The Grace Year by Kim Liggett is an adult dystopia in the vein of The Handmaids Tale.
To talk of the Grace Year is forbidden. It is a time when 16 year old girls go away to release their magic, so that they can come back ready to be biddable wives.
In Garner County, women are considered dangerous creatures. They are not allowed to congregate, their hair must be bound with a ribbon of their station, and they must watch their every step or risk being accused of harboring their magic and luring men into unspeakable acts. This is why all sixteen-year-old girls are banished for one year to a remote island, to release their magic and return purified.
Tierney James is about to embark on her own Grace Year and she both fears it and dreams of a better future. But dreams don’t always come true and Tierney soon witnesses the girls of her year turn against each other. She begins to question the magic and wonders if the real magic is getting the girls to turn against eachother.
Will Tierney make it through her Grace Year? And if she returns home, will she be the same girl who left one year ago?
I honestly, was not expecting much when I picked up this one. Truthfully, I was afraid I would be reading another The Power and I really wasn’t ready for that. So I was pleasantly surprised that I could not put this one down. Yes, there were several twists that I saw coming from the start but they worked.
I really loved seeing how ingrained the society was in the girls, so much so that they bring these rules and rituals with them to the only place they don’t have to. Tierney’s journey toward the truth comes slowly at times and then picks up pace as the story progress.
The book does have some brutality to it, but you don’t seem much of it as it’s happen. It’s more abstract and as if you are looking back on the brutality or almost from the sidelines.
This was a much better read than I was anticipating and I am glad. I give it 4.5 stars.
That’s all for now!
-M-
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