The Grimoire of Grave Fates

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Author(s)

Publisher

Delacorte Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

12+

Release Date

June 06, 2023

ISBN

978-0593427453

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Crack open your spell book and enter the world of the illustrious Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary. There's been a murder on campus, and it's up to the students of Galileo to solve it. Follow 18 authors and 18 students as they puzzle out the clues and find the guilty party.

Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.

A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcome—but there are some who aren't so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone's least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor's body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy's students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone's a suspect.

Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo's best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort's mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo's halls. But they're about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn't always play by the rules. . . .

Contributors include: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez

Editor reviews

2 reviews

18 students, 18 suspects for murder!

July 29, 2023

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

5.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

What I liked:
The Grimoire of Grave Fates is written by 18 fabulous YA authors, which makes for a unique way to write a murder mystery. I can say that I could tell we had different authors writing, but it flowed so well as a murder mystery. The 18 students are a mixed group of gender and sexuality identities, religious and cultural identities, and magical cultures. I got just enough of each character to want more, and the "19th" character of the gargoyles wove like a thread throughout. The uniqueness of a magical school that travels was what sold it to me. I read many books about magical schools, but the appeal of it being a traveling school was unique.
Final Verdict:
While we have a large cast of characters to pull from who killed the professor and why it wasn't hard to keep track of them as they are a unique cast, each writer brought their voice to the book while still connecting to the characters the other authors created. Each student had their talents, insecurities, and viewpoints. The cool thing about the Galileo Academy is that it enrolls students worldwide, so we get to hear from people of different races, sexual orientations, socioeconomic classes, and cultures. I loved that each author could share something of themselves through their character chapter, and I kept guessing till the end who the culprit was and why. A unique addition to the Ya mystery genre, and I would love to read another story like this one.

Jan Farnworth, Staff Reviewer Top 50 Reviewer 266 reviews

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Murderously Perfect!

July 08, 2023

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

5.0

Writing Style

3.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

This was the perfect book to follow Margaret Owen's Painted Devils, because it was just more Margaret Owen!

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf is a YA fantasy murder mystery anthology that consists of many authors but one interconnected story. Including the likes of: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez. Each story gave their designated character a unique voice, and a new opportunity to add a special flair to a familiar story.

I loved how this book was both a series of stories, and one consecutive tale. As it allowed multiple authors to each shine in their own brilliance. I especially liked the one from Margaret Owen, but that's because she's become one of my favorite authors.

Though, some of the stories were a bit lackluster. But that's to be expected, as it is a bit hard to read multiple authors back to back and not compare. Regardless, I now have a master list of authors I need to check out.

If you're in need of something spooky and is a fun murder mystery give this one a try!