The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Deon, Natashia. Grace: A Novel. Counterpoint, May 16, 2016. Kindle.

“Grace is getting a good thing, even when you don’t deserve it” says Naomi, the young narrator in the novel Grace by Natashia Deon. Naomi, a black slave, tells the story of the South in the time period surrounding the Civil War through her own memories of her life as well as her observation of her daughter, Josey’s life. Naomi was unjustly killed the night Josey was born. Unwilling to leave her daughter alone, Naomi remains on Earth as a spirit who watches over Josey. Naomi discovers the problem with being a spirit is that she cannot intervene when George, a white man, rapes her daughter. In a bittersweet ending, Naomi is able to help save her granddaughter from falling prey to George and assists Josey in getting revenge on the man who so badly abused her.

Naomi is 15 when she kills the owner of the plantation where she lives because he killed her sister’s fiancee and then tried to make her sister have sex with another man. Her sister, Hazel, makes Naomi run away. Hazel hopes that Naomi will make it to freedom in the North but Naomi only makes it as far as Conyers, Georgia. She is injured and taken in by Cynthia, a woman who owns a saloon and brothel.

While working for Cynthia, Naomi is charmed by Jeremy, the white man who plays piano in the bar. She has sex with him and gets pregnant with his baby. Jeremy denies that the baby is his and calls Naomi a whore. Albert, a friend of Naomi, asks Naomi that he be allowed to help care for the baby when it is born.

Meanwhile, Soledad, a woman jealous of Naomi because of her close relationship with Cynthia, kills her husband and blames his death on Naomi. It is for this reason that Naomi is run down by dogs and shot. She is only 17 when she dies.

Bobby Lee, one of the men chasing Naomi, realizes that Naomi’s newborn baby, named Josey, is still alive. Because the girl is light skinned with blonde hair, he takes the baby to a plantation where the mistress there agrees to adopt the child. Later, Josey is sent to live with Albert, who has changed his name to Charles, after the owners of the plantation learn that Josey has black lineage.

The day after Josey’s fourteenth birthday she is raped by George, a man with an affinity for young girls and an addiction to alcohol. Naomi is able to watch the rape but is not able to intervene. She plots her revenge against George but is unable to do anything until the day that George tries to rape Rachel, Josey’s daughter. Naomi gives Josey the strength to fight against George, keep him from hurting Rachel, and to get her revenge on the man who hurt Josey so badly years before.