Grace

Title: Grace

Author: A.M. Shine

Published in: 2026

Date read: Not yet read

Score: /5

Genre:

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
Grace is a modern Gothic folk horror novel from the author of The Watchers. Grounded in traditional Irish mythology and superstition, it trading the dark forests of his previous work for a remote, fog-shrouded island suffocating under a legacy of ancient dread.
The Plot:
The story follows Grace, a young woman who was adopted at four years old and has no memories of her biological family. Her quiet life working as a book dealer is upended by an unexpected phone call from Father Richard O'Malley, a priest on Croaghnakeela, a lonely, isolated island off the west coast of Ireland. He informs her that her birth mother has passed away and left her entire estate to Grace.
Seeking answers about her origins, Grace travels alone to the windswept island. Upon arrival, she finds a insular, dwindling community that has been willfully forgotten by the mainland. The islanders are weathered and intensely secretive, and Grace quickly notices a chilling detail: there hasn't been a child born on Croaghnakeela in thirty years.
The Mystery:
As Grace attempts to uncover the truth of her past, her arrival coincides with a terrifying shift on the island. A long-buried, malevolent force has been disturbed beneath the soil. The mystery unfolds through multiple perspectives, revealing that the islanders have been practicing dark, sacrificial traditions to appease a entity that plagues the shores.
The primary threads of tension involve:
• The Island's Infection: A suffocating, unnatural fog that rolls over the land as a ancient curse begins to reassert itself.
• Father O'Malley's True Role: The local priest who summoned Grace possesses his own hidden motives and a deeper understanding of the island's terrors than he initially lets on.
• The Family Inheritance: The secrets hidden within the walls of her mother's cottage that tie Grace directly to the island's dark history.
The Investigation:
Grace finds herself trapped in a claustrophobic living nightmare where the boundaries of trust completely fail. As the islanders grow desperate to protect their dark secrets and contain the spreading evil, Grace must piece together the fragments of her childhood before the entity hunting the island claims her as well.

Comments:

Books that we've read by A.M. Shine (1):
The Watchers (The Watchers, #1) (2021)