The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Star rating: 5/5 

Haunting, chilling, un-put-down-able. Kim Liggett's newest novel is a dystopian critique of patriarchal society. 

Summary:

The women and girls of Garner County are told that they possess magic. Holding on to one's magic is illegal and punishable by death. During every girl's sixteenth year, they are banished out into the woods for an entire year to expel their magic and return purified, ready for marriage. Each year, many do not return.

Tierney dreams of a better life, one where women are free and have value beyond marriage and childbirth. She wants nothing to do with marriage. In the "veiling day" - the ceremony for marriage proposals before this year's Grace Year, her best friend surprises her with a proposal. He thinks he is protecting her, but really he has put a target on her back for the other girls in her year. When she leaves for her Grace Year, she knows she has to fear the other girls just as much as the dangers that lay in the woods.  

Review:

*head explodes* HOLY MOLY. THIS BOOK. It's like The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies and the Salem witch trials all rolled into one. I could not put it down. It felt so real, it was terrifying. Liggett did an amazing job making this story feel believable. I loved the emphasis on the power of persuasion - if you tell a group of girls that they all possess magical powers and then strand them in the wilderness, they will start to believe it. Tierney was such a strong character, and my heart broke for her over and over again. By the end she was able to make the other girls come together as allies, not enemies, and this is such an important message to young girls reading this novel, for our patriarchal society does condition women to compete with one another, see one another as threats. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend for fans of dystopian novels!