The State of Grace

Cover for The State of Grace
Grace, who's autistic, navigates her first romantic relationship while trying to cope with her father's absence and her mother's strange behavior.

The State of Grace
US | UK

Sometimes I feel like everyone else was handed a copy of the rules for life and mine got lost.

Grace has Asperger’s and her own way of looking at the world. She’s got a horse and a best friend who understand her, and that’s pretty much all she needs. But when Grace kisses Gabe and things start to change at home, the world doesn’t make much sense to her any more.

Suddenly everything threatens to fall apart, and it’s up to Grace to fix it on her own.

Practical information

Author: Rachael Lucas
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication year: 2017
ISBN: 9781509839568
Age category: young adult
Disability portrayed: autism
Genre: contemporary

Author

Rachael Lucas

Rachael Lucas juggles working as an author, coach and freelance writer with the aid of quite a lot of tea. She and her partner (also a writer) live by the seaside in the North West of England with their six children. She is the author of Wildflower Bay, Coming Up Roses, Sealed With a Kiss, The State of Grace and My Box-Shaped Heart.

I've been asked a number of times how I started to write a character like Grace and the answer is simple: I just thought about myself at fifteen. Back then, long before I had an autism diagnosis, the world was a brilliant, loud, colourful place and everything I experienced seemed to be turned up to full volume. So in another way, the answer is hard: I had to look inside myself and remember just how it felt when life was completely confusing.
(Pan Macmillan, April 2017)