This a strange little book. At times tense thriller, at times slow burn teen romance, there’s a lot packed in.

A compelling dystopian YA novel. In a saturated market, this book holds it own.
It's not for the faint hearted but if you don't mind a bit of gore then the world depicted has a chilling resonance.
My thank to netgalley, the author and publisher for this copy.

I didn’t so much read The Grace Year as I did devour it. It is definitely a must read for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and bound to be the next big dystopian novel. It has been described as a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid’s Tale, but it also strongly reminded me of both The Power and The Hunger Games.

This book was clearly aimed at the Young Adult market, but I enjoyed it immensely despite being well past the age of the intended reader.

This bleak dystopian novel is split into five sections; ‘Autumn’, ‘Winter’, ‘Spring’, ‘Summer’ and ‘The Return.’

In the isolated village where Tierney lives it is forbidden to talk of The Grace Year. The year when all sixteen-year-old girls are banished to release their magical hold over men. This magic causes men and boys to be lustful and can drive wives insane with jealousy. It is considered highly dangerous and something to be eradicated.

“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 their wives mad with jealousy. They believe our very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why we’re banished for our sixteenth year, to release our magic into the wild before we’re allowed to return to civilization. But I don’t feel powerful. I don’t feel magical.”

Even though she is not allowed to discuss the grace year Tierney is aware that it probably isn’t a good thing. She observes those around her, and those returning from their grace year and knows that she needs to be wary when her turn comes around.

“The slip of a shawl, scarred shoulders bared under a harvest moon. Haunted fingertips skimming the pond, watching the ripples fade to black. Their eyes a million miles away. In wonderment. In horror.

I used to think that was my magic – having the power to see things others couldn’t – things they didn’t even want to admit to themselves. But all you have to do is open your eyes.

My eyes are wide open”

Girls are not supposed to dream because the men say it is a way of hiding their magic, but Tierney has the same dream over and over again. A young girl making a speech to a group of young women and girls. A speech about bringing about an end to the grace year.

The book begins on the day when the girls who are about to leave for their grace year are to be promised to their future husbands. They are branded at birth with their father’s sign and are bartered off like cattle.

“Being married off isn’t a privilege to me. There’s no freedom in comfort. They’re padded shackles, nonetheless. At least in the labour house my life will still belong to me.”

The women and girls in the village are unable to cut their hair, they have to wear it long in a braid and with a ribbon in it. The grace year girls have to wear a red ribbon, the colour of sin and warning. The warning is for the girls themselves but also an advance warning to the reader.

“All the women in Garner County have to wear their hair the same way, pulled back from the face, plaited down the back. In doing so, the men believe the women won’t be able to hide anything from them – a snide expression, a wandering eye, or a flash of magic. White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives.

Innocence. Blood. Death.”

The girls who return from their grace year are changed in some way and Tierney believes that some fates are worse than death. If she knew she were to return from her grace year to become the wife of someone she loathed, then she would almost take her chances with the poachers.

The poachers live on the outskirts of the village and lay in wait for a grace girl to go astray and when they do, they murder them and sell their body parts for people in the village to use as an aphrodisiac or youth serum.

In the village flowers are used as a form of communication, each one signifies a different thing and grace year girls are often given them when they are given a veil to signify, they are to be married upon their return.

The punishments for not adhering to the rules and social conducts of the village are severe and all the girls and women are supposed to watch all punishments, especially hangings.

“There’s a moment of silence that follows every hanging. Sometimes it feels like it stretches on forever, like they want us to dwell in it for as long as possible – dwell is the right word, to be domiciled, take up residence, to abide.”

The above quote was one of the areas that reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale the most and Atwood’s clever use of language.

Another similarity that strikes me is the way in which female sexuality is punished and restricted and also the use of other women to police this. In some ways I found The Grace Year to be darker than The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Grace Year was a haunting book and one that has earnt itself a place among my favourites.

What a fabulous book this turned out to be, a dystopian tale that reminded me many times of The Hunger games and also Lord of the Flies although the story was very different from those it was the setting and the feel of the storyline that made the comparison’s.
The whole premise of the book just pulls you in and the characterisation was so well crafted making it a page turner and a half. It was a step away from the thrillers I usually read and this was a pleasant change, I loved the main protagonists Tierney she was both tough and compassionate and very believable as she struggles with her life and those of her companions who are sent away to lose their so called magic.
A hard book to review without giving to much away so I would just say it you want something a bit different then you really do have it here so don’t miss out.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing, Del Ray for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
I was immediately drawn into this dystopian novel and its setting that cannot be placed I time either future or past. The novel is all about a male dominated society in which men manipulate and subjugate women. From the day they are born girls are taught that they will have to undergo their Grace Year when they reach the age of 16 but no one is permitted to talk of this or what happens. It was said that this book was The Handmaids Tale meets Lord of the Flies and the way in which the girls turn on each other once they are sent off for their Grace Year is certainly reminiscent of William Goldings novel.
The main character Tierney has always challenged the way in which women are forced to behave and her father has taught her to fend for herself which enables her to cope with the privations of the Grace Year so much better than her peers.
I was engrossed by the novel and could not wait to read on to find out how the situation would be resolved. A fascinating exploration of feminism and what it means to be a woman in a society where men call all the shots.
Many thanks to Net Galley and the Publishers for the opportunity to read this novel in return for an honest review.

The Grace Year is a great piece of dystopian fiction with a real focus on the suppression (and power) of female voices and a very strong, quite bluntly wielded feminist message.

I’m not going to say too much because I thoroughly enjoyed going into this one mostly blind but there was a lot to enjoy about this book. It’s compelling and immersive, it doesn’t pull its punches and at its core there is a message of female strength, empowerment and solidarity in the face of insurmountable odds. Grim yet hopeful.

I did have a few issues. Despite a fairly wide female cast, there was very little character development for the vast majority of them. There were scenes that I think would have had significantly more emotional clout if the characters involved had felt like more than just one name in a list and sometimes they seemed to exist solely for their moment of shock factor. I think overall, and this isn’t something I say very often, The Grace Year could really have benefited from being a little bit longer! I enjoyed the vagueness of the setting (lots of room to make parallels with our own world, for our imaginations to fill in gaps) but I’d have loved a bit more character depth.

This is also very much a ‘chosen one’ narrative and as much as the trope generally doesn’t annoy me too much (I’d be an awful fantasy fan if it did), there were elements of the ‘MC has inexplicable, incredibly useful but kind of ridiculous skills’ that made me roll my eyes. There is a very general, blanket explanation put in place but it is stretched to the point of ridiculous at certain points.

A comparison to The Handmaid’s Tale and The Lord of the Flies is sure to set a very high bar but this is definitely my favourite, recent addition to feminist dystopia. I’m really hoping for a sequel and I think it’d make a great film!

A big thank you to Penguin for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cross The Handmaid’s Tale with The Hunger Games, then make it even darker and more gruesome... and you might come close to The Grace Year.

It’s an odd one. The writing feels like a YA book, but the darker parts of the story would make it a seriously twisted one more suited for older teens - although I would have struggled with the themes in the book at that age still to be honest. It’s dark enough to be aimed at adults, however the themes of adolescence are necessary to the storyline.

The Grace Year is one of those books where the idea is let down by the writing style. The pacing is way off - the first two thirds of the book have no rhythm and weeks pass by between paragraphs with no warning. That improves for the final third of the book or so though.

The vast majority of the twists and reveals along the way can be seen a mile off, however to give credit it doesn’t really lessen the shock factor by much.

It’s not a lighthearted read. The fleeting moments of hope are more often than not crushed soon enough, and by the end of the book you know you’re not likely to get anything near a traditional Happy Ending.

The idea behind the story is so horrific -and, ahem, magical - that I couldn’t help being drawn in though. It’s just a shame that the writing structure let it down a bit.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Review posted to Goodreads. Thank you to NetGalley and the published for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Did you enjoy reading The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale? If so, please let me introduce you to The Grace Year...

Every female in Garner County has to have her hair pulled back from her face and plaited down the back. This is to ensure that women are not hiding anything from men and are free of magic. Girls wear white ribbons until they are 16 and their grace year starts and at that point, the white is replaced with red. Once married, the ribbon takes on the colour black. Innocence - Blood - Death. When Tierney James turns 16, she is sent away with the other 16 year old girls to live away from the county for a year to release her magic and come back purified, ready to marry. Surviving for long 12 months is a test that only some survive and no girl comes back the same.

An absolutely brilliant premise that I knew I would love as soon as I read the synopsis. When the girls were taken away for their grace year and their race for survival began, I felt the same shivers down my spine as when reading the Hunger Games, especially as the main character Tierney reminded me of Katniss Everdeen. Tierney, however, wasn't as fierce as I wanted her to be, but of course, they can't all be as badass as Katniss. Still, she was an interesting heroine and fought her battles bravely. This was a riveting and totally compulsive read about survival, friendship and female power that I highly recommend.

<i>Many thanks to Ebury Publishing for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This must be one of the most awesome novels I have read this year. It is magic, it is fantasy. It is Lord of The Flies. It is Handmaid’s Tale. It is spectacular. A must read for 2019 which completely enthralled me.

Enjoyable enough, but it feels derivative to me .. rebellious female with problems about male dominance .. feeds off Margaret Attwood .. perhaps it's that it's aimed at younger adults .. the story of a young woman who rebels against a restrictive imagined society which insists women behave a certain way .. the grace year is when they all decide about marriage ..her best male friend (she is in contention with other young women .. so no solidarity there) is taken up by another, and the bully boy takes her on despite her wishes ('Taming of the shrew' , anyone?... although Shakespeare's ending which grates when she submits is not the ending here ... ) .. I stopped about third of way through despite its competence.

*** ARC provided by Netgalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

A book like this is likely to receive a lot of comparisons to other novels. For example, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Hunger Games, The Power, Lord of the Flies etc. Honestly, if you’ve read and enjoyed any of those books then you will be likely to enjoy this one too.

The Grace Year is set in a dystopian world where it is believed that women possess a magic that come in around their 16th year that can control and curse the men around them. To this end, they are sent away for a year to survive in the woods with nothing to do and nothing to really sustain them. The aim being that they accept and release their magic before returning home to be good wives and workers. Without giving the plot away I feel like the only thing I can add is that our protagonist Tierney is not going to take this quietly and spends the novel questioning all that she has been told and learned. Great read though I could have done without the romance in the middle as this didn’t seem to fit with the other tones in the book.

A great option for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, with a touch of Lord of the Flies thrown in for good measure. Tierney is sixteen years old, and about to be sent away on her Grace Year - a shadowy tradition of her hometown, where all the girls of that age are sent into exile before they ‘come into their magic’. They stay away for a year, during which time their magic should all be spent, and they can return home to become wives to the men who have chosen them, or, if they have not been chosen, to work.

Tierney is a classic YA heroine, opinionated and rebellious, suspicious of these traditions and eager to break free of the expectations placed upon her. During their time in the woods, as the other girls succumb to a sort of group madness and claim to be in possession of magical powers, Tierney tries to find a way to escape both from the wilderness she has been cast into and the society she is expected to return to. With the woods full of poachers eager to ensnare the girls for a drop of their magic-infused blood and the camp full of enemies, Tierney has to fight every step of the way.

With compelling characters and bold writing, this is a fast and powerful read.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features pregnancy, birth, bullying, death, ogling, discussion of sex, fade-to-black sex scene, sex shaming language, predators, sexual assault, forced prostitution, rape culture, violence against women, execution by hanging, forced watching of execution, discussion of skinning girls alive, an axe wound, suicide, cannibalism, transphobia: girl grabbed by the crotch to "check" she's not "really" a boy, homophobia: same sex attraction leads to violent punishment, acting on same sex attraction is punishable by death, and purposeful public outing of lesbian character.

Marketed as The Handmaid's Tale meets Lord of the Flies, The Grace Year by Kim Liggettn sounded absolutely right up my street! And while it has an incredible premise, and started off really strong, I ultimately found it quite disappointing and forgetable.

Tierney lives in this incredibly patriachal society, where men oppress women for the sake of control and because of fear. I woman is to be seen and not heard, be a wife, and produce babies - preferably sons. During their sixteenth year, all girls are sent off to an isolated island, and locked inside an infenced encampment, for their grace year. They spend their whole year there to rid themselves of their magic. Because all girls have magic: it makes the men crazy with lust and makes wives jealous. The day before the start of their grace year, the women are all lined up, after all the men have discussed and decided which girls will become the wives the eligible men. There are always more grace year girls than there are eligible men. The men give veils to their chosen intended, and that's that. The women have no say. They're then sent off on their grace year with the understanding that when they come back - if they come back, because never does everyone make it home after their grace year - those with veins will become wives, those without will become indentured labourers. This is how it's always been. Once their in their encampment, they are left to their own devices for a full year, to rid themselves of magic, and survive. But with the girls slowly starting having mental issues, and with the poachers - the sons of the women who have been forced into prostitution in the Outskirts as punishment, or sisters sent their if their older sister does not return from their grace year, dead or alive - circling outside the fence, waiting for anyone to leave, so they can skin them alive, (and sell their body parts back to the town, who will consume them to bring back their youth and vitality), 33 girls quickly becomes fewer and fewer.

As I said, The Grace Year started really strong. The town the women live in is horrifying. Women literally have no rights at all. Everything they have is given to them by the men, and the men can just as easily take it away again. They have all the power, and they'll use it. Sick of your wife who isn't getting pregnant? Say you've seen her using magic, and she'll be executed. Then you can find yourself another from this year's grace year girls. It's disgusting, and just so, so awful. I was raging, and I loved it, certain this was going to be a book where, as it's a standalone, we'd see women take back their power. What I read, during the grace year, was women turning against women, because why not take some power when you finally have some freedom?

But also, I kind of just expected more. There was no background for the world building. Why do girls have magic? What actually happens if they don't release it? When was the grace year first thought up? When was it decided that the way the people live now is in the "best interests" for everyone? Why is this world the way it is? I have absolutely no idea, because we're not told anything. And was just really slow. Sometimes it would feel like things were going somewhere, but then you'd discover that actually, months had gone by. I get it, they're spending a whole year there, and there will be times when nothing much of note is going to happen, but to skip months in a few lines? And then having months go by where we see not a huge deal happening at all, really? And when things did happen, they never quite made it to the level of horrifying I was expecting. There was this sense, throughout, that things could get really bad, and at times they do, but it's softened. A lot of it we don't actually see - things are always happening where Tierney is not, and maybe Liggett didn't want the readers having to read such terrible things, or she simply didn't want to have to write them, but I mean we see a an execution at the beginning, and there are other seriously awful - and probably very triggering things, especially when it comes to the trans/homophobia - she does write, I just didn't understand why we didn't see it all. Don't give us this horrific world, and then shy away from the realities of it. I'm not satying I want to see terrible things happen to the girls, but these things aren't just terrible, they also hugely affect the plot, and we just don't see them.

And the way things ended was just so disappointing. I was thinking, "Really, this is the way the story is going to go? This is the path Tierney is taking? After everything? Really?" I got the importance of the very end, but this is a standalone story. Nothing is coming after. And this is what we get? It was such a let down. I just couldn't believe this was the whole story. For me, it just wasn't enough. There was no real closure for me. I just didn't see the point of the story, of reading it, if that was the ending I was getting. And it's also really forgetable; at the time of writing this, I actually forgot what I read. I knew I had a review to write, but couldn't for the life of me remember for what book. I had to look it up. It was that ineffectual for me.

So yeah, this story just wasn't for me, sadly. But a lot of people have really loved it, so do read some other reviews before deciding whether or not to read it.

Thank you to Del Rey via NetGalley for the eProof.

I didn't really enjoy this book, but I don't think I am [part of the target audience. It's well written, but I found it a bit of a struggle, and I didn't really care what happened.

This tale made me very angry and then lost and then found and even a little confused! Am I sad that I spent time having all those ups and downs, the answer is emphatically NO.

The angry part was due to the Patriarchal misogyny (I am male) and the sad way that the women treated their Grace year away from the men. I got somewhat lost when the central female figure in the story, Tierney, drifted into Stockhausen's Syndrome. I found myself again when Tierney returned to the fray and when she knitted her Grace year "sisters" back into a thinking. feeling, "not downtrodden at all" group.

My confusion came about because the Grace year is supposed to allow these women (just past pubescent girls really) to lose their magic so that they can return to take their places in their chosen for them by the men roles as docile, "would not say boo to a goose", do as they are told women. Truth be told, I can only see their female magic as being another way to describe their wants and needs as women. What men seldom seem to realise is that for the majority of women their "face" for their men and to a lesser extent the outside world seldom reflects what is actually going on in their heads and in the company of other women. They are frequently Eminence Grise.

Honestly? I should have left this book alone. I first read the Handmaid’s Tale at 13 and now that it’s a series and any number of partial imitators or books inspired by are now available (which they weren’t 27 years ago) I find myself frustrated with a narrative where men control women. Attwood’s work was far more nuanced and I feel like those who have come after have made the mistake of choosing a facile interpretation and running with it. Anyway, that’s not directly applicable to the Grace Year where magic and superstition is used to marginalise women and teen girls. The book is well written and compelling and owes as much to an introspective look at the choices you make to survive as it does to pure gender issues dystopia. I can’t say I liked it but the issue was with me not wanting yet another one of these sorts of stories, rather than with the book itself.

3.75 stars rounded up. A sinister indictment of women’s place in society in this unsettling take on dystopia. Many have likened this to a love child of Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid’s tale and rightly so. Another comparative visual for me is from the film ‘The Village’ by Michael Shyamalan. Superstition and magic are used as a way for men to control the women of this society but it is a system where the women are similarly complicit. This is a brutal and unflinching look at identity, peer group pressure and the choices one makes to survive. This was a compelling read. (less)

Tierney rails against the expectations of her town, that daughters should be dutiful and women can be dangerous creatures, without men to guide them.
No one speaks of the Grace Year, when girls are sent into the woods, to expel their magic, so they can come back and serve as wives.

I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Tierney has grown up with a lot of freedom, compared to some girls. She is a tomboy and has been taught to hunt and survive in the woods. She fears the mysterious Grace Year, as every year the girls come back broken, if they come back at all. Tierney wants to survive it, and go into manual labour afterwards - a step down in class, but at least she will have true freedom for the first time in her life.
She lives in a harsh world where women must be silent and obedient; and even the best wife can be put aside, if accused of witchcraft.

Tierney and the other 16 year old girls are rounded up and marched to the forest camp that will be their home for the next 12 months.
If anyone doubted the seriousness of this trial, tragedy strikes as two girls die on the way. One is killed by the hunters, who circle the girls, picking them off at any chance, so they can sell their magic-laden hair and skin to greedy medicine-makers.
The second... may or may not have been killed by the queen bee - Kiersten - and her burgeoning power.

I loved this story, with it's dark themes and wonderful twistiness.
To start with, it reminded my of Witch Child by Celia Rees, with the strict, Puritan setting, and seeing magic in everything. The way that the patriarchy are used to ruling and will continue to keep women downtrodden. How evil is blamed, but it's rarely those that are truly evil that get punished.

It moves into Lord of the Flies territory, as these girls have to figure out how to survive; whether to work on building their own community and working together, or to embrace their magic and become gods for the year.

This story is brilliantly brutal. I loved how you're never really sure what the truth is, and even when you have answers and are surrounded by logic, there is still the whisper of magic threaded through everything.
I don't want to say anything, because every little piece builds into the wonderfully-fraught atmosphere of this book.

I was totally captivated by The Grace Year and I can't wait to read more of Liggett's work.

A powerful and emotional read for me, I always find demise dystopian books make me angry but in a good way, angry but so much is still happening like this in the world, things touched upon although dystopian novel, are still happening, so it’s nice to leave a book and know your not in that world, but knowing as a woman that here are girls in the world suffering similarities is always hard to get away from for me. So yes amazingly powerful read for me, speaking about our nature, place in society, the power we hold. It’s a riveting book, so well written, the author has you spellbound from page one and she doesn’t let you go until the last page. This is one of my favourite reads this year so far and I will be reading more of Kim’s work now. Recommended to all as a must read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I found this book an interesting read as it is not my usual genre. I thought it was well written and kept my attention all the way through. I also like the elements of relationships to different characters which was explored.

I think this was a good read, perhaps just not enough of an arc to the story for me to give it 5 stars.