This I Know

July 2, 2018
In this ominous, morally charged novel from Edwards (Lost in Transplantation), a girl must choose between abiding by her strict father’s expectations or embracing her gift of premonition. Grace Carter is a free-spirited 11-year-old with a big heart who feels at odds with her evangelical father and his restrictive rules. Their main point of contention is Grace’s power, “the Knowing,” which allows her to read minds and receive premonitions about, among other things, accidents that are soon to occur. When Grace’s mother falls into extreme postpartum depression after the near-death of her newborn daughter, Grace struggles to decide between using her gift to inform her family of a future tragedy and seeking the approval of her father, who believes the Knowing to be the work of the devil. The story is driven by the charged family dynamics and Grace’s charming voice, so much so that Grace’s premonitions, despite their centrality to the plot, feel like a distraction; the novel is most enchanting when Grace’s power is not the central focus, and the subtle tensions between family members are foregrounded. Edwards’s moving portrait of a family at a crossroads is obscured and undermined by its supernatural elements.