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The Mystery of Grace

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 1,563 ratings · 249 reviews

On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.

Altagracia – her friends call her Grace – has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder, she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it'll never wash out. Gr...more

Hardcover, 269 pages

Published March 17th 2009 by Tor Books

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Dec 23, 2010 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2009, favorites

When Grace and John meet at a bar on Halloween, the attraction between the two is undeniable. Everything is going well, until the morning after Grace mysteriously vanishes from John's apartment after John confesses he feels responsible for the death of his brother.

That's the hook for Charles De Lint's latest fantasy novel, "The Mystery of Grace." The novel is one part love story, one part fantasy story and one part fairy tale.

The romantic coupling of Grace and John has some problems before it....more When Grace and John meet at a bar on Halloween, the attraction between the two is undeniable. Everything is going well, until the morning after Grace mysteriously vanishes from John's apartment after John confesses he feels responsible for the death of his brother.

That's the hook for Charles De Lint's latest fantasy novel, "The Mystery of Grace." The novel is one part love story, one part fantasy story and one part fairy tale.

The romantic coupling of Grace and John has some problems before it. For one thing, they met two weeks two late. And not just in that typical romantic comedy, oh I'm with someone else now two weeks too late. Two weeks too late because Grace was killed in a convience store robbery two weeks before. She's stuck in a limbo world based around several blocks of the town she lived in before her death. She can revisit our world two times a year--Halloween and another day in early May. Grace has just come back when she meets John. The connection between the two is nearly instantaneous and helps propel the story for the rest of the book.

De Lint focuses on each character separately in alternating sections. De Lint goes back, filling in the details of John and Grace before they met and then moving the story forward after they meet and how the two work to overcome the obstacles before them. Along the way, we meet a wide variety of other, fascinating characters including one man on the ghostly side of things who is obsessed with finding out why he and other spirits are trapped in a couple of blocks of the small town. Why haven't they go on to the "other side" or wherever it is that people go after death. Eventually, Grace begins to question things and figures out what is holding her back from crossing to the next stage in her life.

"The Mystery of Grace" has elements of a lot of different types of stories, all woven together around the central characters of Grace and John. The novel is one that is full of magic, heartache and fascinating characters.

One of the best novels I've read all year. (less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Jon added it

Recommended to Jon by: Brooke

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, urban-fantasy, read-in-my-40s, mystery, paranormal-supernatural, moochable, liked-it

4 stars

Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book now resides, safe and secure, at my blog. You can read it by following this link: http://bit.ly/12yFSWe

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Mar 15, 2009 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, fantasy

The Mystery of Grace is a perfect de Lint novel. It has fully fleshed out characters I really cared about, the author's familiar treatment of spirit worlds and the ordinary people who encounter them, and the easy-going voice I've come to love over the years.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who hasn't yet read a de Lint novel. It does differ from his others in that the spirit world in this book is a limbo where people are trapped after they die. There aren't any of his usual fairies o...more

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May 25, 2011 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: meh

**Some mild spoilers ahead**

On the front of this novel, Alice Hoffman is quoted as saying “No one does it better.” That’s not true. A lot of people do it better. Alice Hoffman, for example. Or Robin McKinley. Or Neil Gaiman.

Altagracia "Grace" Quintero is a self-described gearhead covered head to toe in tattoos, and she gets pissed when people judge her for her ink instead of her character. She loves classic hot rods (which she rebuilds), rockabilly and surf guitar, and Ford Motor Company (and s...more **Some mild spoilers ahead**

On the front of this novel, Alice Hoffman is quoted as saying “No one does it better.” That’s not true. A lot of people do it better. Alice Hoffman, for example. Or Robin McKinley. Or Neil Gaiman.

Altagracia "Grace" Quintero is a self-described gearhead covered head to toe in tattoos, and she gets pissed when people judge her for her ink instead of her character. She loves classic hot rods (which she rebuilds), rockabilly and surf guitar, and Ford Motor Company (and she's a bad MoFo with a FoMoCo tattoo running down her leg to prove it). It's not important that you remember any of these things because she'll repeat them, over and over again. Oh, but other than her referring to her grandfather as "abuelo", you will have to remember that she's Mexican-American, which begs the question as to why this was important, unless it's so that de Lint can show off his limited and stereotyped surface knowledge of Mexican culture and the American Southwest. He must have watched a special on the Travel Channel.

Grace has just met the man of her dreams--John. Sure, he's pretty straight-laced and doesn't have any ink, but what he lacks in body art, he more than makes up for in . . . well, I'm not sure. It's just one of those "eyes locked across the crowded room" scenarios that lead to them going to bed together. But here's the problem for Grace: she's dead. Yup, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies, groundhogs are bringing her mail, she has shuffled off this mortal coil. She's only allowed two passes back to the real world each year (Halloween and May's Eve) and, wouldn't you know it?, she doesn't meet her true love until she's all corpsified. Ain’t death a bitch? The rest of the novel is about these existence-crossed lovers trying to figure out how to be together. John, as he waits for the months to pass by, develops a stalkerish interest in—you guessed it—classic hot rods, rockabilly and surf guitar, and FoMoCo. Grace, as she waits, decides to rebuild a car in the afterlife. The afterlife Grace finds herself in isn’t heaven or hell, but seems to be a purgatory where people who die within the area in which Grace lived cross over, along with the building in which they died. So the landscape is constantly shifting, but everything else is pretty much just like life. The dead play cards, read books from the local library, listen to music at the local record shop, and basically wait for their two “get out of jail free” passes back to earth.

So what was my problem with this novel? Oh, there were so many. Weak characterization; long, tedious passages (the afterlife has never been so boring); conversations that offer shortcuts to exposition; and the fact that the last 1/3 seems to belong to a totally different novel. Some plotlines are just dropped altogether (for example, John just disappears off the page part of the way through the book after de Lint has spent so much time developing this relationship upon which the entire plot seems to hinge). This may be my first and last de Lint novel as I have the sneaking suspicion that the best thing about his novels is the cover art.
(less)

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Apr 25, 2009 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 28, 2010 Sandi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, fantasy, ghost-stories, 2010

My favorite TV show when I was a little girl was "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir". I loved the story of a romance between a widow and the ghost who occupies the house she moves into. The Mystery of Grace gave me the same feeling I got from that old TV show. It's beautiful and poignant. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give anything away.

The Mystery of Grace is different from the other Charles de Lint novels I've read. It's much more introspective and romantic. I will warn you that t...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Carolyn Phelps rated it 4 of 5 stars

An unexpectedly fine story. My favorite part comes towards the end of the book: Every time we make something out of nithing, that's an act of magic. I doesn't matter if it's a painting or a garden, or an abuelo telling his grandchildren some tall tale. every time we fix something that's broken, whether it's a car enghine or a broken heart, that an act of magic. And what makes it magic is that we choose to create or help, just as we can choose to harm...If we can only remember what we are and wha...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, paranormal-romance, fantasy

Three and a half stars, rounding up.

Very nicely woven book. I always love de Lint's use of language and description, but he keeps his focus on the plot and character relationship here more than getting lost in the setting. The characters, Grace and John, became very real, and the side characters interesting. One of the most fascinating things about the book was that the setting for the afterlife became more real than the "real world" at times. I enjoyed the process of Grace gradually caring more...more

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Mar 19, 2010 Sarah Sammis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed, challenge, read-in-2010

With my on-going goal to read more Charles de Lint, I chose his newest adult urban fantasy novel, The Mystery of Grace. I'd actually tag it as a contemporary Gothic horror but the two genres share many points in common.

Grace learned from her beloved Abuelo the fine art of restoring classic American cars. She's a fanatic for Fords to the point of having the company logo (along with many others) tattooed to her body. As she lives in a small south west town, she is well known. For those who don't k...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Alison Whittington rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good weekend read. Not as complex or meaty as many of Mr. de Lint's other full-length novels, but entertaining with a unique plot and enough twists to keep things compelling.

Set in the American Southwest, in a world that's an intriguing mix of custom vintage cars, rockabilly music, taquerias and adobe house, The Mystery of Grace has a compelling plot. But that's all I can really say, because I'm not big on spoilers, and to describe the plot at all would be a spoiler. Even the book jacket very...more A good weekend read. Not as complex or meaty as many of Mr. de Lint's other full-length novels, but entertaining with a unique plot and enough twists to keep things compelling.

Set in the American Southwest, in a world that's an intriguing mix of custom vintage cars, rockabilly music, taquerias and adobe house, The Mystery of Grace has a compelling plot. But that's all I can really say, because I'm not big on spoilers, and to describe the plot at all would be a spoiler. Even the book jacket very carefully doesn't give anything away (kudos to whoever wrote that blurb, by the way).

The author, who is a middle-aged Canadian Caucasian man writing with the voice of an American Latina in her early 20s, ought to get some kudos, too, just for attempting to pull that off. And, I think he did a decent job of getting the right words down for the world of old cars - at least, I think he did, since I'm not a mechanic myself - but he broke the spell a little by using the word "washroom" instead of "restroom" or "bathroom" or "lady's room;" "pop" instead of "soda" (I've never heard anyone in the West say "pop" unless they had just moved there from the Midwest); and "after university" instead of "after college" (I have never heard an American in any part of the country say "after university" unless they had just lived in England for a while). These may not seem that important, but they were jarring in context and broke the spell. He obviously put so much work and research into getting the specific words right in this book that the fact that he overlooked the American usage of everyday words somewhat marred the characters' legitimacy. Although, maybe Grace's Abuelo was from Detroit. She never does say, and all things are possible, right?

Other than the language complaint, which probably bothered me more than it should, and the fact that the book wasn't long enough to really, truly develop the secondary characters - usually, that isn't such a big deal, because he develops his characters over many short stories and novels, but for a standalone novel, they were a bit superficial and translucent - I really did love this book.

It's filled with the the dreamy, otherworldly quality that is almost always present in Charles de Lint's stories, which, more than anything else, is what gives his books their magic, and it ended too soon. (less)

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Jul 10, 2009 Betsy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This ghost/romance story was a quick read but not a totally "wow" read for me. While I liked it well enough when I was reading it, looking back to four days ago when I finished it, I really had to think about it for a few minutes, to remember how the book ended. I liked the concept of the dead being able to walk among the living twice a year and that two people who, when they were both alive, would probably not have ended up together, somehow find commonality & a bond that is both spiritual...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Latina hot-rodder Grace intervenes in an attempted robbery in her neighborhood and is shot in the chest, she comes to in her bedroom, dead. It seems she and a a number of other people who died in the neighborhood was "stuck" in a limbo of sorts, but can crossover to the world of living two nights a year. As she comes to terms with being deceased, Grace makes friends and is quick to take advantage of Samhain to slips back through, where, or course, she meets a soulmate. The conflict of this...more

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May 25, 2009 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Rae

Shelves: own, characters_i_love, charles_de_lint, fantasy, fiction, read_in_2009, reviewed, strong_females, paranormal, 5_stars, covers_i_like, titles_i_like, author_canadian, setting_us

Charles de Lint is my favorite author. Period. So I grabbed this without even looking at the bookflap and just plunged in. Do yourself a favor and do the same thing. Without knowing anything about the book, the prologue is one of the best hooks I've read in a long time. But you can't know anything about the story beforehand. But, man, what a hook!

One of the things I love about de Lint is how his characters always have faith in something bigger than themselves, but that faith doesn't necessarily...more Charles de Lint is my favorite author. Period. So I grabbed this without even looking at the bookflap and just plunged in. Do yourself a favor and do the same thing. Without knowing anything about the book, the prologue is one of the best hooks I've read in a long time. But you can't know anything about the story beforehand. But, man, what a hook!

One of the things I love about de Lint is how his characters always have faith in something bigger than themselves, but that faith doesn't necessarily take the form of organized religion. He incorporates the best elements from many different religions and mythologies to build a story that most people can relate to. This book has a great love story, but the point is really to explore faith, grace, and having the courage to let go.

The biggest thing that I love about de Lint is his characters. Within a few pages, his characters feel like old friends. Grace is no exception. Tough, tattoo-covered, hot-rod building Grace is easy to pigeonhole. But there are many surprising sides to her personality, and she quickly became a character I won't forget. But what makes his characters stand out to me are the way they interact with each other and the world. They usually have some of their own serious issues, but they also generally seem to believe that, while they might not be able to single-handedly change the world, they can change their parts of it. They live to try to ease the way for others they encounter. They understand that life is hard enough without people beating each other down. We should build each other up. De Lint got all of that into this book too.

Most of my favorite books by this author are set in the fictional city of Newford, with some recurring characters throughout. I was initially a little disappointed that this wasn't a Newford book, and that I wouldn't get to check in on Jilly and Geordie and friends, but I quickly got over that. This still wasn't my very favorite book of his, but this was definitely one of my favorites.

In all honestly, the story was probably 4 stars. But the ideas behind the book are 5 stars. I love this guy, I loved this book, and I can't recommend either highly enough.(less)

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Apr 17, 2009 Jenne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed

When John meets Grace he knows there is something unusual about her but he is falling in love with her two weeks too late.

Grace is an unusual woman. Not because of the tattoos, or because of her job as at Sanchez Motor work where she restores and customizes old cars. No, Grace is dead. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time - the corner shop when a kid decided to rob it.
But instead of passing on, Grace wakes up in her own apartment in a realm occupied by the dead of her neighbourhood. She...more

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May 04, 2009 Dianna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: charles-de-lint

i love delint, but he is uneven, and he's been particularly uneven for his last couple of novels. i was really thinking that the man had lost his mojo, that having played his fictional city of Newford out, he was kind of over.

in this book, he invents a new city somewhere in the southwest, and at first i had high hopes. and really, it's not bad. but it doesn't reach the magical place that his best books do. it was an odd story sort of about the afterlife and involving a rather unconvincing romanc...more

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May 12, 2009 Hope Baugh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, ghosts, pub-for-adults, read-in-2009, romance

This stand-alone urban fantasy/romance by one of my favorite authors was published for adults but will, I think, appeal to many teen fantasy readers, too, and/or teens interested in questions of faith and what happens after we die. The book opens with a chapter about John and the beautiful, heavily-tattooed woman he picked up at a bar. One minute she is using his bathroom. The next minute she has disappeared. However, the book is more about that woman than about John. Her name is Altagracia, or...more

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Aug 19, 2009 CJ - Secret Charm rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: de Lint fans

Shelves: fantasy, i-see-dead-people, southwestern-fiction, scifi-fantasy-mystery, out-of-the-ordinary, romance, mystery-meets-supernatural, magical-realism, women-detectives

Just a great book. As usual, Charles de Lint's books have a certain quality to them that is both light and solid. The subject matter is can be important and sometimes heavy but the way that he tells a story is nothing short of magical.

This book is not apart of the Newford collection but it does take place in a small town that fuses both Spanish, Native American and Anglo cultures together. The main character is a beautiful, tattooed, mechanic who loves her grandfather and shuts down emotionally...more

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May 18, 2009 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, may-2009

This latest book by Charles De Lint is a departure from his loose series set in the imagined city of Newford with its blurred connections to an other world of fantasy, danger, and delight. The Mystery of Grace is set in the Southwest, and focuses on the impossible love story of Grace, a grease monkey and hot rod car builder and restorer, and John Burns, a rather shy and ordinary guy who uses his artistic skills to assist his best friends in the company they founded. A one-night stand leads to a...more

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Aug 14, 2009 ccqdesigns rated it 4 of 5 stars

Charles de Lint has another great read with this one. Although I am not sure Grace fits into the Urban Fantasy category as much as his other books do. This one is more like The Shack than a fantasy book. Of course, since I am a de Lint fanatic, I may be a bit biased, but this is one great book. Grace is a young latina who specializes in rebuilding muscle cars which she learned from her grandfather. She is covered in tattoos and is very lonely after her grandfather's death. She finally meets the...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

This book is a bit of a change of pace for de Lint. The religious mythology is largely Christian, although there are allusions to Native American beliefs. Grace is a young woman who is shot and finds herself in an afterlife centered on the place where she died. She learns that the dead can return to Earth twice per year, and on her first visit she meets a man whom she falls in love with in the course of an evening, after which she vanishes, leaving both parties wondering whether they will see on...more

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Oct 26, 2009 Donna Jo Atwood rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

(I just wrote a remarkable review of this book and lost it. Come to think of it, that is a perfect description of this book.)
If you like fairy tales set in the real world, this may be your book.
Altagracia (or Grace) has a life customizing hot rods; she has friends, including her personal tattoo-er; she is also a mystery.
I've never been entirely clear on what mystical realism is, but what ever the technical definition is, this book qualifies in my mind. Charles de Lint has a firm grasp on the the...more

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Apr 28, 2013 T. Edmund rated it 2 of 5 stars

Male love interest's one night stand disappears mysteriously. Was she just very stealthy in her walk of shame? was she just a hallucination? No she was Grace, a ghost doomed to only live for two days per year while spending the rest of her time donating her ghostly energy to a shut-in bruja in a nearby penthouse.

The Mystery of Grace did not gel with me on many levels, populated with perfect characters (except of course the baddie) with fake flaws (too many tattoos, oh no) the book lacked any rea...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian

The newest Charles de Lint book is as great a read as his books always are. This, the story of Grace Quintero, a young woman who goes through an amazing experience. Grace was very close to her grandfather, who has recently died. He taught her about cars, and she has become a mechanic, specializing in classic hot rods. Grace has many tattoos, a story of her life and what is important to her. They include the saint that she is named for, Nuestra Senora de Altagracia, her mother, and one honoring t...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Shelton TRL rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Character-driven. Atmospheric, Romantic. Lyrical.

This book is an excellent piece of urban fantasy incorporating both romance and mystery. Grace is a mechanic who dies, ends up in a purgatory-like afterlife centered around her old apartment building, and then meets her true love (who is still living) on one of the two nights a year when she can mingle with the living. Grace now has to determine what traps her in this small afterlife and whether or not she wants to move on.

Recommended for those wh...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Lita Bouquard rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't know where to shelve this. Paranormal, I guess or death . I was disappointed, in this story which the cover art was the most impressive element. de Lint has written a sweet, brief,romance into a book about relationships, religion, faith, and what happens when we die. Grace is tough, brown, and has tats that blanket her body. Of course the book art shows flowy viny tats, which are unlike the character. This is a pet peeve of mine and I supposed authors don't get much say in the art.
Grace...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Barrett Brassfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quite possibly my favorite Charles de Lint novel. I have enjoyed all of his novels that I have read because he combines such interesting elements in his fantastical stories and Jilly will always be my favorite de Lint character but The Mystery of Grace is such a near-perfect little novel and nowhere do I think de Lint as a writer is better than he is here. This is because de Lint can be a little wordy in his descriptions of settings at times and this can occasionally place the character outside...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Kevin Farrell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Typical boy-meets-girl, they-fall-in-love, she-disappears-on-her-way-out-of-the-bathroom, boy-finds-out-she-died-two-weeks-before-they-met. Actually, not so typical and so well told by Charles de Lint. The only other book by de Lint that I have read was Onion Girl. That one was a really good YA novel about ordinary people who had a touch of magic in them. So I was at the library the other day and saw this one on the shelf. I took it home and enjoyed it very much.

Like his other books, de Lint cre...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

While this was not my favorite de Lint novel, I enjoyed The Mystery of Grace. Grace's story has the hallmarks of a de Lint story: a melting pot of mysticism, characters touched by loss and grief, and a kind of gentle hopefulness that few authors are able to conjure. While there is tragedy, there is also faith and joy fellowship. de Lint's writing has always reminded me of the music of James Taylor--mellow, a little wistful, and a pleasant accompaniment to a late summer evening.

Grace and John ar...more

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May 08, 2011 Alex Fayle rated it 4 of 5 stars

While Charles de Lint writes a lot of YA fiction, The Mystery of Grace isn’t one of them. That’s not to say that teens shouldn’t read it, but it deals with themes that aren’t very YA. It starts out with a one night stand and love at first site, spends most of the book exploring death and separation, and meditates on what it means to live a full life.

Despite all that, as a teen, I certainly would have read it and loved it. I believed in the possibility of a love strong enough to surpass death. I...more While Charles de Lint writes a lot of YA fiction, The Mystery of Grace isn’t one of them. That’s not to say that teens shouldn’t read it, but it deals with themes that aren’t very YA. It starts out with a one night stand and love at first site, spends most of the book exploring death and separation, and meditates on what it means to live a full life.

Despite all that, as a teen, I certainly would have read it and loved it. I believed in the possibility of a love strong enough to surpass death. I was certainly morbid enough to revel in the big life-after-death questions and I had VERY strong ideas what it meant to live life fully (unlike now where I think I might have a vague idea).

De Lint does his usual amazing job at creating believable, normal characters who find themselves in very not-normal situations. And as always he mixes first and third person points of view to draw us in and keep us slightly distant from the various characters. For that reason alone I’d recommend the book for anyone – of any age. His storytelling skills are topnotch.

By the way, what does make a book young adult? One rule of thumb is that the characters should be at the most a few years older than the target readers, but again, I remember reading a lot of “adult” fiction as a teen and not feeling like I couldn’t relate. The main character, Grace, could be anywhere from late teens to early forties. I’m sure the book says how old she is somewhere but her exact age doesn’t matter. Her situation is one that a whole range of people can identify with.

Another rule is a coming of age theme. With introspective novels like The Mystery of Grace you could say that they are all coming of age novels if you take coming of age to mean learning to be true to yourself and to act with integrity. That’s a lesson for anyone, not just teens figuring out what it means to be an adult. As I said above, my opinions were much stronger as a teen than they are now and so coming of age stories have a much greater impact on me now than they did when I was younger and less open to new ideas.

I know that books need categories. Without them we wouldn’t be able to find anything in the bookstore or library, but at the same time, categories can sometimes box in a book and lock it away from others who might appreciate it.

So, if you’re a YA reader, break out of your box and give The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint a try.(less)

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Dec 30, 2010 Karissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have read a ton of Charles de Lint books and really loved his Newford books. I was eager to read one of his more recent novels. This book is okay but lacks a lot of the magic of his Newford books and is pretty slow at certain parts. I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was very well done.

Grace is a very tattooed gearhead that enjoys working on cars with her grandfather. When her grandfather dies she recedes some from her friends and by some strange fate ends up getting shot in t...more I have read a ton of Charles de Lint books and really loved his Newford books. I was eager to read one of his more recent novels. This book is okay but lacks a lot of the magic of his Newford books and is pretty slow at certain parts. I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was very well done.

Grace is a very tattooed gearhead that enjoys working on cars with her grandfather. When her grandfather dies she recedes some from her friends and by some strange fate ends up getting shot in the local grocery store. After getting shot she wakes up in her apartment where an old woman is standing over her letting her know she's dead. Grace is in a kind of in between place where the people who die in a six block area surrounding her apartment find themselves, kind of a limbo. They can return to the "real world" twice year. While back in the real world Grace meets someone special, and while yearning to see him again she struggles to solve the mystery of why the souls are trapped in this limbo.

Grace and all of the other characters introduced are likable and believable. They are all kind characters, except for the obvious "bad guy", and all strive to make the most out of their lives in limbo. The idea of having a location have this kind of limbo-world for souls is interesting and creative and de Lint ties it to a lot of mexican/native american mythology.

My biggest problem with this book is the pacing. It takes too long for Grace to get to limbo and once she is there it takes too long before she actually does something. I understand de Lint was trying to give us a sense of boredom that Grace experienced and convey the passage of time, I just wish he would have done it in a way that didn't bore me as a reader.

SPOILER ALERT (although I tried to make it as non-spoiler as I could)
Also there are some things that happen in the plot that seem to happen for basically no reason. For example John, the guy Grace meets has some premonition about not seeing her again. After that he is pretty much cut out of the story. I mean Grace doesn't even mention him a ton after that, which is odd considering her attachment to him. Then when her friend in limbo mentions that a Juan (John) is needed to break the evil spirit you expect John to play into it somehow...only he doesn't. After a while I began to wonder why John's story was even included. Really besides the catalyst it provides to make Grace gain thecourage to fight the evil spirit, he doesn't ultimately play that big of a part in the story.
SPOILER END

At the end of the book you kind of feel let down. There is all this build up and then not much ever happens. The main storyline is resolved, but not in a way that surprises or in a way that is ironic.

Overall, a creative idea but definitely not the most magical of De Lint's works. The pacing is poor and some parts are just plain boring. If you are interested in reading de Lint and are a newcomer to his works I would recommend Moonheart and Spiritwalk (or basically any other book of his) over this book.(less)

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About Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a World Fantasy Award winning author. In 1974 he met MaryAnn Harris, and married her in 1980.

Along with writers like Terri Windling and John Crowley, de Lint popularized in the 1980s the genre of urban fantasy, most notably through the Bordeland series of books. His fantasy fiction is described under the fantasy sub-genres Urban Fantasy, contemporary M...more

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Quotes from The Mystery of Grace

“Most times we only see things for the way we are. But we're good at lying to ourselves. Sometimes we need somebody who's not living in our skin to point out how things really are.” — 5 people liked it

“But if I could just get som ehint, some sign..."
Conchita smiles, without humor, but with great affection. "That's the point behind faith," she says. "It's not something you can prove....I know you hate to hear this, but you either have it, or you don't.” — 1 person liked it

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The Mystery of Grace

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