of his plan to become Supreme himself instead of his brother. “I don’t think… I don’t think we can trust Asa after all.” Nomi’s heart cracked. Asa plans to frame his brother Malachi for his father’s death. Malachi is revealed to be the brother with the good intentions and is badly wounded. Both Nomi and Malachi are put in a prison ship and are sent to the same island that Serina is being kept. I already had the suspicion that Asa had bad intensions and Malachi was the good one, this was based off Asa’s almost ‘too trusting’ front. Malachi never however seemed to possess the traits his brother accused him of.
The story ends with Serina successfully causing a revolution on the island and overthrowing the guard with the help of the imprisoned women. “It is not weak to want to fight back!” Serina shouted. The scene is brutal and gory but it shows the true strength that the women had when they worked together instead of against each other for the guard’s personal entertainment. Since the story also ends with Malachi and Nomi being sent to the same island, Asa not realising that the island has been overthrown, it makes you wonder what kind of alliances will be made and what solutions will arise. I am very excited to see how the sisters will work together in the sequel since they both have gained different skills, Serina’s being physical strength, realization and resilience. Nomi, tactfulness and a sort of cunning intelligence that I found very appealing for that character.
Overall, the story is a magnificent way of portraying the similar issues we are faced with today in the real world, but keeping a sort of hope throughout the plot. I really liked how Serina’s character developed along the way and how Nomi showed off her intelligence in her circumstances. At first I found that Nomi was my favourite character but my opinion changed after I saw how Serina developed, I now find both of their characters to be very credible. My favourite part was probably the part where they were both separated, because it gave them both a chance to show off both of their individual skills and outlooks. My least favourite part would have to be when Nomi fell for Asa’s scheme, I found it very frustrating since I already had a feeling it would end badly. If I had to change anything about the story I would change how almost pathetic in a way Nomi was at the very start, because I knew she had more strength and it wasn’t fully being portrayed when she found she needed her sister so desperately when she was chosen as a Grace. I look forward to seeing what they will accomplish together in the sequel.
