The Grace Year is reminiscent of Lord of Flies
Tierney, our main character, lives in a small county that strictly controls the lives of its female citizens. Women are not allowed to meet in groups without men present. A woman can be punished with a whipping to her back for the simple transgression of taking a bath with rose petals in the water. The day before leaving for the “Grace Year”, each woman is paraded around town for the men to choose a future wife. The women have absolutely no control of whom they’ll marry.

There are so many challenges to the girls’ survival during their Grace Year. While contained to an enclosed area with little means for survival, they quickly establish a hierarchy. It’s the first time any of them are without the instruction and supervision of men. The new freedom of self control leaves many of them lost. Few of them are able to make decisions for themselves.

Four seasons of survival = four chapters of the story.


I’m disappointed to give this book only a 3.5-star rating because The Grace Year is truly a great story and it had me hooked. I definitely binge read this within three days (I have kids so I can’t read books in 1 day). This book could have easily been 4.5-stars if the formatting were correcting to include at least page breaks. The Grace Year is only separated into four “chapters”, one per season of the year. While the story is solid, the lack of true page breaks or chapter breaks is distracting to the story. In one paragraph Tierney could be asleep, then the next paragraph she’s awake and talking in a different place entirely. It causes momentary confusion and pulls you out of the moment. I hope this is revised before the book’s release in September 2019.

3.5 with an update to 4 with the fixed editing.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

I received a copy of The Grace Year from Wednesday Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's a cute pink cover, isn't? This story is not cute or pink. It's a brutal story of misogyny and control.

Tierney is a dreamer who is not allowed to dream. Her existence is destined to be an evil siren who lures men to their Doom.

Fighting back is not an option. Until it is.

It's a story about survival and how your worst enemies can be the ones who should be on your side and your allies can be who you least expect.
..
Absolutely brilliant.

This was so unputdownable! The author delivers a rapid-paced, suspenseful, gripping, well-written and perfectly executed thriller. In times like these, it definitely feels like it could hit close to home. Great book.

3.5
I somewhat enjoyed this book. It's quite Hunger Game-esque and also reminded me of Lord of the Flies. I found the description of how the girls acted during the graceful years very visual and the men in the story can be relatable at times despite how cruel they can seem in our moral standards.
This is obviously not set in a modern real-world setting so it's important to keep that in mind when reading this book!
A great summer read!

I do not know how to feel about this book. I did not like the beginning of book because I do not think the book show the reader why there was a grace year or what was going on. The girl/woman was just going a long with everything. That made me mad. The middle of the book started to explain why and what was going on with the grace year. But, by the end I understand what was going on and really started to love the characters in the book. So, I am really not sure where to rate this book. I think the book is worth reading, but I have to say it takes awhile to get into.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brutal novel about a community of people where women are chattel and the least fortunate are hunted and slaughtered. It is a combination of The Hunger Games and The Midwife's Tale.

I loved the story line and the characters.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett is a dystopian novel, along the lines of The Hunger Games, which follows the girls of Garner County as they enter their 16th year...their "Grace Year" during which they are banished from their homes and towns and sent to live together in a camp, far from home, so as not to tempt the men to stray as they come into their womanhood.

What goes on at camp is never discussed, and as Tierney James gets ready to leave, she is betrothed to her best friend, a young man who will soon be a town leader. But there seems to be an undercurrent of subversiveness in the town, involving her mother. Tierney heads to camp and her experiences there will change her life forever, and possibly those of all the girls in the county.

An inspired novel you won't be able to put it down!

The Grace Year is a cross between Lord of The Flies, The Crucible, and The Hunger Games, except much darker.
The plot is just insane, and I often find when Im reading books like this how on the earth the author can think this up haha :) I loved the main charecter Tierney, she is such a brave soul and I was rooting for her the entire time. I so hope there is a sequel!

The Quick Cut: A girl works against the system that tries to make everyone believe that women are filled with an evil magic to seduce men that must be expelled during their 16th year in the woods.

A Real Review:
Thank you to St Martin's Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As women, we're commonly told we have the powers of persuasion and seduction. However, what if we lived in a society that believed these powers were magical ones? In the world that Tierney lives in, this is a reality where all women are treated as the bringers of wrong doing.

The Grace year is something that no one talks about, but everyone knows the truth of. For their 16th year, all girls go into the woods and are exiled in order to dispel their feminine magic. Like Eve in the Bible, women are believed to be the source of all problems and are treated as such in society. Including their year of exile, women are required to wear their hair braided at all times (except their husbands), the men select who they will wed, and anyone who does not marry is sent to do difficult work in the fields. Tierney thinks the magic isn't real and would prefer a life of hard labor to one of marriage. However, when plans go south and all goes wrong, can she adjust enough to overcome?

First and foremost, this book is brutally dark in it's content. Not only are the women treated as second class citizens blamed for all wrong, but the Grace Year landscape is very "Lord of the Flies"-esque. As soon as the girls get to their exile camp, they turn on one another and even exile each other from camp for ensured death by the poachers. Poachers roam the exile area to kill the girls and skin them (in all its detail). It's disturbing, it's dark, and it's a very chilling portait of what happens when you drink the kool-aid so to speak.

Tierney is a lovable narrator in how she wants more for her life than a husband who controls her every moment. She has spent her days doing all she can keeping all the boys at bay so that she isn't selected to be a wife before the Grace Year. The way she fights the system while attempting to navigate through it is intriguing.

Although slow at moments, this chilling book will leave you haunted long after it ends.

My rating: 4 out of 5

Definition of gritty: "showing something unpleasant as it really is; uncompromising."

I originally thought my one word to describe this book would be gritty. I believe I may have seen it described as such in a blurb.

Yet, the word I like even better is uncompromising. That is what this Young Adult read in this dystopian-like world where girls are feared, mystified and easily disposed of by both men and women alike exudes. It's uncompromising tone exposes the fear and ignorance of the power and beauty behind what makes a girl become a woman. So many roles a woman plays is explored; a daughter, a sister, a mother, a friend, an enemy, a lover, a wife, a victim...and each relationship has been distorted and exploited by this completely skewed by this almost cult-like setting. No bigoted, sexist view was held back. There was no way to make this palatable. There was no compromising for a comfortable safe read.

I thought it was brilliant and unsettling all at the same time. Tiereny James the main character is uncertain, vulnerable and confused. Yet her inner strength is breathtaking, thrilling even.

The Grace Year is one of those books we need to make room for on our daughter's bookshelves.

This book was not what I was expecting at all! Completely haunting and captivating. I will admit that it took me a bit to get into this book, but I never felt like I was willing to put it down. And once it hooked me, that was it, there was no way you could tear it from my hands.

Simply amazing.

I think I just found my new favorite book? This is easiest 5 stars I've ever given. From the moment I picked this book up I couldn't put it back down, which is why it's 2 AM and I'm writing this review. Everything about this book is incredible. The characters, the suspense, and the themes were all breathtaking and there isn't one thing I disliked. This book manages to be entertaining and keeps you on the edge of your seat while packing a punch with the overall message. So many passages of the book gave me chills and some brought me to actual tears!!! This book could easily be taught in school, and it should be. The things that this book is trying to convey have real world implications, and they are so relevant, especially right now.

"The things we do to girls. Whether we put them on pedestals only to tear them down, or use them for parts and holes, we're all complicit in this. But everything touches everything else, and I have to believe that some good will come out of all this destruction."

Thank you, Wednesday Books, for an advance copy for review.

When they turn 16 girls of the county are sent to an isolated wooded area to spend their "Grace Year." To survive on their own and to rid themselves of the "magic" that comes with being a woman. I loved the use of the term "magic" as a metaphor for what makes women powerful. Whether women are being burned as witches, being jailed for expressing their sexuality or simply going against what society believes they should be, women have been treated this way for centuries. What women are capable of, their strengths, their minds, their bodies...these have, for too long, been seen as things that need to be broken. To be frank, people are frightened of strong women.

Too often women are pitted against each other and this book makes great reference to that. Don't shame another woman for who she is, for what she enjoys, her sexuality, her identity...because when women build other women up is when magic happens, it always has. Us men should play a major part in that as well but I truly believe that nothing is as strong as women helping other women. Don't let society make you believe you have to compete. There are already too many men trying to rip you apart.

I also found that toxic masculinity played a huge role in the story. Men deem themselves stronger, smarter and all around better than women, who are expected to cook, clean and have babies. And they want to pass these ideals on to their sons. It only takes one man to stand up and break that cycle and so many of the male characters fail these women, but a select few don't. I also found it interesting that desperation played a part here. The bad guys are bad, yes, but they aren't just one dimensional beings.

The prose are nearly perfect, the narrative pacing of the story is fantastic, once I began reading I found it difficult to stop. Liggett's use of metaphor is masterful from the punishment tree to the "beautiful little bottles" to the meanings of different flowers...it's beautiful. But it's also heartbreaking. And really quite brutal at times.

I can't think of anything I didn't like about this book. It's a feminist Lord of the Flies meets The Hunger Games with a dash of romance and outright horror thrown in. I truly loved it and I cannot wait to see what Kim Liggett can do next. She's a powerful voice.

Stand out. Be rebellious. Be strong.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis:

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.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

My Thoughts:
Darkly, intricate and twisted from beginning to end. Totally original, the most buzzed about book of the Year lives up to expectations!!

“A visceral, darkly haunting fever dream of a novel and an absolute page-turner." Libba Bray, New York Times bestselling author.

Liggett’s thrilling, and suspenseful book brilliantly explores the high cost of a misogynistic world that denies women power and does it with a heart-in-your-throat, action-driven story that’s equal parts horror-laden fairy tale, survival story, romance, and resistance manifesto, I truly couldnt stop turning page-after-page!!! Absolutely thrilling, and gritty I hope y'all love it like I have cause wow!! Each character was so unique to the storyline, and the author just nailed it!!

I finished "The Grace Year" about 30 minutes ago- I realize I should take some time to process what I just read, but I really want to talk about it.
That's a pro- I want to talk about it... not yell at it or argue about it, which is the way I've felt about a lot of YA dystopian fiction lately.
This was really good.
Things I really liked:
-It was a fun concept. I don't feel the need to summarize the story at all- there are so many outstanding reviews for this book :)
-It was a one shot. I see the potential for another in order to make it a series, but it ended in a way that I could live happily without there being a second one. It's rare for me to find a good one-shot type story like this.
-It was entertaining. I got through this really quickly. It's slated to be a movie produced by Elizabeth Banks. SO ENTERTAINING.

THING I didn't really like:
-Whyyyyyyyy oh whyyyyyyy does YA fiction have to center around a romance? I was so good with this book until the unnecessary PG-13 'steamy' romance. I loved the relationship building (or destruction of) between the women. It really made the book stand out and I liked how the author portrayed women that hurt each other, rather than build each other up (this point kind of ended up being part of the "things I liked" category, oops). I feel like the story could have been the same, if not better, without the romantic interlude.

"The Grace Year" was a satisfying read. As for the romance that I mentioned not liking, I have to admit that I would have eaten it up as a teenager. As a 31-year old reader, it's not really my demographic anymore.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC copy of this book for an honest review :)

The comparisons between The Handmaid's Tale and The Grace Year will be inevitable. Both showcase a dystopian-like time when women are seen as little more than vessels for fulfilling the desires of men. That's where those comparisons should end. The Grace Year does a masterful job of showing the effects of this society on multiple generations of women. The characters are well-developed and I couldn't put this book down!

I loved this book from start to finish. It grabbed me from the first page and never let go. I loved the development of the characters and the environment. Kim Liggett's writing is so amazing. She was able to create an existence that I could clearly see in my mind. I connected with the main character and felt some strong emotions during the reading of this book. There were some surprises along the way and that made me want to keep reading.

First I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher house for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Let me start by saying I don't normally read much YA, or dystopian novels for that matter, but this was a very good book. Especially for the era we are in now where there are serious threats to women's rights. This book is what happens when a society allows the men to be considered "the chosen ones from God" and the patriarchy cares more about pride and ego then it does about the well-being of its people. Especially the women. There were references to a "punishment tree" in the middle of the town where women were punished, beaten, hung, burned alive. It is a book about what happens when a group of people beliefs outrank common sense and logic and the fear induced controls the women, even the 16 yo girls who leave this "society" for one year so they can get rid of their "magic". (It happens around puberty). Before they leave, the men choose their wives and give them a veil. If they survive the year they come home to be married or sent to the fields or the "outskirts". There are poachers around the encampment where the grace year girls stay. They skin the girls who try to escape into the woods and sell their skin and body parts back to the people of the town who believe they pieces of the girls are full of "magic". You see, the best thing a woman can do is marry and make more men.
The main character is very easy to like. She doesn't think things need to be the way they are. She thinks things can change for the better.

The Grace Year is a YA Dystopian novel which is being compared to The Lord of the Flies, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games.

I had such high hopes for this book but in the end, it was just okay for me. It's an interesting premise but nothing about it really stood out for me and I found myself bored at times. I definitely enjoyed the last half of the book more than the first half. There was an insta-love story thrown in. I'm usually a fan of romance in my books but this one was unnecessary for the story, in my opinion. The ending left me a little confused and wanting more.

I'm sure a lot of readers are going to love it. I can actually see it getting a movie deal. I'm sure it will be a big hit. It just wasn't for me. Maybe I've just read too many similar type Dystopian books?

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.