Tagarchief wednesday books

The Grace Year

Written by Kim Liggett
Published by Wednesday Books

Girls have magical powers. The power to seduce men and other special traits. Before they turn sixteen, they get send to the woods to live there for a year and lose their magical powers. But before that happens, a few girls get chosen to marry men from the village. Tierney knows she will not be one of them and she is happy with that. She dreams about a world where women have a better life, in a worls where women aren’t allowed to dream. But when it’s time for her Grace Year, everything goes against what’s she had planned from the moment the girls get chosen for marriage. How can Tierney survive in the woods where she has to fear the poachers, who want to sell her skin on the black market, but also the other girls from the Grace Year…?

This book was…mindblowing. I was sold from the very first page. Before I started this book, I was worried that this would yet be another one of those feminist books where all men are evil, but this book wasn’t at all like that. The men from the village don’t know anything else from what they learned their whole life. Yes, there are quite a few evil men, but there also good men, with good intentions, which made this book way more realistic. This book has some major Hunger Games vibes, only this book is so much worse. There were literally scenes where I had to put the book down, because I felt nauseated.

Tierney is one of the best characters I’ve ever read about. A feminist woman in a male focused society is pretty terrible, but Tierney keeps on trying to do the right thing. Even when girls she considered her friends turn on her, she still helps them. She is caring, smart and just amazing. All of her actions were logical, even when you wish she did something else. I wish I could read more books about this girl!

What is a good book without a terrible villain? And boy (or girl), did Kim Liggett create a nasty villain. I haven’t despised a character for this much until Kiersten. Kiersten is a girl who is perfect and has it all, and makes it her live mission to ruin Tierney’s life and many others. Even though you get to know a bit more about her and it isn’t always her fault, you still hate her. I’ll be honest, I don’t wish it often, but throughout the book I seriously was hoping she would die. Whether that happens or not, I will not tell you all, of course 😉

The thing I liked most about this book were the revelations at the end. Throughout the whole book I often got mislead, which is something that doens’t happen to me often. At the end you get answers to questions you didn’t even know you asked. All loose ends are tied up nicely, which made me enjoy the book even more. I even thought about rereading this book, to find out if I could have seen some of the revelations coming, but my TBR didn’t let me, sadly…

What a terrible, heartbreaking, nauseating and gorgeous beauty this book was. I literally can’t wáit to see what Elizabeth Banks is going to do with the movie! I’m already looking forward seeing more of Tierney and have more hateful moments with Kiersten. Oh and the tissues are already waiting to be filled with tears, since there are quite a few cryworthy scenes in this book…

10/10

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