Lots to Say

Posted by: Redhead on: September 6, 2022

In: Benjanun Sriduangkaew | Devi Lacroix | Maria Ying
3 Comments

Not sure I’m ready to “come back” to blogging, but I have a lot in my head about this book, and I wanna get all the words outta my head, ok?

I also need Netflix or HBO to make a TV show of The Grace of Sorcerers. Because reasons.

Non-spoilery stuff:

the Hua’s are purveyors of the impossible. No other family of warlocks and sorcerers are willing to take the risks the Hua’s are willing to take. How else to touch the impossible, but by doing that which no one else has every tried? From mother to daughter the arcane knowledge of sorcery is passed down. The Hua children need no outside tutors, who could possibly know more than their mother?

As purveyors of the impossible, it makes sense that the Hua women will be drawn towards that which can destroy them. This event is so common that there is a prophecy that promises it. Children laugh at prophecies, saying “that’s silly. That will never happen to me, I’m smarter than that”. Their mother’s too, once believed the same thing.

The Grace of Sorcerers by Maria Ying is a story about what we do for love. It’s a story about secrets, and promises, and that we can change without dying. Also? Hot as fuck.

Obligatory BLUNT and I AM NOT KIDDING adult content warning: if you don’t enjoy intensely hot lesbian sex scenes that were written by women, for women, thank you for playing please exit stage left, this is not the story for you. For those of you still here, this book gonna spoil you. You a can thank me later. If even one person asks me if this would be a good book for their 14 year old who is an advanced reader, you know what? Yes, I do in fact recommend this book for your teenager.

The secret to making me love your story is to tell me just less than I want to know. As the writer, you of course are welcome to know all that stuff. But don’t tell me all those details, keep me wanting, keep me looking for everything. Make me want it so bad I start making up my own stories. Maria Ying pulls that stunt not with world building, or magic systems, but with characters. These are people I want to follow around, I want to sneak into their houses and see what books they’re reading. I hate people, and I want to actually be social with these people. I want to be Dallas when I grow up.

I was not expecting the back-to-back-to-back kicks in the feels at the end of this book. I can’t wait to read it again and rip my heart into a million pieces all over again. The entire book pushed all my buttons, so I should have seen some of the kicks in the feels coming? You know, I did see one bit of it coming, but I was in denial because I didn’t want that to happen.

Spoilery stuff:

In the spirit of Choose Your Own Adventure and No One Needs a 3500 Word Blog Post, you are invited to read the following word soups in any order you please. This is how my brain works. There are spoilers. Have fun.

Click here to read about my obsession with Dallas.

Click here for a whole buncha obsessive word soup about Yves, true names, secrets, and the nature of time.

Click here to read about me fawning over with Elizaveta and Fahriye. I love them so much!

Click here for all the spoilers about Olesya

Click here to read all about how I got kicked in the feels by Dallas and Viveca, and the power of myth, grief-madness, and our inability to let go.

Who the heck is Maria Ying? Not only is she a character in The Grace of Sorcerers, she is the joint pseudonym of Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Devi Lacroix. This is my first time reading something from Devi. This is not the first time I’ve described Benjanun’s work as decadent, or been spoiled by the sex scenes she writes.

It would be a crime not to mention that last scene. You know the one I mean. How any other sex scene in any other book is supposed to live up to this, I have no idea.

I have high expectations of the fanfics that will be born out of that scene.