The Grace Year
By Kim Liggett
Year Published: 2019
Page #: 407
Genre: YA Fiction, Science Fiction/Dystopian
4|5 Stars
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you mixed Handmaid’s Tale with Lord of the Flies? Well, you’d get something resembling The Grace Year.
In this story, it is believed that girls hold magic within them. Girls are said to be capable of coaxing men from their beds, and making women insane with jealousy. The Grace Year is a period of time where all girls are sent to the woods during the sixteenth year, to release their magic. The hope is that they will return prepared to be married and produce children. Boys are preferred. The problem is…not everyone comes back from “The Grace Year”.
Tierney James is our main character who is not really into the societal norm of becoming a bride, a mother (Boys please!) after her Grace Year experience. She’s more rebellious and has plans of her own. What she doesn’t realize is how doing into the woods will affect her in ways she can’t foresee. There are more things to worry about than men who poach for girls to kidnap and sell on the black market. Sometimes the things you need to be weary of, are the people around you.