The Grimoire of Grave Fates is a captivating collaboration between Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf, weaving a tale of magic and mystery. This novel follows the journey of eighteen unique heroes, each with their own individual strengths and weaknesses, as they discover the power of self-respect and band together to enact change within their school.

Through the pages of this enchanting book, readers will be transported to a world of wonder and intrigue, where the impossible becomes possible and the unimaginable becomes reality. With its intricate plot and well-developed characters, "The Grimoire of Grave Fates" is a must-read for anyone who loves a good mystery and a touch of magic.

So, if you're looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you feeling inspired, look no further than The Grimoire of Grave Fates. This novel is a true masterpiece and a testament to the power of imagination and the strength of the human spirit.

I appreciated what the authors were doing with this book. Especially with how the world of Harry Potter has really become an unsafe space for the transgender community. I loved that they were trying to make amends with an all inclusive magical school, but I just could not get into this one. The premise was certainly interesting with the different POVs and mixed media format, but for some reason, I just did not connect with the story or any of the characters. I do think a lot of other readers will very much enjoy this one and maybe I’ll pick it up again in the future and feel differently, but for now, it just wasn’t for me.

The Grimoire of Grave Fates is an anthology-style magical murder mystery set at a school for sorcerers, with each chapter written by a different author. I've never read anything like this before!

I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I'm super impressed that they managed to pull this off so well (or at all, honestly). There's also fantastic diversity and some very cool magical elements, especially with certain chapters (thread and sewing magic?!).

On the other hand, through no fault of the individual authors, I found this hard to sink into. Because every chapter introduces us to a new POV character and a new twist on magic and world building, it felt like each chapter was starting the book over and required re-grounding. This affected the pacing of the mystery, too. Additionally, some of the chapters grabbed me much more than others--but because of the throughline of the mystery, I couldn't just skip the pieces I wasn't into as I normally would when reading an anthology. I also found it a touch implausible that every single student hated the murder victim so much and that every single one of them felt like they alone did not belong at the academy.

That said, this is a really cool project and I would recommend reading it to see how it's pulled off!

Book Name: The Grimoire of Grave Fates
Author: Margaret Owen, Hanna Alkaf

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for an ARC of The Grimoire of Grave Fates

Stars: 1.75
Spice NA

Middle-Grade YA Bridge
Standalone
Plot-centric with some pacing issues
Multi-POV
High Fantasy Murder Mystery
Howls Moving Castle But Make it Hogwarts then kill the bigoted professor

- Topics
- LGBTQ Representation
- Racial Representation
- Authority & Corruption
- Proving Yourself
- Karma IE They had it coming
- Tropes
- Forbidden Magic
- Coming of Age
- The Chosen One
- Proving Yourself
- Subverting Stereotypes
- Thoughts.
- The use of an educational “flyer” to world-build in the beginning … brilliant
- Each chapter is told by a different author = Experimental and intriguing.
- Concept > Execution
- So much info-dumping
- Socio-political statements >Commentarty/nuance
- Lack of Nuance
- Statement-making not exploration of themes characters and world-building.
- AMAZING MAGIC SYSTEMS (I want to know more about so many characters) IE SMOKE WITCHES!!!!
- Concept over execution
- For such a Young YA the ultimate concept that the victim had it coming because they were bigoted was very problematic - it lacks nuance and building for a better world. He was a villain don't get me wrong however the rhetoric of they deserve to die constantly being pushed is extremely problematic for young readers. This took the book that ultimately could have been 4 to 1.

I loved how unique this book was. I loved being able to learn about each student and who they are. I was a little disappointed that we didn't circle back to the characters at the end and the ending was a transcript. I would have loved just a little more of each character. This could honestly be a series following each character. Also if I'm correct I'm pretty sure this book is marketed as kids fiction. From my experience working in a book store I think this book fits in a little bit better in the teen fiction category.

First, thank you for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I unfortunately DNF. The different styles from the different authors really threw me for a loop and I just couldn't get into the story. I do think this book is meant for younger readers than me.

Give it a read yourself and see if you like it. I hope you all do enjoy it.

Absolutely loved this book it has everything you are looking for it’s full of adventure, trouble, murder and of course action packed you really do not want to put this down. These students are all different and they work together as they solve the mysterious death at Galileo Academy.
I am amazed at how the 18 different authors were able to put this together in this spectacular magical world. You truly never know people. You will need to read this to find out more - I do not want to give away and more secrets.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves reading about magic and paranormal..

The Grimoire of Grave Fates builds on its incredible premise to showcase the immense talent of its contributors.

This has such a phenomenal premise—a Dark Academia fantasy murder mystery anthology set in a school of magic? Sign me up immediately! I just fell in love with the idea of an interlocking fantasy and murder mystery anthology, making such a unique collection of stories. The way this collection is set out is also really interesting, placing characters against the clock to discover the truth of what happened.

The Galileo Academy is a magical campus that has recently changed its focus to be more inclusive and reflective of its contemporary reality. Septimus Dropwork, a professor and embodiment of many forms of hatred, did not welcome this and when he turns up dead, there are plenty of suspects to follow. That interplay of inclusion, diversity and the respective discussions around it (often nonsensical and bigoted) mixed with the murder mystery thread is endlessly fascinating.

It is also really important to highlight the sheer amount of diversity in this collection. As always, seeing more of this and more normalised representation is incredible. Diversity should be the standard, rather than the exception. Just seeing so much BIPOC, disability, queer, and mental health representation brings light to my heart. The running thread throughout these stories is facing and sometimes overcoming adversity with the hatred and bigotry faced being truly sickening. You get a sense of a rotten heart at the centre of this institution, which is only exposed more as the collection continues.

We get all of these differing voices, all of whom have at least a glimmer of what happened or a seed of a potential motivation. It is also really interesting how the expansive setting of a school celebrating many forms of magic allowed for each writer to put their own stamp on a magic system and sprawling setting. In addition to this, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend time with all of these incredible characters, particularly as they started to interweave. They all really burst off the page and were three-dimensional. The way the authors managed to condense these complex, interesting and sometimes challenging character arcs and twists into such a short form is nothing but commendable.

While all the stories were brilliant, some did shine a little more for me. In particular, 2: A.M.: Wren Willemson by Marieke Nijkamp; 5:00 A.M.: Taya Winter by Darcie Little Badger; 9:00 A.M: Irene Seaver by Kayla Whaley; 5:00 P.M.: Jamie Ellison by Victoria Lee; and 8:00 P.M.: Lupita Augratricis by Natasha Díaz all snuck into my heart and really remained in my head after finishing the book. However, every section had such distinctive character voices and covered a lot of material in a very short space. These are stories that cover a lot of ground, giving you time with their respective protagonist, while also moving the machinations of the over-arching plot along. In that sense, every story is an awe-inspiring piece of art and an intriguing piece of the puzzle. There was no story that did not totally captivate me. I sped through this collection, wanting to race the clock like the characters. The pacing and tension was very high and I just needed to know who and whydunnit.

Spell-binding in every way, The Grimoire of Grave Fates is an anthology like no other!

This was an ambitious project with the 18 characters each getting just one POV chapter, but I think the authors all pulled it off well. It was pretty fun and enjoyed this brief snapshot into all the lives of these students at Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary.

i loved bits and pieces of this but the constant changing writing styles due to the different authors just isn't for me. thanks to the publisher for the arc!

This book was more fantasy than I expected but it was really thrilling from the start. Magic, necromancy, gargoyles, and that's just the beginning. If you like fantasy with mystery, this is a good one.

If you follow my reviews, you’ll notice that there is a pattern. While I would like to pride myself on reading everything and anything, I do have a fascination with the murder mystery genres. An anthology would be right up my alley.

Grimoire of Grave Fates follows the investigation of the murder of Professor Septimius Dropwort, who is clearly hated by just about everyone. Which makes sense because Dropwort is obviously prejudiced. Each chapter is told from a different student’s perspective. Each student is so diverse in their personal ways but connected in one: they are all Chosen Ones.

While this novel is Young Adult, I would caution that there are quite a few content/trigger warnings. Examples are abuse, racism, discrimination, graphic injuries, thievery, premature birth, drugs, mental health disorders, and more. And while I agree that all of these topics SHOULD be talked about openly, I would advise that there are plenty of adults that the young adult feels comfortable talking to.

There are many good things about the book. Each diverse character, their backgrounds, the subtexts of their struggles. I also enjoyed the structure of each chapter being written by a different author and told from a different perspective. I would have liked to know Harry Potter from his classmates’ POV at times. However, 18 different students become a bit much. I wanted to hear more from some students and didn’t understand the point of others. It also led to the pacing being slow for me, because if the students overlapped then I found myself going back through to remember who was who. Maybe if there were half the number of students and each was given two chapters?

Overall, I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars, but found new authors to follow.

The moment I heard about this book I knew I needed to read it. Such a creative approach to writing a mystery and it absolutely pays off. Each chapter features a unique voice and it was so fun to unravel what happened alongside the authors. If you're looking for a book that will entertain you, this is absolutely the book.

I received a free copy of this book; all opinions are my own.

I love the idea of this book so much, and love almost all of the individual stories (I found the chapter about Sydney for some unfathomable reason my brain simply refused to engage, and so I ended up having to skip over the majority of it to continue on). So many of the characters were fascinating for so many reasons, and there is such a beautifully wide range of different types of magic presented that I wish there WAS a series about this school, and these kids. Unfortunately, the disjointed nature of each chapter left me feeling a bit forlorn, as I wanted to know how many of the students' stories continued in the future. The ending, also, felt a little unsatisfying; while it did wrap up the murder mystery, it left me hanging on the things I truly wanted to know more about, like the relationships between the various teens and the school itself. I feel like this book was a tantalizing taste of something deeply appealing, but it stops short of being fulfilling of the desire it creates. Frankly, I would love a series of novels based on these characters and their experiences, written by each of these authors, but I don't know if that will ever be a possibility.

An intriguing and original concept, I loved the way that each author brought a different perspective to The Grimoire of Grave Fates which wove together to create a cohesive whole.

There’s been a murder! The Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a travelling magic school in the most illustrious sense you can imagine. Although in recent years they have attempted to diversify their student body and faculty, some of the staff aren’t happy about it, and the most loathed of them all is Professor Dropwort… who also happens to be the murder victim. How do you solve a murder in a magic school when just about every student had motive to kill the victim? Guess we’re about to find out.

I was continuously amazed as I read the book how each perspective wove together to create a sense of ‘it all coming together’ for the reader when we only got each character’s perspective once. The way that the different sections were brought together was truly impressive, and I loved the way it allowed us to discover so many different clues, characters, and motives in such a small amount of time - something that would have been almost impossible with just one or two main characters considering the breadth and depth of the mystery.

Somehow simultaneously a collection of short stories and also one overarching story, I enjoyed The Grimoire of Grave Fates and would be interested to read other books of the same format in the future.

Honestly, I requested this book before I even knew what it was about. I saw that list of contributors - with some of my favorite auto-buy authors - and knew I had to read it. But then I found out what it was about and I became fully obsessed. The Grimoire of Grave Fates is an ambitious undertaking of character scope, world building, and pacing.

oh my god this book literally took my breath away in the best way possible. I love when authors come together to work on stuff - especially when it's a group of all of my favorites!!

Seeing the mystery story play out with all these different POV"s was so cool too - I found myself wanting more and more of each character as the story went on. I will say I did unfortunately guess the ending but it was still extremely good.

This was such a fun way of telling a story! There were eighteen authors who each wrote a different character and tied in with the overall murder mystery at a magical boarding school. I enjoyed the unique takes each one had and that the characters were all so different. There was ALL the representation, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ and I lived for it.

The little ways each story intertwined with the others were pretty cool and it set up the whole picture of what was happening and how each character played a role. Because there were so many points of view, it did get a bit difficult to remember everyone. I also wish we'd seen some characters again, because their parts felt unfinished.

There were a couple things that didn't get completely resolved at the end and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to assume everything was taken care of off page, but I would have liked to see things tidied up a bit more.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley.

DNF at ~50%
I'm not doing a full review because I didn't read the full book, but basically: I adore Margaret Owen and a couple of the short story authors, but I just could not get into this one and wasn't enjoying it. I might come back to it later, but I'm not feeling it.

These always make me want full fledged stories when I read these things. This one I think would be great for higher grades in middle school or lower grades of high school. This was still pretty interesting to read but it always leaves me wanting more.