Today’s book review is for The Grace Year by Kim Liggett, a young adult dystopian novel about a society that believes women possess dark magic that must be released into the wild before marriage.
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Book 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. From Goodreads.
“But isn’t that how every horrible thing begins? Slow. Insipid. A twisting of a screw.”
The Basics
Category: Young Adult Dystopian
Tags: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fiction, Science Fiction, Horror
Author: Kim Liggett
Publisher: Wednesday Books, October 2019
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
**Spoilers Ahead**
In this dystopian world, girls are forced out of society to carry out their Grace Year in a remote location. No one talks about the Grace Year, so the girls do not know what to expect. There are no rules and no supervision – just a few dozen 16-year-old girls trying to survive.
So Let’s Get Into it…
In an isolated community, girls of Garner County are thought to have innate magical powers that ensnare men. When a young woman turns sixteen, they are sent to live outside of society for a year to release their supposed magic. To speak of the Grace Year in any way is forbidden, and the girls always go into the Grace Year knowing nothing outside of tales secretly passed down. One thing for certain is that something ominous happens during the Grace Year, and the group of girls always come back changed – whether it’s their demeanor or physical appearance – if they return at all.
“They call us the weaker sex. It’s pounded into us every Sunday in church how everything’s Eve’s fault for not expelling her magic when she had a chance, but I still can’t understand why the girls don’t get a say.”
Our story begins with main character Tierney about to enter her Grace Year. She has accepted the fact that she will not be chosen at the veiling ceremony when the men get to handpick their bride. She has always been an outcast and a tomboy in her community, so she doesn’t believe any man would choose to marry her. There aren’t enough men available who need a bride for the number of girls in her year, so most of the girls won’t be chosen. Tierney has no desire being a wife and giving up her freedom, preferring to work in the labor fields over a forced marriage. However, everything changes for Tierney when her best friend Michael unexpectedly choses her to be his wife. Tierney’s plan during the Grace Year was to lay low and survive, but now she is considered “veiled,” painting a huge target on her back in the process for the jealous “unveiled.” That includes Kiersten, Tierney’s now rival who is “veiled,” but wanted Michael to choose her at the ceremony.
“At least in the labor house my life will still belong to me. My body will belong to me. But those kind of thoughts get me in trouble, even when I don’t say them out loud.”
As the girls are led off onto a two-day journey to the Grace Year camp, strange things begin happening. Kiersten claims that her magic is awakening, and that her gift is the ability to control others. Two girls die before the group even finishes the trek to the camp. One girl is killed by poachers when she leaves the safety of the group. In this world, it is believed that girls’ body parts have magic in them. Their “parts” are then sold off and ingested – creating a valuable yet vile black market.
Once they arrive at camp, they must watch their backs because there are no rules and no supervision. The guards unceremoniously drop them off and leave them to fend for themselves, with the “freedom” to do whatever they’d like. However, danger lurks inside the camp, and outside of the fence poachers are waiting. Their only possessions are backpacks, the clothes on their backs, and enough food to last them a year – and to top it all off they discover that the previous Grace Year girls trashed the camp.
“But I know what I saw. I know what I felt. They can call it magic. I can call it madness. But one thing is certain. There is no grace here.”
Almost immediately the group splinters into two distinct groups – the veiled and the unveiled. Although Tierney is veiled, she leads the unveiled group in making rain barrels and other additions to the camp to help the girls survive. Meanwhile all the girls seem to become more and more delusional. Tierney begins questioning herself, and thinks she is going mad. Many of the girls start claiming that they have magical abilities – and at points there appears to be proof of dark magic in them. The girls become increasingly violent and delusional as the book progresses, and there is clearly something wrong -magical or otherwise.
“How could the men live among us, lie with us, let us care for their children, knowing the horrors we inflict upon one another… alone… in the wilderness… in the dark?”
Tierney is forcefully driven from camp when everyone turns on her. She was a loner before they arrived at camp and Kiersten has slowly convinced everyone that Tierney is trying to sabotage their survival. Injured and losing grip on reality, she flees into the woods – leaving the confides of the camp behind her. Stumbling through the wilderness trying to avoid poachers, she attempts to escape across the frozen lake and falls through the ice. However, she is rescued by an unlikely savior – a poacher.
“No matter the circumstances that threw us together, he will always be a poacher. I will always be prey. Nothing will ever change that. As soon as I cross back over the fence, all of this will be nothing but a dream. A great and terrible dream.”
When Tierney wakes up, she feels lucky to be alive, but is also terrified of what the poacher has in store for her. To her surprise, the poacher does not kill her and nurses her back to health. She begins thinking more clearly and realizes that the girls have no magic, only vivid hallucinations caused by poisonous hemlock in the well water. Tierney feels it is her duty to go back and save the same girls that abandoned her to die. She makes it back to camp and convinces them to drink fresh spring water instead of the well water. Once the poison is out of their system the girls are horrified by the violence and brutality they inflicted upon each other while under the influence of the hemlock. Finally united by the trauma they’ve endured, the girls band together and agree to leave clues and helpful items behind for the next group of Grace Year girls.
“In the dark wood, in this cursed place, we’ve found a bit of grace.”
Ending with renewed hope for the future livelihood of women in Garner County, the book explores the dynamic of the girls’ faux freedom, after being unwittingly poisoned and pit against one another from the start. There are many twists and turns in this book and even a dash of romance. Although, countless terrible things happen during Tierney’s Grace Year that change everyone involved, we are left with hope. In the end the girls band together under a shared purpose – to change the twisted world they live in, as women united.
“We may be without powers, but we are not powerless.”
So Bookmark or Bin it?
Conclusion: Bookmark it
I love a good dystopian book and The Grace Year did not disappoint. I was hooked from the very beginning. Liggett expertly weaved a tale showing how those in power did whatever was necessary to dissuade bonds among women and what happens when women overcome those obstacles and work together. This book mixes elements of “The Handmaids Tale” with a young adult setting and a lot of suspense, which will have you second guessing reality just as the characters are. As Tierney’s mother warned, “Trust no one, not even yourself.”
Fun Extra Tidbit
Kim Liggett worked as a studio musician in the 80s, performing backup vocals for bands ranging from country to punk rock music.
Thanks so much for reading my book review for The Grace Year by Kim Liggett! Now it’s your turn! Have you read this novel or any others by Liggett and if so, what are your thoughts? Please feel free to share in the comments below!
Happy reading 😊
