A Mathematical State of Grace is a book which is basically what 16 year old’s dream of about their crushes. We start with Grace, a genius who spends her brain power on being infatuated with Vincente. A boy who pays no attention to her unless he needs help with his homework. This review will contain spoilers, as I’ll be picking out all the problems I encountered.
The entire premise of book 1 is that Grace, after being hit by a cricket ball by Vincent, is knocked unconscious. When she awakes, she’s lost her memory and she also needs to be treated for blood clots in her brain. Then, an apocalyptic style event happens while she’s asleep, leaving only her and Vincente on the earth.
The first problem I found was that Grace is a genius. Yet, she spends the entire book fawning over Vincente. This genius character could have been written so well into an apocalyptic world but she just didn’t meet expectations. Her decisions were often stupid, she had no sense of urgency, and honestly, she was just plain unlikable because of how she acts.
About halfway through the book, Grace spends about 2-3 pages thinking about ‘What if Vincente’s really a vampire?’. This created no bearing on the plot. It made me want to put the book down because I was internally cringing at some of the things she thinks and says.
The second problem was that the relationship was completely problematic. Also, the relationship is the sole focus of the book, not the dystopian aspect that was promised. Grace has been in ‘love’ with Vincente since she first saw him when he joined their school. Insta-love is strike 1. Vincente has never returned any feelings, and uses Grace to help with his homework. Also he knows and jokes with his friends about her being infatuated with him. Strike 2. Now they’re apparently the only two left on earth, Vincente returns Grace’s feelings, although he’s constantly telling himself ‘she’s not his type’. Strike 3.
As much as I disliked Grace, she deserves so much more than Vincente. She’s also (I’m repeating) a genius. She should be smart enough to know better than this. He’s apparently changed due to this apocalypse, but Grace should not just automatically fall into his arms. The whole plot demeans the fact that Grace is supposedly a genius and they’re in a new dsytopian world.
Problem 3, there is no sense of urgency in this book. It is extremely slow paced and the characters don’t even seem to want to look for answers. The chapter lengths differ, although I wouldn’t call 5 paragraphs a chapter… Which made it seem even slower. At one point they decide to go shopping for new clothes. Everyone in the world has apparently disappeared and these two spend a whole day ‘shopping’. Also, it’s not shopping if you’re not paying for anything.
At another point where it’s picked up the pace slightly, something carries Grace off and leaves her in a giant tree. So Grace lives in this tree for a couple of days, while Vincente (the ‘love of her life’) is possibly being tortured or dying. She’s not in any particular rush to get back to him. So much so that when she finally returns to the house she showers and changes her clothes before walking the extra 10 steps to the bedroom he’s in to see if he’s okay. She then, instead of untying him and letting him clean his wounds, sleeps on top of him. Because obviously that’s the priority… right?
This book could have been so good. If anyone has heard of a good book with a genius character who navigates through a apocalyptic dystopian world, I will be happy to read it. But this was not it.
I received A Mathematical State of Grace* by Cathy McGough as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.
I also read about 20% of the second book in the duology to see if it had any answers to the problems of the first. I found that it was literally ‘basically what 16 year old’s dream of about their crushes’ as Grace is still in hospital. She’s dreaming the first book while her blood clots are bursting. At this point I gave up and DNF’d because it’s ridiculous. I learnt at school in English class that ‘and then she woke up and it was all a dram’ was a terrible plot device.
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Good review. Sounds like someone decided they were going to write a dystopian romance and then just chucked in all the elements without coming up with a good plot first.