Review: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

ARC provided by the published through NetGalley. I am clearly very late.

I am still crying from this book. That ending killed my tear ducts.

The Grace Year follows Tierney, a teen girl about to enter her 'grace year' a year where all the girls of her age are sent to the woods for a year to rid themselves of their magic; right before leaving, you have the opportunity to be betrothed to any eligible man who chooses you, and you will be wed assuming you make it back alive. This book is a wild ride.

It is hard to talk about what I found so special about this book without spoiling anything, but I really loved the portrayal of feminism and how social change is implemented. I am not going to call out other books, but this book is kind of what I thought I was getting with a book I read previously. The setting of this world made me feel the way I felt when I read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery for the first time; the world didn't seem to call out to a specific place (somewhere with woods) or exact time and holds a warped mirror up to us to comment on women role in society.

I loved the way the world felt so insidious. The atmosphere and pace of this novel really worked for me. I absolutely flew through this book. Most of the book takes place over a full year, as the title would suggest, and I was invested in seeing what was on the next page my whole reading experience.

I will say the romantic dynamic used in this book isn't my favorite. I don't hate the trope, but I think it is both overused and often poorly used. This being said, clearly, it was not a huge detraction for me; I didn't think it was done poorly, and I so deeply loved the other aspects of the book it didn't really sway my opinion.

Circling back to gender dynamics. I especially loved this book's exploration of the ways women keep other women 'in their place.' The book literally has women cannibalizing girls in the hopes that it will help them have sons. That is just one example, and an extreme one, of how the book engages with this. It is so varied throughout the book, both in the ways women act and the way our main character reacts to it. Tierney goes from keeping herself apart from other girls, holding herself in higher regard in many aspects, to implementing many different strategies to integrate with the other girls during the grace year. I also really liked the inclusion of men who were clear allies to the advancement and equality of women, though this book's focus is clearly the women.

I will not spoil the ending, but it is such a poignant ending that encourages your imagination to run wild. I also hope it encourages the author to write a sequel. I am also not sure if I actually want that or if I just think I do because I loved this reading experience.

Last note, I am normally very squeamish and a giant baby. This book is full of blood, gore, and literal torture. I was only grossed out one time, but if those things are huge no's for you, I felt a heads up was deserved.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I recommend this book to people who loved The Hunger Games, to anyone looking for books that examine the cruelty of patriarchy in a fictional setting, and to people who like weird, disturbing stuff in their speculative fiction.