Book Review: The Grace Year

The Grace Year, by Kim Liggett

• Dark and twisted coming of age

• Women and the revolution

• Love that binds us

• 4 Stars

This was a Handmaid’s Tale, Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies adventure that I couldn't put down.

I had no preconceived notion of what this book was, it was gifted in a book exchange and I hadn’t read much about it before. It sounds like a dark coming of age story, which it is - but I wasn’t prepared.

Tierney is growing up in a Handmaid’s Tale type world where she and other young women are thought to be too powerful and have magic, that they must be expelled of before marriage. If they are lucky enough to be married, or be banished to a life of work.

This community sends the girls away for their 16th year to a remote place where they can get rid of their magic before returning to be wives/mothers and workers. And no one speaks of this year, not the community as a whole, and certainly not any of the women. It’s forbidden, like many other things. The horror, friendships, magic, and survival of this year is known to be dark.

Tierney reminded me a lot of June (Handmaid’s Tale) and Katniss (Hunger Games) in her desire to care for others in a world that was cruel to them. Trying to help the other girls during Grace Year, go about things in a logical manner, and attempting to stay true to herself in the dark chaos around her.

For those who aren’t familiar or glazed over their high school reading of Lord of the Flies - these girls too were left on an island to their own devices. There were no plans, clues, or signs of hope left behind from the previous year’s girls when they arrive. They must learn to survive and are under the impressions they must grasp and expel their magic.

I recommend to anyone who enjoyed any of those three books, anyone who loves to root for a strong female character, and anyone who loves to get lost in the gray areas of human nature. I think this book will be one I reread in the future.

Good Reads Synopsis: 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.

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