"Heaven is a boy in a treehouse, with
cold hands and a warm heart.”
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett was the March pick for my in
real life book club. I was hesitant to pick it up at first. I had friends who
loved it and friends who didn’t, so I was worried where I was going to end up.
SPOILER ALERT: I LOVED IT!
The Grace Year takes you through the journey of Tierney. A
smart young girl who is approaching womanhood and who must endure her Grace
Year. The men send the woman away for a year so they can “release their magic”.
(Snorts) If a woman dreams or hides her magic after the grace year or helps the
women on the outskirts, they will be killed.
The women of years past do not ever speak of the grace
year. So, none of these girls know what to expect. All they know is they will
come back broken, mentally and physically, or they may not come back at all.
Tierney receives a veil; this means one of the eligible men
want to marry her but Tierney wishes to be free. I won’t tell you who veiled
her, you’ll have to read to see. As the girls leave for their grace year, both
veiled and unveiled, they know they’re about to face terrible things. They don’t
realize the terrible things they will face are each other.
Once at camp, Tierney is trying to set the girls up for success
because her father has taught her a great many skills. Kiersten, spawn of Satan,
squashes that REAL QUICK.
Things take a turn for the worst. Tierney is no longer welcome
at the campsite and she is badly injured. She is found by a poacher; poachers
are there to kill the grace year girls and sell their body parts. This poacher
is staring at Tierney and she has seconds to decide and the poacher needs to decide
too. Will he kill her or let her live?
The end KILLED ME. K I L L E D M E. I have so many
questions for Kim Liggett, and I messaged her them. Will she answer me? Probably
not. She is a famous author and has better things to do with her life.
This book is supposed to bring us hope. We have to believe
that things can get better. Otherwise, what was all this for?
Synopsis (Credit: Goodreads)
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.
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.
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