Book Description 

Survive the year.

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.

My Review 

This book was one heck of a ride from start to finish. It’s basically a cross between The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale with a big splash of Lord of the Flies. In this dystopian society, girls are sent away at the age of 16 to live together in the woods for a year with only minimal contact from the main society. Many of the girls don’t return and even those who do are not necessarily guaranteed the “prize” of marriage. 

Tierney is a formidable protagonist. She stands up to the mean girl of the group and she tries to encourage the girls to work together so that they all have a better chance of surviving their horrific ordeal. 

I could have done without the love triangle, but the genre is contractually obligated to include one. To the book’s credit, Tierney doesn’t spend much time mooning over the two gentlemen because she’s much too busy trying to survive to mull her prospects. 

I would absolutely recommend The Grace Year. This was a deeply moving book that really resonated with the current political climate. It was very easy to get invested in the outcome of the story and I found the book hard to put down. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.