I, like many others, have been (im)patiently waiting for a new Gillian Flynn book. And while I still want something new from her, new mysteries from her publishing imprint are the next best thing.

Scorched Grace is a mystery about a string of arsons in New Orleans. Sister Holiday, a queer nun with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood, is the unwitting detective who finds herself caught up in the investigation after witnessing several of the fires.

This book is impossible to put down and I actually ended up switching to the audio version halfway through just so I wouldn’t have to stop reading. Margot Douaihy does a great job of connecting Sister Holiday’s personal past to the crimes of the present which almost makes it feel like you’re reading two expertly interwoven books in one volume.

I believe this is the first book in a planned series and I am totally on board with reading more about Sister Holiday. I can’t wait to see where her story goes!

Scorched Grace is out now. Thanks to Gillian Flynn Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such a fun read! Knocked off 2 stars for 2 main reasons: 1) I didn't appreciate how this book handled SA as both a shock factor and point of transformation (good and evil) for two of the characters and 2) I just don't think hardboiled detective narration is for me, it feels cheesy and melodramatic, like an indie film bro narrating a Tarantino movie.

Absolutely, yes. Everything about this is a big ol' yes for me. I loved the mystery aspect, I loved the main character's complex relationship with the church and her faith, I loved the morally-greyness of it all, and I am so excited for hopefully more books in this universe.

Scorched Grace didn't quite work for me, and I unfortunately only made it about halfway through. The characters were diverse and sometimes humorous, but the plot didn't suck me in.

<i>Scorched Grace</i> was quite an exciting read. A queer nun turns into an amateur detective when arson breaks out. Her relationship with God was quite interesting whenever it turned up. The case makes her look back into her own past all along investigating who set her up.

first of the series, the book sets up a good starting point for Sister Holiday.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley, Zando Projects and Gillian Flynn Books for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Enjoyable, great pacing, exciting settings kept me hooked. Fun novel that will be the perfect to lose yourself in. Thank you Net Galley for ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Such a fun romp of a crime novel! Our main character is a queer, chain-smoking nun who investigates a serial arsonist... What more could you want?
I think the book delivers on the premise's promise of being weird, fun and twisted. Excited for the next book in the series!

Scorched Grace carries a great hook in Sister Holiday. A chain-smoking, swearing, lesbian nun who is looking for a fresh start when a family tragedy strikes, Holiday brings a new vibe to a story mostly set in a Catholic church. It takes most of the book to gather enough information about Holiday and her past to understand early actions, but it was an interesting trip. The mystery itself kept me guessing, and the scenery was well described. The side-characters, however, often felt flat and quickly thrown together. It has a debut feel as you read it, which is nothing against Douaihy. I think future books by this author will be a solid addition to mystery collections that want to spice things up. A fun read, perhaps a beach read, but not entirely memorable.

The best part of this book is the protagonist and narrator, Sister Holiday. Her observations are engaging, as was uncovering her past as a punk rocker lesbian, her family tribulations, and how that led her to becoming a nun. The descriptions and critiques of different types of authorities (from the fire investigator to the police to the Dioceses) were also well done. However, the pacing of the action, especially the overly quick resolution, weakened the novel.

3.5/5 stars

Trigger warnings for: gang rape, homophobia, religious trauma, death, burning alive, arson, cheating, violence, incest, victim blaming and rape.

A book about a queer liberal nun? Yeah, sign me in.

No, but really. Whilst following the "same" formula as any thriller, Scorched Grace is in itself original enough just with the characters that are presented within the book. It was, in fact, what drew me in (plus the fact that Gillian Flynn was mentioned).

Scorched Grace follows a newly appointed nun after witnessing both a fire and the death of one of their Convent staff. Sister Holiday must now prove she isn't guilty, as her past life tends to be stereotyped and thrown in the way of the investigation. At its core, it's supposed to be a thriller, a mystery. However, I would say this book is much more than that.

Growing up both queer and Catholic (and within a Catholic society) is something I had in common with Sister Holiday and thus, it was very easy for me to latch on to some of the things experienced by the sister. One of the things I found incredibly interesting, though, is the supposed identity dichotomy of belonging and never stopping to belong in both queer and religious spaces. It's something that is talked briefly throughout the book through different perspectives, and it's something I would have loved to read more about in detail. However, one of the other main focuses was the crime (which took a great opportunity to delve into this identity conflict). Sadly, while it started off strong, it simmered down after a while. Most of the inner monologue was about "solving the case", whilst this being more of a tell rather than show type of situation, as really, the characters find out almost by mistake. A bit anticlimactic, if you ask me.

Regardless, and as I said, I wasn't here for the crime case (and I think that if you look past that, the book makes "some" good statements/questionings about the current state of all forms of institutions and authorities-Church, police-as well as "some" but not all identities*-queerness, religion, gender) and so it didn't really matter to me whether it was solved in a satisfactory way. In fact, I believe that the resolution and identity of the perpetrator is rather ironic, and it makes a very bold statement. The writing, I might add, was easy to follow but also fabulously done, giving it its own unique atmospheric style.

In short, I believe this book might be your cup of tea if you're in for any of the aspects I mentioned above. If you want to read it because of the mystery case, I would recommend you to read something else. Alas, I very much enjoyed my time with it.

*Biphobia is present within the book

Thank you Zando Projects and Gillian Flynn Books for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback. Recommend for mystery/thriller fans.

I struggled to connect with this story and characters. It's told in my favorite format with dual timelines, which usually really builds the excitement in a story. But unfortunately this one was just not for me.
This cover though - I'll purchase for my bookshelf just for how gorgeous it is!

I adored the protagonist and learning how she found herself as an almost-nun music teacher. However, the plot didn’t come together for me and the relationships between the characters felt fake. I loved the idea of this more than what it ultimately is.

Sister Holiday is a chain-smoking, sex positive, heavily tattooed punk lesbian. She is also, among other things, a nun devoted to her religion and a teacher at the prestigious St. Sebastian's School, an elite Catholic institution in the heart of sultry, vibrant New Orleans.
To her, the school represents a sacred space where she has cultivated community, faith and been offered a chance at redemption from her bleak past. Thus, when a series of violent fires breaks out over campus, causing deaths and terrible damage, Holiday takes it upon herself- because fuck the cops and the govt- to solve the case and protect her home from the whims of the mysterious, sociopathic arsonist.
This was bad in a way that really let me down because come on, a lesbian nun detective? Inspired by Riot Grrrls and queer punk aesthetics?!? I was so ready for this to be amazing but everything about this book was just poorly done.
The writing style was very overtly descriptive 2013 grunge Tumblr: at one point a medic at the scene asks Holiday if her x-ray revealed damage and she thinks in reply "You have no idea how damaged I am" like???
Every character, be it student, family, faculty or the police on the case, is flat. They only have an assigned set of traumas which are frankly written in gratuitous detail. The stakes didn't feel high; I felt nothing for the casualities because they were not even real people to me, just names. (As for the grand reveal, it was so laughingly obvious from page 1 lmao.)
But the biggest weakness of this book is unfortunately Holiday herself, who is no Gillian Flynn heroine (despite the glowing blurb). She is arrogant, pompous and self righteous in the name of being a punk feminist. She physically and verbally assaults a disabled student, passes snide judgements on colleagues and strangers, pries into people's lives and tampers with evidence in the name of playing detective. She sees an interracial couple and immediately assumes the white husband is racist. She calls her bisexual partner confused (oh yeah, there is a cheating bisexual in the book).
Bad book, bad vibes and bad portrayal of punk feminism.

This book was okay, I didn't particularly connect to the main character, and the side characters were very underdeveloped, as someone who has to really be invested in the characters (I don't care if I like or hate them, but I have to feel something) this book fell a bit short for me.

This story was told both from the character's past and present. I personally found these changes to be jarring and difficult to understand at times.

I loved following Sister Holiday, the amateur sleuth. It brought me through the story in a way that was fresh and engaging. Definitely recommend this book!

Scorched Grace is the perfect mix of crime fiction and dark comedy. I just loved Sister Holiday, she is the most unique character I have come across recently and she really was a breath of fresh air - confident, sassy, brash and uncompromising but at the same time troubled, lonely and struggling to deal with her rocky history with both her family and her girlfriend. The mystery/crime kind of faded into the background for me compared to Sister Holiday and her personal storylines but it was still a really enjoyable read.

In Margot Douaihy’s Scorched Grace, Sister Holiday is a tattooed, chain-smoking nun looking to redeem her past. However, when witnesses her school catch fire, she sets out to find the arsonist responsible.

At first glance, the story’s premise sounded amazing and I wanted to love this one so badly. However, what I got instead was poor character writing and an unconvincing crime procedure.

There were so many character motivations to choose from (like the eye for an eye motif was right there!), and the author went instead with the least compelling one. The main character is driven more so by the fact that she likes to amateur sleuth than to get revenge for losing half her vision or out of a desire to protect her students, and it feels so baffling shallow.

I also felt like it was such a missed opportunity for the narrative to not explore the fire’s physical impact on her. Like how does she cope with having reduced peripheral vision and depth perception?

On top of that, Sister Holiday berates and questions a potential suspect right in front of the cops. In cases where it’s a desperate parent trying to find their kidnapped child in a race against time I might understand, but her trying to show off is sheer stupidity. Like, ma'am, are you trying to incriminate yourself? Do you want to get charged with obstruction?

Overall, this book felt like such wasted potential, but, since this is the first in a series, I’m hoping that the writing might improve over time.

Thank you, NetGalley and Gillian Flynn Books, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ｂｏｏｋ ｒｅｖｉｅｗ

𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 by Margot Douaihy
Published: February 21, 2023 by @thegillianflynn
Reviewed by: Mel
Format: eBook ARC

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @thegillianflynn books for gifting me this eBook ARC — it was exciting going on an adventure with Sister Holiday! #scorchedgrace

Sister Holiday isn’t your typical nun and I’m so excited that this is the start of a series — “Hail Mary. Holy Ghost, give me a break, for fuck’s sake.”

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲:
✽ Unique characters
✽ Subtle thriller/mystery/whodunit
✽ Coming-of-age
✽ Chain-smoking, tattooed, guitar-playing, queer liberal nun

𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
Ok, first of all, what a unique freaking character! I loved the dichotomy between Holiday’s life pre-convent and the flashbacks that gave a well-rounded picture of who she is, and the penance that she’s trying to pay now in her new life.

Having grown up in a Catholic household, I don’t think a character like this could exist — but I certainly love the idea of her. No one is perfect, humans are flawed by nature, so seeing this side of someone who is ‘supposed’ to be pious was immensely engaging.

Douaihy’s writing was also incredibly sharp, funny, and extremely vivid. Her descriptions sucked me right into the storyline, and I felt that I had a movie reel playing in my mind of the entire book.

“Playing an electric guitar, isn’t as much about taming an instrument as it is about riding a tsunami. A sonic palette — pushing and pulling. Thrashing power chords. Distortion, dissonance. Kinetic prayer.”

I knocked off one star because it did somewhat feel like the story was a wonderful slow burn (pun intended) but then the resolution happened in what felt like, a few short pages. I’m not sure what would have fixed this, but by the end, it felt a bit rushed.

I absolutely adore Sister Holiday and I can’t wait to see what other antics she gets up to.

Scorched Grace stars a unique protagonist, Sister Holiday, a novitiate nun in the Sisters of the Sublime Blood. She is devoted to her faith, but also covered in tattoos and a proud lesbian. When a spree of arson/ murders begin happening at the Catholic school where Sister Holiday teaches, she decides to use her own sleuthing abilities to solve the case. Especially important since someone seems to be trying to frame her.

I love the amateur sleuth genre, and Sister Holiday definitely stands out as a stellar protagonist. She's a relatable character, with flaws. You really want to see her succeed. A lot of tough subjects get discussed in this novel, both in flashbacks and current events, but they're not overly described. The mystery is engaging, with enough red herrings to keep you guessing. I really enjoyed this one, and an excited to see it hopefully blossom into a series.