The Grace Year by Kim LiggettMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
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.
I read this for the Dystopian Hellscape Halloween Bingo square and with a sort of The Handmaid's Tale formatted society, it definitely fit. The vast majority of this story was a girl Lord of the Flies with some Crucible. I have read all three stories this was clearly inspired by and, well, I hate to be that person but they did it better.
There’s no freedom in comfort. They’re padded shackles, to be sure, but shackles nonetheless.
This is tagged as YA, which because of our main character's age, 16, sure, but adults would have no problem enjoying. It's all told from first person perspective by Tierney, a girl who is about to be sent into the woods with other sixteen year old girls for their “Grace Year”. When a girl comes into her magic, the author is obviously talking about menstruation, the men fear their power so they have to spend that year in the woods to burn it off. The messaging is pretty clear with men fearing women's “power” and so forth.
I want to believe we can be different, but when I look around the church, at the women comparing the length of their braids, reveling in another woman’s punishment, scheming and clawing for every inch of position, I can’t help thinking the men might be right. Maybe we’re incapable of more. Maybe without the confines placed upon us, we’d rip each other to shreds, like a pack of outskirt dogs.
I wasn't really feeling the first half because I was ready for some woman power, working together to smash the patriarchy. To me, it felt like Tierney had a case of “not like other girls” and whenever she needed help, it was men who came to her rescue. The Crucible-ness, along with Lord of the Flies, really comes into play when the girls are alone and lead by the lead mean girl, Kiersten, who is mad at Tierney for “stealing” the boy she wanted for a husband, they dissolve into hysteria and attacks. The vast majority of this was “look how mean girls/women can be to each other and they are the true perpetrators! ”. Not really what I was personally looking for.
“[...]I mean … who doesn’t want to feel powerful? Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re in control for once in their lives? Because without it, what would we be?”
The second half brings in a romance, severely underdeveloped, between Tierney and Ryker, a poacher who, you guessed it, rescued her. The last 30-20% also brings in some quiet defiance and finally some of that women's strength I was looking for, but coming so late, it ends up feeling brushed over and, underdeveloped. A lot was underdeveloped for me, but as this is categorized as YA, maybe I was looking for some context and layers that were purposefully glazed over. The first person pov also isn't a personal favorite of mine, as I like to be in different characters' heads.
The world-building was there microscopically, as in seen only from Tierney's view and while I thought the rules of the land were laid out nicely, there was a lot not conveyed, was this some kind of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village happening with the mystery of over the hills? This was just ok for me but if you haven't read The Handmaid's Tale, Lord of the Flies, or The Crucible, your mileage would definitely vary. I wish the ending reveals of women fighting back would have been the focus more than the fighting between the girls. Some good highlighting of how power structures work to keep certain people down and women's resolve.
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