NetGalley Review: The Grimoire of Grave Fates created by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen

Hey all, Sam here.

I have almost completed my first full week at my new job…and so far, so good. I’m starting to get a little more hands-on with the job duties and I’m starting to figure out the nuances of all the responsibilities my position has. Actually, after today I’ll be enjoying my “weekend” as I am off work for Sunday and Monday, and I’m hoping to do some reading, some writing, and some blog prep…maybe I’ll have the TV on in the background too. I don’t know.

Okay, so today’s post is going to be a little bit different from my usual review post. I don’t often read/review anthologies here on the blog, so here’s how it is going to break down. For the rating, I will give my overall rating for the anthology as a whole…and then I will give ratings chapter by chapter or story by story. It should be noted that in the case of this particular collection, my overall rating is not an average of all the individual ratings, but is instead how I feel looking back on the full-picture vibe and arc of the whole thing.

This was definitely a unique book, and I’m excited to talk a little bit more about it, so let’s get started.

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

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

2:00 A.M. Wren Willemson, 16, Swords by Marieke Nijkamp — 4.5 stars

3:00 A.M. Diego Sakay, 17, Coins by Randy Ribay — 4 stars

4:00 A.M. Jameson “JB” Brig, 15, Coins by Kwame Mbalia — 4 stars

5:00 A.M. Taya Winter, 16, Swords & Wands by Darcie Little Badger — 4.5 stars

6:00 A.M. Keturah Austin, 18, Wands & Swords by Cam Montgomery — 4 stars

7:00 A.M. Bhavna Joshl, 15, Swords by Preeti Chhibber — 4.5 stars

8:00 A.M. Jia Park, 15, Undecided by Kat Cho — 5 stars

9:00 A.M. Irene Seaver, 16, Cups/Coins by Kayla Whaley — 4.5 stars

10:00-ish A.M. (or earlier? Maybe later), Sydney Meeks, 16, It’s Complicated by L.L. McKinney — 5 stars

12:00 P.M. Mariam Abidin, 16, Wands by Hafsah Faizal — 4.5 stars

1:00 P.M. Xander Wilson, 15, Undecided by Julian Winters — 4 stars

2:00 P.M. Nadiya Nur, 15, Wands/Arcana by Karuna Riazi — 4.5 stars

3:00 P.M. Delores “Lola” Cortez, 16, Coins by Tehlor Kay Mejia — 4.5 stars

4:00 P.M. Maxwell Aster, 16, Cups by Mason Deaver — 4.5 stars

5:00 P.M. Jamie Ellison, 17, Swords by Victoria Lee — 5 stars

6:00 P.M. Delfina Moore, 16, Cups/Swords by Yamile Saied Méndez — 4.5 stars

7:00 P.M. Ivy Barta, 16, Coins by Jessica Lewis — 5 stars

8:00 P.M. Lupita Augratricis, 16, Coins by Natasha Díaz — 5 stars

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Okay, so there are 18 stories in this collection, and the overall concept of this anthology is basically a murder-mystery in a diverse school for magic. Each of the students, the main characters, in each respective story either thinks they are the Chosen One, the person destined to solve this mystery, and they act accordingly. In reality, for the most part, each of them either knows or discovers a piece of the puzzle, and it takes reading through every bit of story to put the pieces together and solve the mystery of who has killed Professor Dropwort.

In between each of the stories is a brief interlude that includes things like text conversations or an announcement transcript or the notation of an item collected that might be a clue. Honestly these little interludes helped to tie the stories together even more.

I was just riveted by the overall story, and with each character it was like another small piece of the world and the school and the ideas of how magic works and is handled was revealed. There was so much going on, and I was utterly fascinated.

Some of these authors were familiar to me, but many were new to me–or were at least authors I’ve been wanting to read but just haven’t gotten around to yet, and this story collection might just have inspired me to pick them up sooner rather than later.

These stories explore so many different walks of life and cultures and magical heritages. It was just beautiful. But it is clear that even though this magic school desires to be open and accepting to all, that doesn’t mean that it is fully true. There are still folks stuck in their ways, the “old ways,” the ways of the “good ole’ days,” and it adds tension and conflict and drama to these stories.

There were so many of these characters, these students, who would have been glad to see Professor Dropwort dead, because he was such a dick, but the way the stories wove together just left you guessing for quite a while on who knew what, who did what, and who ultimately killed the teacher.

Obviously I don’t want to say too much, because I don’t want to get into spoiler territory…but if I’m being completely honest, I would totally read a series of books (maybe told from various student perspectives, a different book per student per term or city or something) set either at Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary or following the students both in the school proper and also on field trips to the various locations the traveling school docks at for periods of time. I think there could be so much more to tell when it comes to this school, these students, their lives and drama and magic systems and magic learning.

The Grimoire of Grave Fates is definitely one of my favorite books of 2023 so far, and I highly highly recommend it. Also, it is Pride Month and so many of these characters exist across the LGBTQIAP+ spectrum, and it was beautifully fantastic. There is a place for you at this magic school. Come experience it for yourself.

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Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.