Echoes of Grace

by Guadalupe García McCall

Overview

In this triumphant new novel, Pura Belpré Award-winning author Guadalupe García McCall explores sisterhood, family secrets, intergenerational trauma, life, and love in a modern Gothic setting with a magical realist twist.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, Grace struggles to understand the "echoes" she inherited from her mother—visions which often distort her reality. One morning, as her sister, Mercy, rushes off to work, a disturbing echo takes hold of Grace, and within moments, tragedy strikes.

Attending community college for the first time, talking to the boy next door, and working toward her goals all help Grace recover, but her estrangement from Mercy takes a deep toll. And as Grace's echoes bring ghosts and premonitions, they also bring memories of when Grace fled to Mexico to the house of her maternal grandmother—a woman who Grace had been told died long ago. Will piecing together the truth heal Grace and her sister, or will the echoes destroy everything that she holds dear?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643794259
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	635,814
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Guadalupe García McCall is the best-selling author of Summer of the Mariposas and won the Pura Belpré Award for her first novel, Under the Mesquite. She was born in Mexico and moved to Texas as a young girl, keeping close ties with family on both sides of the border. She is a full-time author and abuelita and lives with her husband in South Texas. Find her online at ggmccall.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/18/2022

In this elaborately plotted gothic mystery set in modern-day South Texas, García McCall (All the Stars Denied) expertly weaves together the personal and family history of an 18-year-old with an inherited ability known as echoes—“a kind of woman’s intuition with sights and sounds and smells”—as she pieces together heartbreaking past events in the aftermath of a present-day family tragedy. Three years prior to this story’s present, Grace Torres disappeared for a week, turning up on a church pew in Mexico with no memory of how she got there. Now, following the accidental death of her nephew Alexander, ghosts begin to permeate Grace’s world in ways she can’t predict, and she must fight to understand what the echoes mean before her strained relationship with her older sister Mercy—Alexander’s mother—fractures forever. Employing a carefully guided first-person voice and sensory-rich imagery that centers nature (“The morning light pulses and wavers, making each bristle of dark hair on the caterpillar glint”), García McCall crafts a haunting, intrigue-laden update on the genre that—through critiques of generational trauma cycles wrought through femicide and gender-based violence—demands accountability and action. Protagonists are cued as of Mexican heritage. Ages 14–up. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

* "A nouveau gothic tale with roots as deep as mesquite and a heart as wide as the Texas sky." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "Employing a carefully guided first-person voice and sensory-rich imagery that centers nature...García McCall crafts a haunting, intrigue-laden update on the genre that...demands accountability and action." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"McCall weaves Mexican American and border town culture and lore into a realistic, raw, poignant portrayal of family tragedy, trauma, grief, and the healing power of facing the truth with a loved one at your side." — The Horn Book

"Riveting." — Booklist

"Many readers will recognize the social rhetoric that holds women and girls responsible for the violations enacted on them by others." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Best Books 2022 - Kirkus Reviews
Blue Ribbon List 2023 - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Jean Flynn Award for Best Young Adult Book Winner 2023 - Texas Institute of Letters (TIL)
Spirit of Texas Reading List 2022 - Texas Library Association (TLA)

From the Publisher

★ 2022-03-29
Tragedy and paranormal gifting seem to stalk the Torres family in this gripping paranormal family drama.

In the aftermath of their mother’s murder, sisters Graciela, 18, and Mercedes, 19, have diverged from their once-shared dreams to pursue college and escape their hometown of Eagle Pass, Texas. Mercy has sought the protection and power she finds in relationships with men, while Grace has retreated into a smaller world at home, writing and drawing in her journals and getting lost in her mind, where she grapples with her family inheritance—the uninvited dreamlike echoes that invade her waking consciousness. After the tragic loss of Mercy’s young son, Alexander, the visions intensify, and memories of an earlier tumultuous time spent in Mexico come rushing back. Dark foreboding and deep love mingle, but the mystery of how they are connected to Grace drives the page-turning plot. Rich with symbolism, allusions, and haunted psyches, there is a gothic edge to McCall’s magical realism. Evoking a strong sense of place, the borderlands of the Rio Grande Valley are a character in their own right, and anyone familiar with Mexican folklore will see the echoes of La Llorona’s tale of love and loss. This is a breathtaking story of sisterhood, familia, fighting the demons of generational trauma and femicide, and moving forward with fresh dreams despite the scars.

A nouveau gothic tale with roots as deep as mesquite and a heart as wide as the Texas sky. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews