The Grace Year - 5 Stars

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett. YA Dystopian Thriller.

Welcome to "A Fleeting Thought", a blog by The Willow Branch Books, where I post relatively short and to the point book reviews and thoughts!

Spoilers are in this review.

Book summary at end of review.

This has to be one of my favorite reads! It was gripping, emotional, and SO full of very necessary feminine rage. This book was something I absolutely could not put down and couldn't wait to get back to. I promised myself I would only read for an hour and I ended up finishing the whole thing. It felt too on the nose for the times we're going through. But then again, I feel like we've been saying that for years now. Is the frog aware of the water temperature rising?

I chose The Grace Year for us to read in The Willow Branch Books book club. The overall rating was a 4.5 from the group with only one DNF. The DNF? She was too angry at the world and the characters in the book because, again, it's striking a wee bit too close to our current (bullshit) state of things.

Often when I go to type "The Grace Year" it autocorrects to "The Grave Year" and it's not too far off. A world where "our magic" is so feared that at 16 you're sent to an unknown land to be locked into for a year to "rid of" your magic. You come back battered, bruised, mute, or missing an ear, but god save the queen, you're no longer a temptress. When did we put all of the responsibility on women to not "tempt" men, but we don't put any of the responsibility of men to honestly just provide BASIC RESPECT to others and their autonomy.

This is one of those books can be dissected for hours. Let's start with how the patriarchy influenced the way the group worked.

Hierarchy is always going to exist. But there's a way to establish leadership peacefully and there's a way it's shoved down your throat. Now, let's think. When has it ever worked that when you force a person or people to do things, they don't eventually get fed up and revolt. Meanwhile, matriarchies have a documented history of peace and prosperity amongst themselves.

In "The Grace Year" we have Kiersten who I feel like is the definition of a "pick me" in the sense that she executes what the patriarchy or men would expect from her because she believes one, she'll benefit from it and two, they'll see her differently. Better. More obedient. That's not to say it's entirely her fault. If it's all you know and all you strive for, I can't you to act differently if you're ignorant. She was easily the most hated character but a character we all know or could relate to having someone like that in our lives. She was willing to use people to get her way, she enforced violence under her established rule, and iced out anyone who didn't see things the way she did. The way the girls swayed toward her under her boisterous attitude that gave the impression of knowledge felt eerily similar to today's climate. The girls watched and they knew the things that were happening were wrong, but Kiersten was so convincing that they ignored what they knew to be right and wrong. She slammed an ax in Tierney's shoulder for fuck's sake.

On the other hand, we have out main character Tierney. (Anyone else notice her name sounds like "tyranny"?

Tyranny definition:

1. cruel and oppressive government or rule.

2. a state under cruel and oppressive government.

3. cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.

4. (especially in ancient Greece) rule by one who has absolute power without legal right.

I loved that she was the opposite of that word in all the ways. OH how she didn't want to be oppressed or someones property, she just wanted to be free. I felt that she also showed how difficult it was to be a light in such darkness, where everyone is spewing hate, but she refused to give up or stop being kind or stop helping others. I mean, she went BACK after she escaped, was healed, and had the chance to run away with a man she loved forever. UGH.

That brings me to her relationship with Ryker. I hate it admit it (is this a safe space?) but I don't hate a Stockholm syndrome situtation. Was that what this was? Yes, he helped heal her so that could have contributed BUT he didn't force her to stay. He didn't capture her against her will as a prisoner. I believed they grew together and it was a nice little love story that I would have loved to see continue and flourish.

Her having to go back to Michael wasn't something I loved but my book club pointed out that this allowed us to explore the concept of two types of loves and how our heart can hold that. And I do believe in people being in your life for a reason and a season. So her having gone back and having been Michael's wife (albeit carrying a child she made with Ryker) was important tot he story because, again as book club pointed out, the change she will be able to institute in the county with the position she holds will be able to make more change than if she were to have left. And she didn't forsake her sisters for her own happiness.

All in all, an amazing book with so many points that can be explored and made. I hope it opens ones horizons and thoughts to how we treat one another and what happens if we lead with kinds as opposed to control.

Book summary:

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.