The Book:
Saving Grace by Debbit Babitt, 2021
The Characters:
Mary Grace, town sheriff
Her daughter Felicity
Saving Grace will be available on March 16, 2021. Many thanks to Scarlet Books for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again.
Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her rural town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance…and another sixth-grader vanishes.
With old prejudices and new secrets spilling out into the open, the modern world soon illuminates the village’s darkest corners. The case becomes even more fraught as a cult of white supremacists brings its gospel of hate to Repentance and violence explodes, claiming more lives. Racing to find the missing girl while fearing for the safety of her own sixth-grade daughter, Mary Grace must confront an unspeakable truth—and face a decision no parent should ever have to make.
The Twist:
Mary Grace wasn’t her mother’s daughter. Her father had had an affair with Althea Vale, who ended up being Mary Grace’s sixth-grade teacher. Her mother was unable to have children. She decided to forgive her husband’s affair and raised his mistress’s child as her own.
Althea had killed the two girls in 1995. Nadia had caught her bringing food to the man who lived in the woods and threatened to tell the town they were sleeping together. Althea and Meurice were actually cousins, unbeknownst to the town. Althea killed Chloe Ann following her fight with Mary Grace in the schoolyard because Althea knew she had the “wicked gene” and was afraid Mary Grace had it too. She killed Chloe Ann so that Mary Grace wouldn’t.
Mary Grace’s daughter Felicity had the wicked gene, though. In the present day, she lured Cherie Leigh to the secret cave and stole her softball MVP trophy. Cherie Leigh threatened to tell the town, so Felicity strangled her and left her body in the river.
Felicity admitted this in pieces to Mary Grace, lying each time about her true involvement. Mary Grace figured out that Cherie Leigh’s death wasn’t an accident. There was an altercation in the woods in which Felicity shot Mary Grace with her own gun. Meurice came to Mary Grace’s rescue and the gun went off again killing Felicity. Mary Grace didn’t tell the rest of the town that Felicity had killed Cherie Leigh, and she didn’t mention Meurice’s involvement in Felicity’s death.
The Ending:
Mary Grace called in an anonymous tip about the location of Cherie Leigh’s body so that her family could get closure. They do not find the murderer. The town assumed it was Lucas Smith, who had shot an unarmed black man who was only a suspect because he was black. Lucas had skipped town to avoid punishment and therefore was blamed.
Mary Grace left Repentance, mourning her daughter but glad Felicity would never kill anyone else.
The Review:
This amazing debut novel by Debbie Babitt blew me away. If you like a good southern-based thriller/drama and coming-of-age story, you are going to love this book.
Saving Grace is a story about finding your identity in a town that wants to put you in your place. It examines whether people can be both good and evil and whether forgiveness is enough to absolve you of your sins.
As promised by Scarlet Books, Mary Grace is one of my favorite protagonists in a long time. While she is no hero, regularly referring to herself as wicked for reasons both real and imagined, Babitt pulls the reader in and arranges them firmly on Mary Grace’s team. Past Mary Grace has some regrets, but present Mary Grace is a strong woman who loves her town and struggles to bring it peace. She isn’t perfect, but that only proves to make her more relatable.
I finished this suspenseful read in just over a day. I was eager to get to the end and learn all of the town’s secrets. The plot was well thought out and I did not guess the ending, which is the mark of a good, unique thriller for me. Many red herrings kept me guessing right to the end.
This book touches on a lot of important social issues: bullying, racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, suicide, and mental health. The town of Repentance is way behind the times, even in the present-day chapters. The commentary on all different kinds of discrimination feels extremely fitting in today’s climate. Unwed female teachers are still referred to by their first names. One man becomes a scapegoat just because he’s different from everyone else in Repentance. His storyline comes to a head in a way that is particularly timely. I appreciated watching Mary Grace go from a kid making racist comments just because she had heard the adults in her life say them, to a woman who can think for herself who regrets the racist child she was.
Though this has nothing to do with the story itself, I was bothered by one aspect of the formatting. Throughout Part 1, the book switches back and forth between “then” and “now” chapters. Mary Grace tells the “then” chapters in first person, and the Now chapters follow her as an adult but told in third person. In Part 2, most chapters remain in the present day, with the exception of Chapter 38. This flashback is italicized and shows Mary Grace as a child told in third person omniscient. Why wasn’t this chapter formatted the same as the rest of the “Then” chapters, with Mary Grace in the first person? The multiple changes in narration and timeline were a little jarring at times.
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