The Grace Year

by Kim Liggett

‘An incredibly important and empowering read’ Natasha Ngan, author of Girls of Paper and Fire

A New York Times bestselling dark speculative feminist thriller, perfect for fans of The Power and The Handmaid's Tale.
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THE RESISTANCE STARTS HERE.

No one speaks of the grace year.
It's forbidden.
We're told we have the power to lure grown men from their beds, make boys lose their minds, and drive the wives mad with jealousy. That's why we're banished for our sixteenth year, to release our magic into the wild before we're allowed to return to civilisation.
But I don't feel powerful.
I don't feel magical.

Tierney James lives in an isolated village where girls are banished at sixteen to the northern forest to brave the wilderness - and each other - for a year. They must rid themselves of their dangerous magic before returning purified and ready to marry - if they're lucky.

It is forbidden to speak of the grace year, but even so every girl knows that the coming year will change them - if they survive it...

A critically acclaimed page-turning feminist dystopia about a young woman trapped in an oppressive society, fighting to take control of her own life.

• ISBN10: 1529100585
• ISBN13: 9781529100587
• Publish Date: 10 October 2019 (first published 8 October 2019)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 April 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Ebury Publishing
• Imprint: Ebury Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

I stumbled upon The Grace Year in a happy accident at ALA over the summer. While I had seen it previously, the very pretty in pink cover made me think it was definitely not something I wanted to read. Luckily, someone went to a signing and let me read the synopsis and I RAN to the line to get a copy!

The Grace Year is not what you'd think based on the cover. This is a dark and terrifying story about a community controlled by its men and the terrible things the women endure. Every girl has a Grace Year. During this year they go together to a community in the wilderness surrounded by walls and are forced to survive with poachers waiting to pick them off, all while ridding themselves of magic. No one speaks of the Grace Year so no one knows what to expect, but every year the girls come back shells of their former selves or not at all.

Tierney is the main character of this story of her own Grace Year. She questions everything including the magic the girls supposedly have to purge from themselves. She has never wanted to be a wife and is an outcast among the others who have all had that goal from childhood. Once inside their new home in the wild, Tierney attempts to help the girls survive, only to be further ostracised and in fear for her life with poachers and maybe even ghosts all around.

I can't actually say much about this book without spoilers and that's one of my favorite things about it! I was absolutely not expecting this story to be as brutal as it was and I loved trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't alongside Tierney. There are so many layers to this story including some that were very unexpected.

The relationship between the girls was fascinating and often painful to read. Their relationship to the men was even more difficult. Even the men who thought they were doing what was best for the characters were only doing what they thought was best, rather than discussing with the women what would be best for them. Although this book does take things to the extreme, it's a great exploration of patriarchy and how women contribute and resist, terrifying in the same vein as The Handmaid's Tale.

Although I really did love this book, I did have some issues with it. I almost feel like this should have been a series as it does cover the events of an entire year and sometimes things felt rushed. I would have loved some of the relationships being explored a bit more. I also did not particularly care for the ending. It was a realistic ending, but wasn't as satisfying as I wanted it to be.

The Grace Year is an incredible read that's fast paced and will keep you on the edge of your seat. This book will definitely make you think and I found it to be incredibly empowering. I really wish more YA books about how strong women can be together had been around when I was a teen. Despite my minor qualms, this is a must read!

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

Wow. A mash-up of The Crucible and The Handmaid's Tale with a dash of Mean Girls.

The most unique thing about this book is the passage of time. It takes place over the course of one year, but the pacing of the story and how it all fits together makes the story just fly by. The ending was unexpected and brought tears to my eyes.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I have some mixed feelings about The Grace Year. On one hand, this book is really conceptually interesting. It has some serious The Handmaid’s Tale vibes and it’s atmospherically very creative and interesting. But The Grace Year tried to do a lot of things all at once and I think it over-reached itself.

For starters, the pacing was really weird. Sometimes, we were able to really absorb the situation and the world, and when the story slowed down, the bits and pieces were excellent. But there were other places that the story seemed to fast-forward and it was easy to get lost. I struggled with the inconsistent pacing. I believe the pacing was what it was because the plot was trying to be too broad.

Going into The Grace Year, I expected a story about a group of girls let sent out in the wild for a year to shake off the wild magic in them. If this was the extent of the book, I think it would have been good. There was a lot to lend itself to a survival story in a colonial-style dystopian world. Some of the best moments in the book were at the camp. It was gritty and disturbing and raw and vulnerable. Really good. But the real plot was much broader than that, minimizing the survival story to a slice between forbidden romance and a greater conspiracy. These themes would have worked across three books, but it was all too much for one, and there was no depth to it. Instead of being immersed in a dark story, it felt more like being pushed on a sled across fresh snow. Fun for a minute, but then I’m ready to go inside for hot cocoa.

Some of the characters are built up and interesting, whether good or evil. Gertie is fantastic and I’d arguably say the most interesting character in the book, but she feels a bit… dropped in. Nothing comes from her story, and she is almost like this token f/f character. Gertie’s sexuality is fact-dropped, and has no bearing on the actually turn of the story. Her friendship with Tierney had a lot of potential and shone through at times, but ultimately felt more like a plot device than any real part of the story. The same with Kiersten’s tyranny. Kiersten is a perfect book one villain – a small villain whose defeat opens doors to bigger challenges and bigger problems. Instead, I felt like she was played down a lot at the end. As for Tierney, our protagonist? She’s all over the place. For the other villains and the love interests – we don’t get to spend enough time with any of them to create any depth of feeling. One villain is unveiled about 75% through the book, and even though what was done was terrible, it was so irrelevant and just one thing among many… the reveal had no punch.

Atmospherically, The Grace Year has a lot going for it. Each of the individual settings are vibrant. I personally would have liked to see more senses used, particularly taste and smell, but the element of sound is used really well. As I mentioned earlier, it was dark and gritty in the right places, and that worked really well.

I have a few fundamental issues with the formatting that may be related to the ARC exclusively – the way the e-galley was set up, the only natural breaks were between seasons, so each of the sections were about 75 pages long (rough guess). I’d have like to have seen chapters, but that could honestly just be something going on at the ARC-level and there may be chapters in the final product. Just seemed worth mentioning!

Generally speaking, there was a lot going on in The Grace Year. I wasn’t in love with this book, but I do respect the craft in it. It was an easy book to read and engrossing despite the issues I personally had with it. I’d have liked to see there be a little more depth in all the parts, and the story stretched across three books, but on its own, The Grace Year is an interesting book with a great atmosphere and some promises of serious girl power.