I enjoyed the first few chapters of this so much that I bought a physical copy! I will be completing my review once I finish reading that.

I couldn’t help absolutely loving this book.
This was a super fun and wild dystopian ride. Recommend this book for anyone who has loves YA dystopia like divergent or hunger games!

Just trying to clear my Netgalley shelf of older content that I read but forgot to or didn't rate/review. One of the books my students have loved the most!

“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.” — THE GRACE YEAR, Kim Liggett

I’ve seen this book touted as THE HANDMAID’S TALE meets LORD OF THE FLIES and I always take comparisons like those with a grain of salt. But every so often one of those proclamations turns out to be accurate and that’s exactly what happened with this book. It’s not just a cross between the above-mentioned, I’m wholly convinced that THE GRACE YEAR is actually Margaret Atwood and William Golding’s love child in book form.

Violent and dark and often horrific, this isn’t just a tale of survival. Instead it’s part survival tale mixed with an interesting look at the lives of women and not only how men view them, but also the complicated relationships that women often form with other women. Much of that is explored in this book and while the majority of the story shows girls putting girls against one another or forming cliques to belittle other girls, there are a few instances where girls will band together in support of one another. There are some very powerful and impactful quotes and scenes within these pages and I’m still thinking about it even days after finishing. I don’t want to give much away in terms of plot because you should definitely go in to this one knowing just the bare minimum.

Bottom line — THE GRACE YEAR was a fantastically good feminist tale of survival that provides plenty of food for thought, and I’m so glad I finally read this gem of a book. Kim Liggett’s dark writing style and her inclusion of so many horror elements made this a definite favorite, and I will most certainly be grabbing every book with her name on it.

*eARC received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher.

Lord of the Flies meets Hunger Games meets Handmaid’s Tale. Don’t get me wrong this book is it’s own creation. The plot is completely unique and had me turning pages all day and well into the night. That said if you enjoyed any of the aforementioned books, Grace Year should be added to your TBR. Beyond a suspenseful plot, the narrative sends a great message regarding the strength of community both for good and evil.

Unique, intelligent, and haunting. The Grace Year is a novel that renewed my interest in dystopia. The story grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go, and the twists kept me on my toes. While I would have preferred a happier ending, it would have been disingenuous to the spirit of the book. Overall, I highly recommend.

That ending blindsided me. And, I was rather sad about it. Why Kim, why?!

Having seen the tagline, "The Handmaid's Tale with some Hunger Games thrown in for good measure," I knew this was going to be a wild ride. And from start to finish, it was.

We follow Tierney and her Grace Year. The females in her county all go through this process, when you turn 16, you are sent to an encampment, a few days journey from the county, in the middle of Poacher territory. During this Grace Year, you are to release your "magic" and become "purified" upon your return to the town. A full year later. And not all survive. Poachers, remember?

Tierney is a pretty badass female protagonist. Smart as a whip, adaptable on the fly, feisty and headstrong, and loyal to those who gain her absolute trust.

Kiersten, another Grace Year in Tierney's year, is a bike human being. I wanted to slap her on so many occasions. She manages to hold the rest of the girls in her captivating snare.

The Grace Year was hauntingly atmospheric. With just enough detail to not be overly gory in certain scenes. The double twist in the last third of the book.

CW: oppression against females, violence against females, death, suicide, brutal attacks, betrayal, teen pregnancy, etc...

Thank you Netgalley and publishers of the Grace Year for allowing me to read this book for my honest review.

I highly enjoyed this book. It had a few flaws, but overall I thought the premise was interesting and had a lot of important things to say about misogyny and feminism, how we treat other women, and rape culture.
“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.” ~ my favorite quote from the book and the one I find most poignant.
Some things I wasn’t crazy about were the characters. They weren’t fleshed out very well. They were very stereotypical. You have your tomboy, your mean girl, etc. It didn’t feel like we went below the surface on any of them. I also wasn’t crazy about the romance. It felt very sudden. There was no buildup to the relationship, so later when something happens and we’re supposed to care, I just didn’t. I still ended up giving this book four stars though, because while I had some issues with it, I felt like overall it was an important story to tell.​

This book wasn’t original enough for me to like it. Sure, it had a concept that intrigued me, but when I read it, I couldn’t connect to anything.

It’s taken me a long time to write this review, primarily because I had such mixed feeling while and after reading the book. It was… bittersweet. Not like bittersweet chocolate, rich and complex. Bittersweet like pickles dipped in chocolate. Salty, sweet… but weird and unbalanced. Do I like it? I don’t know, have another bite.

For example, the mysterious portions of the plot are pretty compelling. However, our heroine, Tierney, is also unusually dense about the emotions and complexity of other people. There are several early “surprises” that teen readers will see coming miles away, and that will make adult readers roll their eyes. Is the plot feminist? Kind of… but it’s enrobed in so much “not like other girls” nonsense that many readers will be turned off by the time Tierney finally starts to make actual feminist moves. For too much of the book, Tierney exhibits a feminism that would free her of standard gender roles while also living her whole live in relation to the men and boys around her. She struggles to be both by herself and in the company of only women/girls.

And the worst bite of all—the ending. No spoilers, but the ending has sent many people to the Goodreads questions section to ask what actually happened. It’s incredibly subjective, and not terribly satisfying either way. Pickles and chocolate, man.

This was such a unique story. It was a bit slow to get into but once you got there it was well worth the wait. I think it could've even went into more detail but the story is so unique it doesn't dissapoint!

Well, it’s officially happened. 3 entire months into 2021 and I FINALLY FINALLYYYYY have a 5 star read.

No lie. I put off finishing this cause I didn’t want it to end.

Maybe that’s a little too dark considering the subject….


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.


I honestly can’t give this book enough praise. The worldbuilding was excellent and filled with impossible choices with no right or wrong answer but serious possible consequences. The detail that goes into each season of the Grace Year but also what happens before the girls leave to their encampment.

Your eyes are wide open, but you see nothing.

AND OH. MY. The return. The consequences of the Grace year. The domino effect that you can see building.

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.

This book was truly amazing. It’s dark. It’s terrifying. You may even forget your are reading a fictional book.

Thank you to the publishers over at NetGalley for the eARC!

I felt everything the main character was feeling because the book was so well written. The characters all came alive- I could see the camp, the well, the cots, the trees, it was all so vivid and I cannot WAIT to see the movie. What a true physical and emotional journey.

why did I wait so long to review this book! I loved it! It was utterly gripping and suspenseful! The author had a way to pull you in.

Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men, drive women mad with jealousy so on the even of their 16th year they are hauled off with the other 16 years olds to harness and release their powers so they can be ready to marry the town men after a pre-arranged ceremony.

With a bit of a girls version of Lord of the Flies, the story quickly turns dark and mysterious. Not to mention the WOW ending!!!

This is a for sure read! and I was first recommended this author from reading her book "blood and salt" another good one!

Women have power over men, and this cannot be allowed. In Garner County the girls are sent away for a year on their 16th birthday in order to release this powerful aphrodisiac into the wild and not on the poor men. While they are out there, they are on their own with only each other. Not everyone makes it home. The ones that do, don't always come back whole.

This book is dark. It is haunting and powerful. It calls out how dangerous fear and misunderstanding is. Shows how lack of communication and support and division cause irreversible damage to communities. How sisterhood and friendship and support is needed for all to survive. Supporting one another lifts everyone as a whole.

OH, but MICHAEL!!!
Loved this book! I wanted things to go a little differently once I was about 25% of the way through (just because that was my personal dream for it to happen a certain way). I realize the author had to end things the way she did and it still came out perfect!

I can get through heavier reads if the storyline is well-developed and the writing is unique. This novel lacked both and I couldn’t finish.

A riveting plot that is dark and twisty. Hard to put down. Womanhood - what draws us together, what tears us apart. Quite the tale of solidarity, jealously, the power of suggestion. Shades of the Handmaid's Tale that will keep you thinking and reading all night long.

I totally think this was a case of me being in a slump, but I really couldn’t get into the Grace Year. I completely fell in love with the feminist plot undertone and how it really reminded me of a hunger games meets Handmaid’s Tale, but I could not for the life of me stay in the story. The WTF moments that I caught (which were definitely living up to its name) weren’t enough to keep me enticed enough, and so I ultimately decided to just DNF.

Hopefully once I get out of my fantasy/scifi slump I can try this piece again, as I really do think this one is going to be a great read!

2.5 stars

I have such mixed feelings about this novel.... it definitely is a mix between Handmaid's Tale (which I did NOT like) and kind of the film The Village in some ways.

The novel had some interesting/good messages about how women really need to work together and not allow society (frankly, MEN) to make them turn on each other. It was a good message of how working together we all are stronger as women, very RBG. The story also made really good points about how horrendous women are to each other, even as a female, I say that nothing is more evil than some spiteful, power hungry teenage girl.

I can see a lot of the positives in the novel, I just did not really enjoy it very much and it felt rather long winded to me even though the novel wasn't that long. Granted, it may have felt long to me because I wasn't enjoying it. In the end, it just made me even more horrendously angry with society and men and the power that they use over women. Even to this day.