This was billed to me as The Handmaid's Tale mixed with Lord of the Flies, which sounded promising. It didn't live up to that pairing for me in the end. The writing has some interesting stylistic choices with ellipses abounding and over-the-top language, and I rolled my eyes more than once. I tried to give this some slack because our heroine is 16, so it's good that she feels 16 in a very protected and claustrophobic society, but ultimately, I just couldn't get beyond the character flipping from her.

<b>This just in: a good concept alone does not make a good book. Execution matters, and in this regard, <i>The Grace Year</i> fell flat.</b> When I first heard about this book, pitched as <i>Handmaid's Tale</i> meets <i>Lord of the Flies</i>, I was pretty damn excited. And when I got approved for it on NetGalley, I was absolutely thrilled. The start of the book had me enthralled. And then...it all fell apart.

The premise of this book is pretty simple. In some messed-up society, the patriarchy is oppressive. Wives are chosen during a formal ceremony in which they have no say, all punishments are physical and public, and the body parts of dead girls are sold secretly for their alleged magical/medicinal properties. Women are told that they have dangerous magic that they develop in their teens, and that they need to get rid of that magic before they can marry their husbands. Thus, every year, after some of them are chosen by their future husbands, all the sixteen-year-old girls are taken to a remote island camp where they are left to their own devices for a full year, known as their Grace Year, allegedly to burn through all their "magic" so they can return "purified." When Tierney leaves with her Grace Year's cohort, she realizes what savagery the island brings out in the girls, and she begins to seriously question everything about her society's priorities and beliefs.

At first glance, that's such a good concept, right? The first quarter of this book fell right into that storyline, and it was stellar. There were deaths. There was blood and backstabbing. There were high stakes and divisions quickly drawn between cliques of girls. It was gritty and beautiful in its brutality.

And at the start, I loved the protagonist. Tierney is a rebellious girl with exactly zero desire to get married. While other 30-ish girls in her year vie for the hands of just twelve eligible bachelors, she spends her time with her best friend Michael--who she knows will be engaged to the beautiful and popular Kiersten because of how powerful his family is--running about, climbing trees, and generally refusing to be a nice young lady. When she and the girls arrive on the island for their Grace Year, as the others devolve into chaos and drama, she throws her survival skills into action, building rain barrels and calculating ways to ration food. She reminded me a bit of Katniss from <i>The Hunger Games</i>, only instead of trying to feed her family, she is trying to maintain a sense of independence and self in a community that wants her to become a submissive nobody. <b>She was the sort of kickass girl I wanted to root for</b>, whip-smart and acting from logic, not emotions. A bit of an outsider, sometimes a loner, but not without her charm, and certainly full of kindness and sympathy when needed.

But, after a little time on the island, things change. Without spoiling too much, suffice to say a new character shows up, and with the arrival of this character, the plot swiftly falls apart. The ordinarily fierce Tierney suddenly ends up pulling a significant insta-love move on someone she thoroughly hated until that person's motives proved kind. <b>I can't stand insta-love as it is, but it is a thousand times worse when it comes from a character who always seemed so strong and reasonable</b>, and when that character has another, far more compatible love interest as well. And as a whole, the story becomes less about female empowerment and more about choosing your breed of domesticity, if that makes sense. It rubbed me the wrong way.

I will say, the book does a nice job of resolving the sort-of love triangle, without feeling too much like a cop-out. YA novels so frequently have unhealthy or disappointing depictions of love, but <b>by the end, <i>The Grace Year</i> does manage to take a more nuanced feminist stance on all forms of love that is good for all parties involved.</b>

One of my biggest annoyances was that, <b>although the society depicted was fascinating, it didn't feel fully realized.</b> There was never really an explanation given for how things got to be the way they were. Because the town was very low-tech--no cars or TVs or even electricity that I can recall--it was hard to tell whether this was meant to be a dystopia, an isolated present-day village, something in the past, or something in a different world altogether. There is only one brief part that discusses the world beyond their society, and it is in minimal detail, so you can't even tell what relationship they have with the outside world. Did they retreat from society? Do others respect them? Avoid them? Do the same thing as them? There was so much potential to build this world up, flesh it out, but instead the story let itself exist in a vacuum, which somewhat deadened the punch it could have packed.

A brief formatting note: for those of you who like your reading to be broken nicely into chapters, this one will be challenging. The book is divided into just five parts, each one shorter than the one before: one for each season of the Grace Year, and one for what happens when the girls return home at the year's conclusion. While there are some spaces for whenever the story shifts in time or topic, <b>there are not formal chapter designations beyond the aforementioned five</b>. I guess it makes this a good binge read? But it also makes it hard to find a good stopping point when needed.

Speaking of those seasons, I have to say, the pacing in the book was weird. There were parts that felt way too long (including a lot with that aforementioned character who derails the plot), and there were others that I desperately wanted to see more of (like the politics of the girls in the camp, especially near the end of the year). Sometimes it felt very character-driven, and I loved the dynamics between all the girls, especially the clashes between Tierney and Kiersten, and the female friendships with side characters like Gertie. Others, it felt like the author realized the story wasn't going anywhere, so she suddenly threw in a bunch of twists and betrayals and complications. Both pieces were good on their own, but they didn't integrate very well with each other.

Finally, again not wanting to give much away: <b>the ending felt too easy.</b> Suddenly, you get to the last section and everything ties up with a neat little bow. All the mysteries are solved. People start to do some specific good things that you've spent the whole book waiting for them to do. It isn't a happily-ever-after, but after the brutality of the early chapters, the end is a little too simple and a little too...smooth. It wasn't bad. It was just weird.

Final random notes:
- There was a hint of <b>casual LGBTQ+ rep from a side character</b>, which made me happy and definitely helped the book feel a bit more realistic.
- I got a bit annoyed...at times...just how frequently Tierney's thoughts...had ellipses. Sometimes...I...understood why it was done stylistically...but others...it was not as good. And then the rambling would be interspersed with pity, profound statements that I'm sure will be all over every review of this book. Some were pretty good, like this one:
<i>"That's the problem with letting the light in--after it's been taken away from you, it feels even darker than it was before."</i>

Others, like this, just made me wince:
<i>"They can call it magic. I can call it madness. But one thing is certain. There is no grace here."</i>

Basically, this whole novel is the literary equivalent of someone taking a great cake recipe, then throwing in a bunch of other ingredients, swapping almond flour for the real stuff, throwing raisins in where they don't belong, and not mixing it evenly. I try it because it sounds good, but it isn't as good as I had hoped, and I leave with a bad taste in my mouth. I have no idea where that metaphor came from, but it feels right.

<i>Thank you to St. Martin's for providing me with an eARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

THE GRACE YEAR (comes out October 8) is an ambitious YA thriller about a strange world which punishes girls when they turn 16 by sending to a hunger games-like year long survival game in the woods. There are tons of moving elements in the story - feminism, magic, sex, ethics, coming of age. It’s a lot to all fit in, but it works as a whole by the end. The plot moves, except for some slow parts when the main character is alone, and can often be shocking and surprising.

The movie, which has already been optioned and is in development, is gonna be great and I can’t wait to see how they pull it off. I can see with some trimming down it will be a really good script. A solid four stars from me!

Rare is the book that actually merits a comparison to THE HANDMAID’S TALE.

** Trigger warning for misogyny, homophobia, violence – including rape – and suicide. **

“In the county, everything they take away from us is a tiny death. But not here . . .” She spreads her arms out, taking in a deep breath. “The grace year is ours. This is the one place we can be free. There’s no more tempering our feelings, no more swallowing our pride. Here we can be whatever we want. And if we let it all out,” she says, her eyes welling up, her features softening, “we won’t have to feel those things anymore. We won’t have to feel at all.”

###

“In the county, there’s nothing more dangerous than a woman who speaks her mind. That’s what happened to Eve, you know, why we were cast out from heaven. We’re dangerous creatures. Full of devil charms. If given the opportunity, we will use our magic to lure men to sin, to evil, to destruction.” My eyes are getting heavy, too heavy to roll in a dramatic fashion. “That’s why they send us here.”

“To rid yourself of your magic,” he says.

“No,” I whisper as I drift off to sleep. “To break us.”

###

I’ve started and stopped, cut and pasted this review so many times over the last few weeks that I’ve lost count. The truth is that THE GRACE YEAR left me speechless and, as with all of my favorite books, I’m afraid that nothing I might write will do it justice. This is the kind of book that merits a twenty-page thesis, not a 500-word review. (Though, let’s be honest, precious few of my reviews clock in at less than 1,000 words.)

You can gather the basics from the synopsis. Our protagonist, sixteen-year-old Tierney James, lives in a culture that hates and fears women. It’s believed that young women possess a powerful, dark magic; paradoxically, they’re also considered men’s inferiors. For the good of society, young women are banished from Garner County for the entirety of their sixteenth year.

The goal during the “Grace Year” is twofold: to purge the magic from their bodies so that they can return home pure and ready to be married – and to return home, period. Their wild and wicked magic; the harsh wilderness; and the poachers who aim to kill them and sell their bewitched body parts on the black market: all stand between the girls and survival.

THE GRACE YEAR follows Tierney and her cohorts as they claw, fight, manipulate, and straight up slay their way through 365 days of exile. Along the way, Tierney calls on her specialized knowledge – her dad is a doctor who always wanted a son, and thus “spoiled” his middle daughter by teaching her useful life skills – to try and change the system from the inside. She dreams of a young woman who carries within her the spark of revolution. She can only hope that her visions are more prophecy, less the random firing of neurons.

The story is told in four main parts, each corresponding to one season in Tierney’s Grace Year: autumn, winter, spring, and summer. There aren’t chapters to divvy things up further (at least there wasn’t in the ARC), which makes each section feel L-O-N-G (in a good way!). Whereas some reviewers complained about this format, I loved it: it gives the readers a sense of the slow passage of time as the Grace Year girls experience it, the weight of days differentiated from one another only by violence and death.

Usually I scoff when books are blurbed as “THE HANDMAID’S TALE meets XYZ,” but I think the comparison is more than warranted here: THE GRACE YEAR is THE HANDMAID’S TALE meets LORD OF THE FLIES, with a dash of THE HUNGER GAMES meets BRIDEZILLAS for extra-crunchy complexity. There’s so much to unpack and dissect here.

In THE GRACE YEAR, Kim Liggett has created a semi-fictional world that could exist at (nearly) any time or place in history. The lack of modern technology – there are references to lithographs and gas lamps, and a distinct absence of electronics – hints at the past. Perhaps Garner County is an isolated community in 1800s America? Yet, without a detailed backstory of how Tierney’s community came to be, she and her ilk could just as easily live in some future dystopia, a society rebuilt from the ashes of a pandemic or world war. Or they could inhabit another ‘verse altogether. I love that the setting is open to interpretation, because it prevents us from dismissing Garner County as something from our past: a result of primitive and outdated beliefs that we have since moved beyond.

News flash: misogyny and homophobia (and racism, classism, ableism, etc.) are still alive and well. Just read the darn news, mkay.

Again just from the synopsis, it’s glaringly obvious that Tierney’s is a strictly religious and patriarchal society marked by rigid gender roles…but this summary hardly does it justice. Think: the fictional Gilead in THE HANDMAID’S TALE. Or WOMEN TALKING, inspired by the very real mass rapes that took place in Manitoba County, a Bolivian Mennonite settlement.

In Garner County, women face myriad restrictions, including but not limited to the following:

– Women are branded with their father’s sigil at birth. They are quite literally owned by their fathers, until the time they are bartered and traded to would-be husbands. Needless to say, they have no say in who they marry.

– Young women who go unclaimed have three options open to them: they can become maids, field laborers, or prostitutes in the outskirts.

– Married women are required to perform their “wifely duties”: “Legs spread, arms flat, eyes to God.” In other words, wives are raped on the regular.

– Though it’s not stated outright, it’s safe to assume that birth control and contraception are outlawed, at least for married women. (Married) women are not allowed to determine how many children they bear, if any.

– It’s considered blasphemous to pray for a baby girl (because we’re worthless, see?).
– Women are only schooled until the age of ten.

– “All the women in Garner County have to wear their hair the same way, pulled back from the face, plaited down the back. In doing so, the men believe, the women won’t be able to hide anything from them—a snide expression, a wandering eye, or a flash of magic. White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives. Innocence. Blood. Death.”

– “We’re forbidden from cutting our own hair, but if a husband sees fit, he can punish his wife by cutting off her braid.”

– “We’re not allowed to pray in silence, for fear that we’ll use it to hide our magic.”

– “The women of the county aren’t allowed to hum—the men think it’s a way we can hide magic spells.”

– Adult women cannot wear hoods or other protection against the elements: “After their grace year, their faces needed to be free and clear to make sure they weren’t hiding their magic. The wives scarcely went outdoors during those months.”

– “In the county, bathing with flowers is a sin, a perversion, punishable by whip.”

– “The women aren’t allowed to own pets in the county. We are the pets.”

– “The women aren’t allowed to congregate outside of sanctioned holidays.”

– If a girl does not return from the Grace year – either alive or in bottles – her female family members will be punished by banishment.

Some of these rules are universal to what you’d expect to see in a religious patriarchy: anything to keep women voiceless, segregated, and compliant. In a word, powerless. Others feel like loving throwbacks to THE HANDMAID’S TALE: for example, the scene where Tierney defiantly bathes with a flower brings to mind Offred, secreting away a pat of butter to moisturize her dry and purely functional (to Gilead) body.

One detail that jumps out at me is how the girls and women are pitted against each other, so that they exist in a perpetual state of competition rather than cooperation. Similar to what you’d see in FLDS communities, there’s a sizable gender imbalance in Garner County; created not by casting young men out, as is the polygamous Mormon way, but by drafting lower-class men as Guards, denying them wives, and then castrating them to prevent unauthorized pregnancies. (This is one obvious deviation from THE HANDMAID’S TALE, where lower-class men like Nick are at least allowed the hope that they may one day merit a Wife.)

Thus, there are more eligible wives than husbands – and as the position of wife is the “best” a young woman of Garner County can hope for (the gilded cage), women are pitted against each other. As if this isn’t offensive enough, the veil ceremony takes place immediately before the potential brides leave for their Grace Year. Picture it: you’re a scared sixteen-year-old girl who was just sentenced to a life of hard field labor; the only thing standing between an early, sun-baked death and a relatively cushy life as a wife and mother is a scrap of fabric. You’re alone and unsupervised, for the first time in your life; your body coursing with magic. What now?

Garner County has effectively incentivized murder – hence THE HUNGER GAMES meets BRIDEZILLAS. Not that state-sanctioned murder should come as a surprise: the death penalty is alive and well. See also: the poachers. In truth, not all of the Grace Year girls are meant to return home: not when they are sent into the wilderness with inadequate housing and provisions, and certainly not when they state sanctions poaching. Women are nothing if not expendable.

Magic is also a common theme but, as Tierney so astutely observes, men only seem to discover evidence of magic when it is convenient for them: “Like when Mrs. Pinter’s husband died, Mr. Coffey suddenly accused his wife of twenty-five years of secretly harboring her magic and levitating in her sleep. Mrs. Coffey was as meek and mild as they come—hardly the levitating sort—but she was cast out. No questions asked. And surprise, surprise, Mr. Coffey married Mrs. Pinter the following day.”

Women are so thoroughly indoctrinated that they question themselves whenever they have an impertinent thought or experience a flash of anger: “And I wonder if this is the magic taking over. Is this how it starts—the slip of the tongue? A loss of respect? Is this how I become a monster the men whisper of? I turn and run up the stairs before I do something I regret.”

Spoiler alert: magic isn’t real. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that magic, as it’s defined in Garner County, is not mysterious or supernatural in nature. Rather, magic is code for women’s anger. Magic is when a women speaks her mind and demands equal treatment. Magic is women working together to overthrow the patriarchy and create a new, more equitable society in which they are valued and respected. Magic is a tiny red flower. Magic is revolution.

(Here, I’m reminded of another book: RAGE BECOMES HER: THE POWER OF WOMEN’S ANGER by Soraya Chemaly:

“Ask yourself, why would a society deny girls and women, from cradle to grave, the right to feel, express, and leverage anger and be respected when we do? Anger has a bad rap, but it is actually one of the most hopeful and forward thinking of all of our emotions. It begets transformation, manifesting our passion and keeping us invested in the world. It is a rational and emotional response to trespass, violation, and moral disorder. It bridges the divide between what ‘is’ and what ‘ought’ to be, between a difficult past and an improved possibility. Anger warns us viscerally of violation, threat, and insult. By effectively severing anger from ‘good womanhood,’ we choose to sever girls and women from the emotion that best protects us against danger and injustice.”)
It’s no wonder the men fear it.

Of course, not everyone is hip to the true nature of women’s magic, and it’s enthralling to see how this plays out in the little community formed by the Grace Year girls. I love how Liggett devises a very reasonable, if not mundane, explanation for the manifestation of the girls’ magical powers. And the power dynamics that arise out of this are pretty shrewd and insightful, with plenty of real-world consequences. This is how cult leaders are made. Or 45th presidents.

There’s so much more I want to rave about: The way that Liggett uses Hans to eviscerate the Nice Guy ™ trope. The kinship between women and animals, and the vegan feminist ethic that might arise from recognizing and honoring our similarities. The sheer, raw power (might I say “magic”?) of sisterhood. The seed of revolution that blossoms here.

THE GRACE YEAR may not take place in 2019 America, yet its lessons are painfully relevant today.

My only complaint – and it is not a minor one – is the complete absence of race from the narrative. Only a few of the girls are described in great physical detail; those that are all appear to be white. Do no women of color live in Garner County? If not, why not? Perhaps darker skinned women do exist, but simply are not valued as Wives in this white nationalist patriarchy. If this is the case, we’d expect to find them laboring in the fields, serving the white nuclear families, and bearing the brunt of toxic masculinity as sex workers in the outskirts. As with THE HANDMAID’S TALE, this is an egregiously weak spot in an otherwise powerful and engaging story.

Handmaid's Tale meets Lord of the Flies
I won't give anything away, but I feel like this book has not gotten the hype it deserves. Tierney has been raised in the county, where men rule and women are seen breeding mares. When the girls turn 16, they are sent away for a year known as the Grace Year. It is believed they receive their magic during this time and must be sent away to expel it before the men become weakened by it. No one is allowed to speak of what happens during the Grace Year. I cannot express how much I loved Tierney as the main character. A lot of times, you get these strong female characters that are always sure of their path and beliefs. Tierney is not that character. She is very real and relatable. She has moments when she is weak or questions if she is in the right. I highly recommend this book because girls rule and boys drool.

I was given an ARC for an honest review (thank you!)

"They call us the weaker sex. It's pounded into us every Sunday in church, how everything's Eve's fault for not expelling her magic when she had the chance, but I still can't understand why the girls don't get a say. Sure, there are secret arrangements, whispers in the dark, but why must the boys get to decide everything? As far as I can tell, we all have hearts. We all have brains."

A mash-up of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Hunger Games, and Lord of the Flies? all the best novels rolled into one action packed heck of a read! Cancel all of your plans this book cant be put down. Your gonna finish this book in one sitting.

At times, I found the violence in the book to be really disturbing, and after a while, the cruelty of the girls' was very hard to read about. The violence may be a trigger for some, this book really should be a warning at the beginning of this book, because at times it's extremely graphic in nature. Even during all the violence I could not really put this book down I had to keep reading straight through to the end!

OH MY. I haven't read a book in quite some time that drew me in like The Grace Year. The concept of this unspoken time in a girls life was nothing like I could have imagined. I felt myself wanting more with each turn of the page. BUT that is where I decided to take off one star. I was wanting so much more. It felt like a few months might pass in just a single paragraph. Maybe I'm being selfish wishing this went on to a four book series some how (I know that is wanting too much) but Kim Liggett brought me to a place and made me feel all the same emotions as these girls.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James isn't looking forward to her grace year. She has never been interested in it, never wanted it, but now she has to face the music - harsh conditions, poachers and all that come with grace year, including admonishing your own kind.

They're there to release their magic, that's believed to be bestowed upon them when they turn 16, into the wild so that they can return pure and ready for marriage. Sounds absurd? These girls don't think so.

It's a 'game' of survival of the fittest. Who will survive? The brainiest? The brawniest? The most cruel?

It got off to a strong start, caught my attention, held it, with me going, wow what a page-turner! Tierney was growing on me and Gertie's enigmatic character was piquing my interest.

And I was dying to find out what was the grace year all about and why was it a taboo to talk about it, and how these girls, Tierney especially, were going to survive this much-feared-of occasion. The build-up and suspense were really good...until...

... the typical hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress scene came into the picture (not once but twice!!) and, of course, they fell in love.

I was so sure I was going to let my daughter read this book when she's old enough, but changed my mind when the above happened. Whhhhhhyyyyy.... Ohhhh Whhhhhhyyyyy! Tierney didn't need saving. Even if she did, why not another female? And why the portrayal of damsel-in-distress?

This was such a great opportunity to shed women in a more positive light and to let the younger readers know how much stronger women can be when we stand together, than to always put the limelight on catfights, jealousy, and bullying.

And what happened to Tierney wanting to live her life her way? She had so much conviction in wanting to do so in the beginning then it just died off at the end?

There was some female empowerment shown but wasn't enough. I felt it would've been a much better read if there was more of it, like a change in Kiersten, a realization in the group, and them coming together with the rest of the ones in the outskirts. It would definitely be a more inspiring read for the young girls.

This is what I got from the book: yes, the world is going to be a terrifying place if we let our species get out of hand, but worry not, a hero will come save the day.

I know the target audience is going to devour this book, but as a mother, I didn't like the message it conveyed to the younger generation. But alas, I'm not the target audience. So. That's that.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet sixteen. Most teens anticipate turning sixteen. Not in this story, the sixteenth year is called the Grace Year. Townsfolk believe woman possess magic and the only way to rid the young ladies of this power, the sexual powers over men, is to send them away for an entire year to fend for themselves. Tierney James, a tomboy, is the main character in this story. Her father always wanted a son. Blessed with all girls, he treats Tierney more like the son he never had. In secret her father teach her to fish,navigate by the stars and use tools etc. All valuable skills for her upcoming Grace Year.

For re-entry to the town the following year, as a family member, a girl must receive a veil, from a man at the Veiling Ceremony. If a girl goes veilless at the ceremony, the rest of the remaining girls in the family will not be eligible for marriage either. Tierney doesn't believe she will woo a young man into giving her a veil, in fact she plans her life as if she will work in the fields. Convinced this would be a better life, then serving a man. At the ceremony something completely unexpected happens, and it creates more enemies, for poor Tierney, than friends. As all the girls venture off on their own to survive the wilderness for an entire year in an encampment, the real story begins. This book reminds me of an all female version of Lord of the Flies. Its a fast past novel, capable of capturing readers attention fast and keeping them turning pages. The only element the book lacked was better story building in the beginning. I think this would have been a better novel if it had been a three book series instead of a single book. The author could have taken more time to develop the story before the year the girls leave.

Such a good book! I haven’t read anything like it for a while, and I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author.

“No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.” In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

The story, underlying themes and, the all too real parallels to present day are haunting me long after finishing this novel. The Grace Year is immersive, gruesome, beautiful, terrifying, and hopeful. The narrative is strongly feminist. It is a book that I wish was around during my teenage years, and will surely stand the test of time. This book easily transcends the intended YA audience and I daresay, all women will relate to this tale on a number of levels. I recommend going in to this fairly blind as the full synopsis does giveaway pieces of the story.

This was a strange read for me. I had a hard time getting into the story. I felt like I was missing the background info and I had no interest in the characters. The plot has so much potential but lacked in execution and didn’t command the feelings I had when reading other similar plots (handmaiden’s take for example).

Overall interesting, entertaining and thought provoking but fell a bit flat to me.

The Grace Year is a title that I have been impatiently waiting to get my hands on. From the syopsis alone, I just knew this book was going to be special and that it would be thrilling. I mean, it sounded like all of my favoirte dystoptian novels were wrapped into one. So, if you're a fan of The Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale or even Lord of the Flies, you are in for a real treat with The Grace Year.

The Grace Year follows the story of Tierney James. Tierney has always dreamed for a better life than the one she knows. She lives in a society where dreams are forbidden and where women are seen as the weaker sex. When a girl reaches her sixteenth birthday, she enters what is called her grace year, a time that no one dares to talk about. Rumor has it that women are filled with magical power that they must accept and erradicate in order to return home pure and ready for their husbands. But, what they don't tell you is that you will be pitted against one another, that your friends are not who you thought they were, and that there is more to fear than just poachers in the woods....

As a huge fan of YA Dystopian novels, I couldn't wait to see what The Grace Year would bring to the table. And let me tell you, it does not disappoint. This story is filled with mystery and intriuge. The plot is totally unique, yet has similar elements to some beloved dystopian novels. This story is gritty and intense at times and it will certainly keep you on your toes. This is a story of survival in the worst of cirumstances, yet there is also hope for a better life and future. The Grace Year does have some romantic tones, but the romance does not drive the book, the plot does. The Grace Year is filled with lots of fantastic twists and turns and at times will have you questioning what you have gotten yourself into.

Overall, I found The Grace Year to be a very enjoyable read. I thought it was very unique and writtten well. I found myself glued to the pages and unable to put this book down. I know this is a YA book, but do not let that fool you. This book packs a punch and keeps you guessing the entire time.  If you're a fan of dystopian novels, I definitley would recommend giving The Grace Year a try.

Not a fan of this one. The premise has promise. But the characters are flat and the explanations of things just aren’t there. I wanted to know how it ended so I kept going. But I wouldn’t recommend it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All the sixteen-year-old females from Tierney’s village are sent away for a year to release their wicked, womanly magic into the wild. When the few who survive return, they’re different—scarred, haunted, broken, and missing body parts. Speaking of the Grace Year is forbidden, and what happens to the temporary banished girls is unspeakable.

Now it’s Tierney’s turn to go. Unlike the other girls, she doesn’t want to be claimed as a wife, rather she embraces her individuality and what passes for freedom. Not playing along with the village rules could doom her younger sisters to exile or death and her drive for survival threatens the self-imposed leader of her group. Each day that passes presents a new challenge and more danger.

The epigraph aptly contains quotes from Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE and Golding’s LORD OF THE FLIES, both of which speak to themes of THE GRACE YEAR. The novel also invokes the horrors of the Salem Witch Trials.

Tierney is a great character. She has her flaws, but she genuinely wants all her Grace Year comrades to survive, even when they treat her poorly. In this world, women are both desired and feared. While the men have all the power, women are in surplus, and those who aren’t pretty, little meek sheep and able to bear sons, are considered disposable.

I was drawn into Tierney’s tragic world. Her courage and perseverance were admirable. It takes courage to embrace one’s uniqueness when being different could be deadly, and where women are objectified and vilified.

THE GRACE YEAR is a well written dystopian tale with a fierce female protagonist.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing, for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

Oooh I can always depend on Wednesday Books to release heart-pounding mature YA thrillers tackling intense subjects!

The Grace Year can easily be compared to The Handmaid's Tale, Lord of the Flies, The Power, and Hunger Games but this is a solid novel that holds its own!

In Garner County, females are believed to have magic, especially girls on the edge of womanhood.  Each year the County banishes the sixteen year olds to a remote gated location to dispel their magic so they may return pure, obedient, and fit for marriage.   But not every girl returns home.  

Those who return do not speak of the grace year because it's forbidden.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James has no desire to be a wife.  She understands that she will become property and all she wants is to be free of the strange superstitions and burdens the women must bear for their human nature.  Her father has taught her many skills that are usually only taught to sons in hopes she will survive her grace year.

The grace year girls must survive the harsh elements, the poachers (men waiting in the woods in hopes of grabbing a girl for horrific purposes), and each other.

"Look around. We are the only Gods here." *

Alone for the first time in their lives, some of the girls are more willing to embrace the magic they've been told that they have and shun others.  A twisted society forms within the gates and readers examine the relationships and motivations of the girls while realizing there's much more wrong than we were initially told.

"But isn't that how every horrible  thing begins? Slow. Insipid. A twisting of the screw." *

Atmospheric and chilling, The Grace Year is a dystopian novel that explores the power women have and how it's abused in male-dominated societies, how religion is used to keep people in line, and how women are systematically divided against one another.

"We hurt each other because it's the only way we're permitted to show our anger. When our choices are taken from us, the fire builds within. Sometimes I feel like we might burn down the world to cindery bits, with our love, our rage, and everything in between." *

Overall, this is a top-notch YA dystopian/horror novel that focuses on female empowerment.  There's some romance but thankfully it doesn't overshadow the strong plot.  I loved some of the unexpected twists that Liggett threw in to make this even more of a page turner.  And the ending.  Oh my.  Such an amazing ending!

"My eyes are wide open, and I see everything now." *

I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy YA, horror, dystopia, and speculative fiction/thrillers.

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Grace Year is scheduled for release on October 8, 2019.

*Quotes included are from a digital advanced reader's copy and are subject to change upon final publication.

Don't let the pink cover fool you - this is not a sweet YA story and the characters are far from likable. The world of the Grace Year is a wild one where only the strong survive. And this is a story of survival - against the odds, against each other, and against ourselves.

In this world, teenage girls are believed to have powers that are dangerous to the men around them. Their magic lives in their very skin. Their sixteenth year is known as The Grace Year. This is the year that the girls of the county are either claimed by men to become wives or unclaimed and forced to work menial labor. But before their status officially changes, they are sent as a group into the woods for a year to rid themselves of their ~unnatural powers~. Some of them return, others aren't so lucky.

Tierney has just entered her Grace Year, She hopes to be unclaimed, as even though being sent to the labor fields is looked down upon, it's better than being a wife. But in the end, it doesn't even matter since surviving the Grace Year is the only thought in her mind. While the girls do have to survive against outside forces - poachers who'd cut them up to bottle the magic that lives within their skins - it's each other that prove to be the hardest to survive against. In a society where women are not allowed to be mad at men or really express any emotions at all, the only people they can turn their anger against are each other. Tierney tries to fight against this inherent belief, but her fellow Grace Year girls aren't so inclined to do so. They revel in their magic and are terrifying in their quest to outlast the woods.

This is a story that I will stick with you. It's a little confusing, a lot terrifying, and of course makes you think about feminism, and how women are treated in society. The world that Tierney and the Grace Year girls live in isn't explained much at all - is it the past, the future - it could be either. The idea that if women band together they can overcome is a good one, albeit overly idealistic. But then again, I don't think it's a bad message for any teen girl to hear.

3.5 stars

The Grace Year is a mash-up of The Handmaid's Tale, Lord of The Flies, and The Crucible and I could not put this book down. I read it in one sitting and was riveted for the majority of the story. Is it on par with the classic novels it is reminiscent of? No, probably not. But it's a 5 star from me because it sucked me in and wouldn't let go.
My only complaint is the romance. I feel it takes away from the point this book should be making. In the beginning the protagonist is confident in her decision thar she doesn't want to be married and it was really a bit disappointing to see her throw that out the window for the "right guy."
The Grace Year is an enthralling read and I can absolutely see it being a hit with Young Adult readers.

(I am using this book for my "Dystopian" category in Extreme Book Nerd)

"The Grace Year" was a spotlight book in a recent webinar of mine. I knew I had to give it a try. It's "The Handmaid's Tale" meets "The Village." Yeah, it makes for a riveting read--but a rough one all the same.

Tierney is doing what every sixteen year old girl in the County is doing: preparing for her grace year. This is a time when the girls are banished Outside as their "magic" comes in. If you survive the grace year, you either go and marry the man who had "veiled" you the day you left the County....or if no man claimed you, you were sent to the fields or work houses. And for those who did not make it home? Well, your younger siblings were banished.

Naturally all of the girls are pitted against each other. No one knows who to trust. What is fact? What is fiction? What is truth and what has been turned into a legend? These are things that Tierney finds out.

I almost gave up on this book as I found the writing incredibly rough to start out with. I also get really annoyed with love interests that aren't essential. The two males in the story, Michael and Ryker, do play essential parts. But the reader is given the impression that Tierney wanted more than a guy. So for the book's middle to have a huge love angle, it felt odd. Almost like a betrayal to Tierney's character and the feminist angle the author wanted.

This book highlights a universal truth that I find grievous: girls are vicious to each other!! This is seen throughout the book and is almost more difficult to take than the violence. Still, teenage girls will, sadly, find this part of the book relateable. In fact, I see "The Grace Year" being a huge YA hit. Indeed, I will recommend it on the Bookmobile.

I will leave you with this quote I found so empowering...."It's easy to think of your life as being meaningless out here, a tiny forgotten imprint that can easily be washed away by the next passing storm, but instead of making me feel small, it gives me purpose, more meaning. I'm no more or less important than a small seedling trying to burst through the soil. We all play a part of this earth. And however small, I intend to play mine."

What an anthem!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I've sat down to write this review several times and what has made itself most clear to me is that this review is difficult because <em>The Grace Year</em> by Kim Liggett has a <em>lot</em> to unpack. I don't usually like comparing books to others, but this one really does speak to me as a conglomerate of <em>The Handmaid's Tale</em> and <em>The Hunger Games</em>, with an odd shoutout to Disney's <em>Frozen</em>. Probably not what you expected. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. And <em>damn</em>, was it <em>terrifying</em>.

The world of <em>The Grace Year</em> is a very misogynistic one. At some point within the beginnings of the society, the men banded together to disempower all of the women. They were turned into property, little more than breeding stock. The men choose the futures of the women for them by either taking them as wives or sending them off to be laborers or prostitutes should they not be chosen.

And their biggest method of control is blaming the actions of men on women and their heretic magic; for no man would ever force himself on a woman if her magic hadn't tempted him. So, in one of the most terrifying and elaborate methods of control I've seen in quite some time, at the age of sixteen women are sent away for a year to live within an encampment in order to burn through and rid themselves of all their magic before returning home. Should any woman afterward be accused of harboring her magic, she is immediately executed.

Not only that but as history has shown, the grace year itself is a rather dangerous one. Every year the number of girls who return is significantly less than the number who left. Subjected to the dangers of their magic and the dangers of poachers, who cut them up to sell their parts off as magical remedies to keep people young, many of the girls die during their year away.

I have to admit, I was excited about reading this book. I've always been a fan of dystopian novels and I enjoy watching the characters fight against corrupt societies in order to change them for the better. And something about the way <em>The Grace Year</em> was presented really captured my attention. I've left it rather disturbed, but not unimpressed entirely. I think what has really kept me interested in novels like this is the fact that it builds empowerment to stand up against atrocities.

And living in a rather patriarchal society that is terrifying on its own sometimes, watching women fight back against that is truly something amazing.

The aspects of <em>The Grace Year </em>that ring true and I find most terrifying come from how men often use religion to control women. It's perhaps a bit more subtle nowadays with some religions and it is far more common for women to fight against it, but it is terrifying all the same. <em>The Grace Year</em> is this in an extreme. But there are kernels of truth within it. And in that sense, I found this story quite compelling. If you pay attention, you can piece together all the methods of control that have been put in place rather quickly.

And it is elaborate.

The story as a whole is fairly impressive, though the writing did feel choppy at times. While some events are fairly predictable, others come as a surprise. Much of the story is fast-paced and leaves you eager to read more, while some smaller bits seem to take forever. But the worst thing about this entire book was, unfortunately, the romance. Not only was it <em>very</em> insta-love-y, but it felt forced and contrived.

I didn't like the pairing, I didn't care for his character at all, and it was <em>so rushed</em>. It's incredibly unfortunate when the love interest is flat, but it's even more bothersome when he's unbelievable. Ironically, the biggest reason for this was the fact that much of the time spent building a connection between the two lovers was <em>summarized</em>. Montages work within film, but not so much in a novel. I didn't believe that they were in love despite them saying so both because of the summaries and because they only knew each other for a short period of time.

One thing I will say before I end this review is that if you are looking for a novel that will take down the patriarchy in an incredibly satisfying way, this isn't it yet. <em>The Grace Year</em> very much reads like a book that <em>requires</em> a sequel or two. And, to be fair, the two books I compared it to at the top didn't have satisfying endings of those in power being overthrown in their first novel either. But they definitely set it up well for something like that in the future.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Blog review link to go live on 08/25/19.