The Grace Year (Kim Liggett) is set in a society where young girls are thought to hold bewitching magic which is the source for men’s lust and drives the older women to jealousy. At 16, the girls are sent away to fend for themselves and live in isolation from the rest of society in a remote camp in the wilderness for a whole year. This is known as the Grace Year, and is the period in which they must embrace and use up their seductive magic and then return home to become obedient women and know their place in the social hierarchy. The “lucky” ones go on to arranged marriages, whilst the others are assigned work. Escape is not an option, as if you do not return from your Grace Year, even if you were to die and your body is unaccounted for, then your family suffers in return. Does this sound bleak? Throw in the fact that poachers lurk beyond the camp, waiting to capture and kill the girls to sell their body parts on the black market, and it becomes frightening. This year it is Tierney’s turn.
The story follows her fight for survival; survival in both the landscape and survival among her own peers. Some reviews I had read liken The Grace Year as a cross between The Hunger Games and Lord of The Flies mixed with The Handmaid’s Tale, and I can definitely agree with them.

I finished this book a few days ago, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind! It’s raised many questions and thoughts, and I think this book would be a great pick for a book group and there would be lots to discuss. This is because there are many choices Tierney has to make, and the reader may not always agree with all of them. What one reader may have wanted for her, another may disagree.

What made the book unique to some others that I’ve read recently is the use of symbolism and the language of flowers. This is used a lot through the book and a careful reader would be able to pick up on some clever foreshadowing. That is not to say that there weren’t any twists, I thought there were so many twists! Particularly in the last third of the book when I thought I’d figured something out, I hadn’t. I was kept on the edge of my seat by the end. I also found it was a lot more graphic than I was expecting. For a book some would label as YA, it doesn’t hold back on the gore.

I liked Kim’s writing style in The Grace Year and the first person perspective makes it easy to follow and know what Tierney is feeling. The description is done to build a picture in your mind and you can imagine all the settings and place yourself there. The description is not overdone though and the story keeps flowing. Once you are past the introduction and the Grace Year is underway is when the book gets really good. The writing manages to evoke a feeling of tension in the right places. Although there are times when it slows, I didn’t feel like the plot went off course at any point. There are a few time jumps though which some readers may not like and wish for more explanation, but as the story takes place across a year it is necessary to have these gaps.

The book explores a women’s role in society and the patriarchy. There is definitely a feminist feel to the story, and it is about girls and their choices (and the choices made for them) The Grace Year divides the girls when it should bring them together, and that’s what I feel the author was trying to do through Tierney. Does she do what’s right for herself or does she do what’s right for the group? When is ok to lie? At what point do you tell the truth? The ending was very thought-provoking for me although this is hard to discuss whilst remaining spoiler free!

I liked The Grace Year so much because I think it had most things I like in books. It had characters to root for, a surprise love interest, a touch of the unknown and mysterious, and an ending that left me thinking, but not wanting. The particular bits I loved most would give away plot points so I guess you’ll have to read it and discover them for yourself!
I would recommend this to fans of The Hunger Games, but I would also think anyone who enjoys a bit of rebellion and girl power would enjoy it. I would like any feminist to pick it up, as their opinion on Tierney’s choices and how other characters behaved may well differ to mine, but I think that’s the beauty of The Grace Year. It stays with you, makes you think and would start a great discussion.

NetGalley provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. This book will be published in Autumn 2019.

No one speaks of the grace year. It's forbidden. Get ready to stay up all night reading #thegraceyear

Imagine all the girls in your junior high graduating class going out on a years wilderness survival trip. No adults, boys, modern comforts, rules or laws except what the group determines. Now add in superstition, mean girls and killers waiting in the shadows...not everyone will survive....

Tierney questions the superstitious ways of her people. I loved that she's smart and capable (a tomboy in a group of girly girls), standing up to ignorance and the bullies of the group. She's the underdog and cares even when betrayed.

Overall this explores the horror of how people treat each other. It's also about the high cost of change. It's a survival story of spirit as well as body.

This is mature YA.
Out 10/2019
I got an arc for my honest opinion. Thank you #netgalley #stmartinspress and #wednesdaybooks

The Grace Year is a coming of age story in a society that holds women with dystopian reverence. Tierney James, a teenage tomboy is about to face her Grace year with other young women in her town. No one talks about the Grace year, but there are whispers among the people. Sequestered, the women are pitted against each other. And not all the girls will survive the environment, the poachers, and each other.

Kim Leggitt is a master at creating an atmosphere that seeps insidiously into your mind creating an emotional and powerful experience. This novel is unexpected unveiling the dark undertones of female relationship. A microcosm of dark instinctual behaviors highlights the lengths one would go to seek out survival. The narrative is engaging, with a complex main character who courageously endures a world working against her. This novel will remain with you after you close the cover.

The Grace Year may be compared to other dystopian tales, but this novel stands alone.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I got an email from Netgalley in regards to this new YA book and I am so glad I responded. I have never heard of the author but was intrigued by the book summary and reviews on Goodreads. I love a good dystopic YA book and this did not disappoint. I was immediately drawn in to the story and the society created by the author, I was impressed by how thought out it all was- with backstories and rumors and passed down tales of why things are they way they are and shouldn't change. The whole idea of this grace year when 16 year old girls must leave in order to protect others from the magic so strong in them at this time. "Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, 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. " While they are segregated together in an isolated area, the novel takes on a "Lord of the Flies' feel as the girls start to turn on each other as their "magic" appears. I found the whole concept so interesting and captivating. She is a masterful storyteller creating so many levels and relationships between the different societal groups. There is an underlying message of female strength throughout the novel as the main character Tierney begins to question their customs and cultures and reaches out to other women around her. I so hope there is a second book to this novel as I'm not ready for it to be over. So well done. I can see fans of Hunger Games really enjoying this one as well!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Grace Year. I could not put it down. I would have liked to get to know some of the characters better but enjoyed the plot and would love to see more books set in Garner County.

Book: The Grace Year
Author: Kim Liggett
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Wednesday Books, for providing me with the ARC.

I must start out by saying this. Um…Hello, where did you come from? You were not even on my radar until last week. Why aren’t you getting more attention? The pretty pink cover doesn’t even start to describe you.

Now, that we have that out of the way. This book has been getting a lot of hype recently and it is as good as what people say it is. This is a dystopian story set in a very strict community in which the church and the men have complete control. The women are treated like objects and aren’t allowed to do anything. Part of this is that the church has complete control over everything and has told women that they have magic, which is a result of Eve and it will make men do evil things. Oh, women are also not allowed to gather, chose who they want to marry, and are sent into the woods in their sixteenth year to rid themselves of magic, aka the Grace Year. If they leave the place they have been sent during their grace year, poachers (men hired to kill) will hunt them down so their body parts can be sold for medicine. So, that is the tone of the world.

Tierney is our main character. She is smart, sassy, and questions everything. So, yeah, she’s really not that different than many of our young adult leads. This is her grace year and she has her heart set on working in the fields once she comes back. So, before the girls leave on their Grace Year, some of them receive a veil from a boy and that is who they are going to marry. The boys do all of the picking and the girls have no say. Tierney and the rest of her county believe that she will never get a veil because of her behaviour. This doesn’t really go as planned.

Michael is Tierney’s best friend. He has developed a crush on her and wants to save her from the hard life. He accepts her as she is and understands that he won’t be able to change her. To me, this is a great quality in a guy.

Rycker is our other main lead. He is a poacher. However, not everything is as what it seems with him. I really can’t go into details on his character without spoiling the book, but he is a lot more complex than what it seems.

The book opens up a lot of room for discussion. I can honestly see this as going down as a rather conversational book because of the context with the church. People are going to buck and say that it gives the church a bad rep. However, stop and think about it for a second. There are many places in our world where women are treated this way and it’s sad. I know a lot of people say that this book is just for girls, but the boys need to read this too. Girls are going to see that we need to stick together in our society. Boys, you will see that this is not how we treat girls.

It’s kind of funny how a lot of the negative reviews about this book are coming from male readers. They claim it makes them uncomfortable and is full of trigger warnings. Um, you know what? It probably makes you uncomfortable because at some point in your life you have probably treated a woman this way. This applies to everyone: if you want to grow as a person, you need to read and see things that make you uncomfortable.

Okay, I’m done preaching. This book, which I predict will be a bestseller, is currently on my top reads of 2019. The Grace Year will be out on October 8, 2019.

I was very surprised just how engrossed in this book I became quite literally from the first page. After all, this novel is quite horrifying. It is set in a world in which the establishment of men controls and manipulates women by systematic lies of care, and to make it worse, pitting the women against one another from young age, making it impossible for them to rally together and stand up to the abuse.

For a dystopian setting, the weighty circumstances are brought to life in such an accessible way that they feel entirely real, scarily, eerily reminiscent of what is happening in parts of our world, and our own society, today.

This is a story of survival. The narrative is unflinching in its horrifying portrayal of women trying to survive each other. It's upsetting, it's disturbing, it's sobering, but as in every good story, there is someone attempting to break out of the mold, and go against the grain to affect a change, even a small one.

Despite it's horrors, it's a hopeful story. You will be surprised where you will find that hope glimmer. It's a must read.

Beautiful and brutal at the same time.A book that explores what it feels like to be a woman in an oppressed society where expectations are set by men. The MC is thrust into her grace year, the year that determines whether she lives or die. As she and some other girls her age set off to live a year beyond the confines of the world she has known for the last 15 years she realizes that there is more to life than what she has been taught. There will be deaths and some will not make it back in one piece. But one thing is for sure, the grace year will change those who survive for ever.

Wow! This story packed a punch! A story of a misogynistic world causing severe abuse to women, pitting women against each other and yet with a tender love story. Girls are told that they have magical powers in them which are dangerous to men and so they are banished for their sixteenth year to rid themselves of the magic and become purified. After that year, called the Grace Year, some girls will become wives and others not chosen will become workers in the fields or servants. In any case, even being a wife is not something to be desired. Tierney is a strong girl and wants more from life, both for herself and others. During her Grace Year, the girls fight against each other, believing they have magic powers, but fighting for survival, just to survive that year. What follows is an amazing story of survival, belief, strength and love. It will make a stunning movie!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I want YA Dystopias to be back, but this feels like a recycling of everything we've seen before. The writing is good, the plot is meh, and the characters didn't drag me in like The Handmaid's Tale and Lord of the Flies , or The Hunger Games, which it's been compared to. It was okay. Not great. Okay.

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and kept my interest the whole time. I liked the theme and don’t think I’ve read anything else like it.

This is a really good dystopian YA-book, especially for young woman. The story is gripping from the first pages and continues to shock and surprise. It leaves you on a hopeful note. A page turner!

I told someone about this book by saying it was like Lord of the Flies, but for girls, but also with a very old-fashioned edge. It's really much more than that.

I teetered on the edge of giving this 3 or 4 stars.
The only reason I considered giving it 3 stars is because of the pacing. Some parts seemed to take for-ev-er, and arcs/scenes that I thought needed more time to develop were rushed, and I was left wondering: wait, what just happened?

That being said, the story is being told from the perspective of a teenage girl, and I'm not so far removed from adolescence that I can't recall what it was like for me. Anticipation made time tick by more slowly, and definitive and important moments flew by, leaving me with fuzzy memories and raw feelings. Everything was amplified (and you couldn't pay me to revisit that time in my life lol).

In the protagonist's world, young women are feared and desired for their "magic." In an effort to keep women the weaker sex, 15/16 year old girls are sent out into the wilderness for an entire year, so they can rid themselves of their evil magic, and come back to the county as docile and obedient (read: broken) wives, mothers, & workers.

But where do the physical scars come from?
Why are some girls missing parts of their bodies when they return?
What happens to these girls when left out in the wild?
Is the magic a real thing that must be released so it doesn't destroy them?

Don't know, because talking about The Grace Year is forbidden.

If you want to know, you have to go on Tierney's journey with her - as she tries to gather clues as to what to expect, how to survive, her feelings about what her future holds for her, and how she fits into the grand plan and expectations that her community has for her.

But not everything is as it seems: madness descends violently, mercy comes from the most surprising sources, but be careful in who and what you place your trust - the other girls aren't the only ones out there with you.

While the story takes place in a type of puritanical, patriarchal society, I feel as though it could be an allegory for today's culture - the traditional and usually unattainable expectations society places on females from a very early age (Barbies, baby dolls, fashion magazines).

Liggett also accurately depicts the stereotypical Queen Bee and how - from little girls to grown, established women - females are always in constant competition with each other (prettiest, thinnest, most successful, best partner, etc). There is also a mob mentality with this group of young women, and if you go against the status quo, then you're unacceptable. Unfortunately, this is still a very real issue among many.

Read this book to find how Tierney brings change and hope to a sad, stagnant, and suffocating way of life. Get ready to be sucked into this world and experience the fear, the heartbreak, the resilience of the human spirit and refusal to be broken.

P.S. I wouldn't call this a light read, really, so be warned if you're squeamish - there is a great deal of blood and violence, but the horror serves to spur the characters to strive for change.

I would absolutely recommend this book to a friend.

This may be one of my top 2019 reads! This book certainly packs a serious, hard, punch. A very strong story line that keeps you hooked the entire time. The concept is different, and its something that you as a reader will not forget about this book.

"Your eyes are wide open, but you see nothing."
This book was not an easy read. I struggled with it, not because of the writing, but because of the theme.
I went through phases when reading this. At first, I was angry with the unfair patriarchy. Then I was angry with the women who just looked at the injustice, but did nothing, even took part in it. And in the ending, I was proud of those who sacrificed their safety to help build a better world.

I would recommend this book to everyone, who can deal with these weighty topics.

TW: cannibalism, violence, brutality

There's something entirely haunting and beautiful about this book. It also teeters on the edge of being either a young adult or an adult dystopian story. The Grace Year describes the events before, during and after a year when girls of age live together alone on an island to release their magic and return pure to be married or take up hard labor for the rest of their lives. Tierney James is different. She does not want to be married and plans to work in the fields when she returns home from her grace years. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she receives a veil before being sent away.

The next part of the story follows Tierney and the other girls as they attempt to survive for an entire year without any rules or individuals to watch them. This, of course, turns into a conflict between Tierney and Kiersten, who is upset that her intended ended up choosing Tierney over her. She eventually turns the camp against Tierney by telling the other girls that Tierney is attempting to keep their magic locked away. However being turned out of the camp is dangerous because poachers, who hunt and skin the girls, lurk on the edges of the woods. So, Tierney determined to survive, lives on what she can before venturing outside the safety of the encampment.

This book is all about female relationships and how men manipulate them to turn women against each other. Here, Liggett uses magic and the grace year as the catalyst for this and shows how the girls hate and fear each other as they descend into the wilds. Kiersten is the prime example since she manipulates the other girls into 'using' their magic and even makes them believe she can make them do what she wants. The girls follow her and turn upon each other as the story progress all because of men encouraging a belief in their dangerous magic. Tierney acts as the voice of reason, who wants them to work together to survive. The ending of the book is truly emotional and I loved how Ligget brought them full circle.

I really enjoyed this book and it kept me enthralled all the way through. Some parts of the story were not explored enough for the main characters choices to make sense, which took me out of the story a bit but that was a small part of the story. Would definitely encourage others to read if they like dystopian YA.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Press. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wow. This book was such a pleasant surprise and an incredibly fast read!

"The Grace Year" follows a group of young girls that have only few things in common - they are female and they are the same age meaning that their so-called Grace Year is upon them. In this year of age the girls have to leave the safety of the county to get rid of their cursed magic so that they bare no threat to the men of the society. They have to survive alone in the forests, and those who stray from the path will be hunted and dismembered by Poachers. When the surviving women return they are usually exactly the way men want them to be - silent, obedient and submissive.
The story is narrated from the point of view of Tierney, who has always been kind of a rebel, not intending to be molded into the shape of woman that is required by the society. She is a strong character with a mind of her own, but as her expectations for her grace year change on the eve of her departure, she needs to fight twice as hard to get through the year alive.

There are many dystopian elements in the novel that are largely inspired by biblical themes, most prominently the crimes committed by Eve and the subsequent punishment for mankind. In this way the Grace Year can be interpreted as kind of a punishment for every woman, since in the novel there is no escape from it as every woman has to go through with it.
On the other hand this story definitely has some dystopian elements, especially criticising male-dominated leadership, promoting female empowerment.

What I especially enjoyed in this novel were the strong characters - not just Tierney as a leading lady, but also Kiersten was despicable but fierce. I also liked some of the male characters, but I won't go into detail.
The book is gripping, dark and extremely thrilling. I couldn't put it down, and even though the book is set mostly in a forest where the girls spend their grace year, the story never gets boring or drab.

Entertaining and exhilarating read. Could not put the book down.
Honestly when a book irritates you and excites you all at the same time
is that not the qualities of a great read?

A very thought-provoking novel, definitely well described as a mix of The Handmaid's Tale and Lord of the Flies. First half of the novel is decidedly darker and more political, while the second half shifts a bit and does take on a bit more of the YA dystopia/ romance feel.. The ending did leave me feeling slightly unsatisfied, but that may have been the author's intention. The Grace Year was a quick and engrossing read, and I would highly recommend it, even if it is outside of your normal genres.