This book was hyped on Instagram and I fell for it. I personally didn't like it. It fell flat for me. This was a DNF for me.

This is a dark tale of survival and unfairness. When the 16th year of a girl’s life comes along, they’re sent to the wild to purge themselves of ‘magic.’ While they’re out there they have to evade hunters, the elements, and obviously one another. We see women become the wildest versions of themselves and yet we understand their motives and actions. This was truly a great read, very important.

Loved the book! Loved Tierneys character, loved the message and especially loved all the hidden messages. The book hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. I miss a solid dystopian novel and this filled the void!

Teenage girls are left to fend for themselves and told that they have magic they must rid themselves of before rejoining their community and being married off to an eligible bachelor. "The Grace Year" definitely comes off as a female version of "Lord Of The Flies" along with some "Handmaid's Tale" thrown in. As much as I love a good dystopian novel, this one just wasn't really for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of The Grace Year in exchange for an honest review!

Throughout the year, we were promised feminist retellings of works such as The Lord of the Flies. Some readers may have enjoyed those books, however for me, they were complete flops.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett is the book I deserved this entire year & I’m kicking myself for how long it took me to pick up my ARC of it.

The Grace Year has been out since October 8th, 2019, and I urge you all to pick up that unread ARC (because I know a lot of y’all got it when it was a Netgalley READ NOW title). & if you don’t have an ARC, buy a finished copy! It’s 100% worth it.

The Grace Year is a book that I feel confident in recommending to both horror readers and YA readers. It’s not necessarily shelved in the horror genre, however, there are so many elements in this read that absolutely screams horror.

With that being said, yes folks — this is a graphic story & Kim Liggett does not shy away from writing violent scenes. The Grace Year is intense but so extremely well-done. I’ve seen some complaints about pacing issues & how it felt slow. I, on the other hand, was turnin’ pages like it was nobody’s business.

There are twists. There are turns. I don’t think there was one moment in The Grace Year that I actually knew where it was heading. I was in a constant state of suspense.

One of my favorite things about The Grace Year is the romance component. At some point, Tierney falls in love. This is a YA dystopian read, so it’s to be expected. However, Kim Liggett doesn’t care if she rips your heart out & stomps on it & doesn’t even bother to put it back together. Take that as you will, readers.

Another concept that I enjoyed was the sense of sisterhood. Something we have all learned from reading & just real life, in general, is that we gals need to stick together. That’s exactly what the characters in The Grace Year learned. There’s a huge difference between how some of the characters started & where they ended up. I definitely applaud the character development.

If you’re looking for a soft read, this isn’t the book to choose. However, if you’re anything like me — you love getting your emotions completely destroyed. In that case, pick The Grace Year up immediately.

The Grace Year is a brilliant piece of suspense writing. Whilst not quite the feminist piece I was anticipating, the book explores womanhood in a raw and brutal setting.
A wonderful example of a soon to be classic piece of literature.

I finished this novel a few hours ago, and I can’t stop thinking about its characters and their plight. I was instantly hooked into Liggett’s dystopian world and couldn’t wait to see what became of the girls on their mysterious grace year. I was chilled — and at times annoyed — by the antics at the camp, which felt reminiscent of the female-led hysteria in The Crucible. The book then took an interesting turn in the middle that I also really enjoyed, but for very different reasons. And while it worked to display different character motives it felt like this whole section came from a different book, making our MC’s return to camp all the more jarring. After our heroine’s return to the grace year girls we’re treated with twist after twist — some of which were more predictable than others. One (around the 88 percent mark) made me so angry I almost put the book down, but I’m very glad I didn’t because I would have been robbed of the powerhouse scenes Liggett saves for the very end. Scenes that felt so real and emotional that I found myself wiping away tears.

Ultimately I don’t think this is a “feminist masterpiece” like some are dubbing it, but I do think it was an interesting read that’s content will linger long after the final page is turned.

Notes: this is a graphic story that depicts vivid scenes of violence so make sure you’re prepped for that when diving into this novel!

Kim Liggett has proven to be the master of suspense with THe Grace Year. An all consuming novel that will keep you guessing all the way throughout, until the very end.

The Grace Year is a YA dystopian similar to The Hand Maidens Tale as well as the Hunger games as it has been advertised. It’s literally almost and ode to both books.

I usually don’t read dystopian, I never got into the craze. Reading this makes me wish I was into that period when everyone loved reading dystopians. I really enjoyed this book and just couldn’t stop reading.

What I enjoyed most about it is that even for a YA it was hard hitting as well as gritty and dark. It made you almost believe that there wasn’t going to be a “happy ending” a lot of YA’s have. Which in theory is the reason why I gave it 4 stars. I’m sort of tired of the way YA’s are wrapped up nicely in the end. Other than that I really loved everything else about the book. I really enjoyed the sort of magical realism, how it almost made you believe it was a fantasy book.

Definitely recommend if you want a lighter version of the hands-maiden tale.

**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!**
Magical. This book was hard to put down! This may have been one of my best reads of the year. The story is slightly dark but it needed to be in order to tell the story in the way that it did. The story has a mix of anger, frustration, unfairness, harshness, survival skills, and a heaping dose of feminism. It is a smart novel with the world building as it's own character. The book itself was almost an homage to Hunger Games. Girls are banished to an isolated camp during their year sixteen. During that time they are to get rid of these unnatural powers that sixteen year old girls have; not all of the girls make it back. Some of the girls turn on each other and a lot of anger is thrown about. It is very dark and without spoiling anything, it is definitely horrific in parts but a complete page turner at all times.

In a world where girls are told they are too dangerous, too powerful and too magical, men still make all of the decisions. Upon their 16th birthday, the girls are sent away for a year to purify themselves of the essence that controls men. It is a ritual that each woman must perform to make herself ready for marriage. But the Grace Year is not easy fare. Many never return and some come home mangled and disfigured. What happens to the girls during Grace Year? None of the girls know as the women have been sworn to secrecy. Their own Grace Years are never spoken of. What dangers lie ahead? Can the girls survive the elements, the poachers and their most pressing danger . . . themselves?

Can I just say that this was one of my favorite books of the year. I know that it has been compared to The Handmaid's Tale and Lord of the Flies but I found it to be an original compelling story centered on the complexity of female relationships. <b>The Grace Year</b> is feminine magic - extolling the virtues and the strength that comes from empowering others and unity.

<i>Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Kim Liggett for access to this work. Special thanks to Kelsey Castro for sending a hard copy of this wonderful book my way.</i>

A twisty dystopianish view of a society where girls are released to the wild for a year to unleash their wiles where they can't destroy humanity.

This book is so beautiful and gripping! The suspense of being on the edge of my seat reminds me of times long ago where I felt this way. The likes of The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale, very genuine and the ultimate dystopia. The sincerity at analyzing the female prospective drove the narative and let's the reader bond with the character.

Overall, I want to scream from rooftops that everyone should be reading this.

This book was juts not for me. Dystopian reads aren't really my preferred genre but everyone raved about this book so I gave it a shot but I should have trusted my initial judgment. It was very well written but I just didn't get sucked in or find the story compelling. I was also concerned about the underlying anti-female feel and implications of some of the book themes. I *hope* they're cautionary warnings but I just wasn't a fan.

I received this free ebook courtesy of Netgalley however all opinions are my own.

Wow! This book was my first book I got to read from this author and her writing was amazing. I first heard about this book through one of my favorite book tubers. And I was really surpised with the ending and how fast pace it was. It got me out of my reading slump.
I also buddy read this with my bookish friends Mandy. And we both loved it. I also loved the narrator of the audiobook. I actually didn't read this book until December this year. But boy it was such a great novel!(:

Thank you to NetGalley and Kim Liggett for allowing me to read and review The Grace Year. I enjoyed this book.

Admittedly, I don’t read much YA, however after this book I am thinking I should start!

The Grace Year is a compelling dystopian horror/thriller that was The Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies.

At age 16 in Garner County girls are banished to an island on the outskirts because of fears that they have some magic over men that needs to be dispelled. They call this The Grace Year and many won’t survive. It turns out their biggest threat isn’t the elements or starvation or even the Poachers who lurk around the camp, hoping to catch and dismember them to profit from their magic (ears in a jar!!). Their biggest threat is actually each other.
This books is at times violent and disturbing, but the edges are softened as we experience classic teenage drama, forbidden love, and even uncover clues to old myths and murders right along with Tierney, the headstrong main character who challenges the status quo and stands up for the little guy.

If, like me, you loved the heart pounding survival stories of The Hunger Games, the forbidden love in Twilight, and the savagery of Lord of the Flies, you will love The Grace Year.

Best paired with some beans with a few rashers of thick-cut bacon thrown in for flavor.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. I’d heard great things, but I also saw the dreaded (to me) word: dystopian. I got so burnt out of dystopians years ago and have mostly stayed away since then.

I am so glad I read this one anyway.

The Grace Year is a moving, rage-inducing, heartbreaking look at how a society can turn on women. It is beautifully written and keeps you on the edge of your seat - not only wondering what will happen, but what the heck IS currently happening. It focuses on the power that one person has that can change the future, even if it is only a little bit at a time, as well as the importance of trying to make the world a better place for the next generation.

Part Hunger Games, part The Handmaid’s Tale, this feminist novel will have you thinking about it long after you’ve turned the last page.

This is one of the books I had most been anticipating, but unfortunately I was very disappointed. Although the premise sounded original and feminist, in execution, the story followed more or less the exact same treads as The Hunger Games - right down to the quiet teenage protagonist whose father taught her how to survive in the woods and the male best friend who hangs out with her in aforementioned woods - and 90% of the book's feminism was of the "I'm not like other girls because other girls are catty and vapid and frankly quite stupid" variety. Maybe that was radical about twenty or thirty years ago, but I can't stand these depictions of the female condition anymore. Nor can I stand to read any more new versions of Lord of the Flies, which I have never actually read but feel like I have thanks to YA's recent obsession with teenage tribes eating themselves from the inside out. This book's synopsis led me to expect woman-against-patriarchy, and instead we got woman-against-woman-against-woman-against-woman. While the last twenty or so pages make a hasty attempt to redress that balance, it feels like too little too late. It's not enough to make up for the painful majority of the plot and it's too rushed to really make sense as a conclusion or fit the tone of the rest of the book.

Speaking of things that don't fit the rest of the book, I was really not a fan of the romance that came out of nowhere, felt shoehorned in, progressed at a breakneck speed, and made so little sense that I had absolutely no emotional investment in it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this story / book as I’m not a fan of the Dystopian genre. I ended up DNFing.