Review - The Grace Year

​​The Grace Year

​​by Kim Liggett

​​416 pages

​​Release date 10/08/2019

​​5 out of 5 stars

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​​Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for my copy!  All opinions are my own.

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​​According to the publisher, “No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

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​​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.

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​​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.

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​​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.”

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​​If I had to summarize this book, I’d say it’s a cross between The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, but for me, it somehow ended up being uniquely its own story.

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​​When I received my copy, I was honestly somewhat skeptical; there are quite a few female-centered dystopian future novels that have come out in recent years.  I didn’t know if this books could or would set itself apart.  To be frank, it does use many elements that are common in this type of book:  teenage girls, told that they are bad, abused by the men in charge.  I found the supernatural element of this book (the girls are told that they have magic and that’s what makes them so dangerous) to be unique, and is a part of the reason I chose to include this book in my Halloween-season reading.

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​​Another unique aspect of this book was it’s focus on the dynamics of the girls themselves, rather than their interactions with the government/men/higher power.  I enjoyed that while the girls are the victims in this dystopia, they are also written to be unique and free-thinking enough that the greater struggle is amongst themselves.  

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​​This book is excellently written; I could not wait to get to the next page to see what happened.  I was so engrossed in the story and the characters.  The author uses suspense very well, and the pacing is excellent.  There aren’t any of the lulls you sometimes see in thriller-type books where nothing is happening.  

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​​If you want to twist my arm and make me give a criticism, I’ll give you two points:   

1. ​​ There aren’t individual chapters - the book is broken down by the four seasons of the year.  My personal preference is for shorter chapters, so at first I was somewhat intimidated by this breakdown.  I quickly got over that however, when I could not stop reading and didn’t need a break.

2. ​​I’m still unclear when in time this book is supposed to take place.  I’ve referred to it here as “dystopianfuture,” because in my mind that’s when it takes place.  However, the lack of technology, description of clothes, and theocratic nature of the society the girls live in could very well signal that this story was meant to take place hundreds of years ago.  This doesn’t actually have any bearing on the story; it could very well have been written this way by the author:  is this shameful treatment of women something in the past or is this a horrifying vision of what could be to come?  Either way, I’m just nosy and wanted to know throughout reading.

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​​Overall this book was excellent, and is one of my favorites that I’ve read so far this year.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense, action, or adventure books!