Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

77 reviews

bella613's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The first half of the book felt like all the confusion of watching "Lost" with none of the intrigue. There was absolutely no explanation of how this "Grace Year" idea started or why anyone thought that toughing it in the woods for a year somehow got rid of ~magic~ that no one seemed to have in the first place. Don't even get me started on

the little jars of toes and eyeballs or whatever. Was that included to keep the reader horrified, or are we expected to believe that people in town really buy their daughters pickled phalanges to prolong their youth?

I was pretty sure that even the author had no clue what was going on. The excuse for having no context on anything was "we don't talk about the grace year", which, to me, isn't very believable and doesn't make you more curious.
There's no mystery when there is no clues. If you leave your reader completely in the dark it doesn't hook them in. It's assumed that the grace year is meant to be a way to control young women, but if you want to subdue them, why would you tell them they have strong magical powers? What is the incentive for them to get rid of their magic, and what is the plan for this glorified no-supply camping trip to do the trick? It's a cool idea for a premise but wayyy underdeveloped because none of it made any sense. 

I did enjoy the later-middle part of the book, which introduced a lot of possible outcomes. 

As Tierney gets close to Ryker, I thought they would talk about the community that he is from. Since they're adopting the outcasts of the town they probably understand what is going on. It sounded like the people on the outskirts were more than a few families' worth of people, and obviously if the main civilization only has 30 ish girls each year, it's a fairly small town. Seems like an extremely fragile system they've got going, especially since the leaders are only a handful of middle aged men in a council, and there seems to be no state leadership or anything. Possibilities moving forward from that point could include a mini-rebellion of outcasts against the measly leaders, or a rescue mission to take the women and children to the outskirt community instead. It was not in my reader bingo card for her to return from the woods with a surprise underage pregnancy, abandon her plan to actually tell the truth (to the citizens who somehow believe these teen girls are witches who can be fixed by a year in the woods) and willingly accept the marriage she's been against her entire life. Not to mention that in a matter of months, she falls in love with this guy she previously felt trapped by, despite recently having watched the father of her child be murdered in front of her. And her husband is the new leader (as a minor) but somehow hasn't done anything to change the town except secretly burn one shelf of human remains.

The ending, in summary, was extremely disappointing. I have no idea if there is a sequel planned but I have no interest in reading more of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Violence, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Pedophilia, Animal death, Biphobia, Animal cruelty, Child death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Bullying, Infertility, Rape, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Fatphobia

kparsons44's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

 Since I'm still processing this book, which I voraciously read in two or three sittings, I'd say I will recommend this book to everyone that loves dystopian fiction! Tierney was a strong, realistic, hopeful protagonist that inspired me to be more present with the conversations I have with my daughters and women around me.
The writing was very fast paced, broken into seasons of the Grace Year, so it reads more like a diary without marked chapters. There is an eeriness left in my imagination after reading this book about how similar our worlds are, or how precious the freedoms women have been "granted" by the men who owned them. Seeing good men represented in a feminist book, identifying what makes a great ally for women's rights, is great to see.
Like Tierney, we all have dreams of the world we want to see reality become. The ambiguous ending frustrates me but I do love getting decide what really happened.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Violence, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

arsmagicalibrorum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Miscarriage and Medical content

emmascout522's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Violence, Child death, Gore, Death, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual harassment

pomegranate_muse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Sexism, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism and Murder

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I almost feel like I don’t want to do the review for this book because I’ll rather just forget it exists. It makes me sad to think how I waited so long to read this one and I was so excited… and then I read what I read… I was 5% into it and I wanted to DNF so badly but I’m so freaking stubborn I continued and then it was a bit addictive and then the ending was just that?? well. I even had this as one of my 5 stars prediction, stop 😭

Please read the trigger warnings before picking up this book because it’s insane and I felt sick the first 100 pages, I don’t enjoy reading about a town full of sexism, misogyny and let’s be honest, pedophiles. And then this book was way darker than I expected. 

Every year girls who are 16yo are sent to their Grace Year which is basically leaving them on their own in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with little to no supplies while they’re being hunted by men, and all so they can release their “magic” and then come back and be proper women who marry the boys who picked them before leaving. 

So the book revolves around this girl named Tierney because it’s her grace year and we see how the town behaves just before they all leave, and then the group of girls when they leave. It’s divided in the 4 seasons of the year and then the return of the girls alive. 

I hate that this book is promoted as “fantasy” because I kept waiting for the magic but there is none!! This “magic” translates to “this little girls are becoming women and the men are pedophiles who can’t control themselves and use it as an excuse to make the women behave”. But I would say the genres of this book are dystopia and horror, and there’s this little romance. 

I don’t even want to look at my annotations because I was SO angry at everyone here 😭 the more I think about it I keep reconsidering my rating. 

I’m just realizing the fmc did have the “I’m not like other girls” thing and in the end she ended up being just like the other girls and there was no character development lmao. But what makes me mad about the end is how NOTHING changed, everything stayed the exact same so where’s the so called revolution and changed she wanted to make? She’s supposed to join her family in this secret organization but we don’t see that and she says how her child will change things for the future, girl, YOU were supposed to be the change for her! 

If it wasn’t because of the writing, the audiobook and my stubbornness, I would’ve DNF this, but yeah this is a 1.5 ⭐ for me because at least it was addictive and it was something… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Cannibalism, Infertility, and Sexual assault

Here’s a list of all the trigger warnings, I’m going to be specific about how they appear in the book and I’ll be hiding some spoilers:

Misogyny and sexism: from the very beginning that town is just full of it from both men and women, the way the town works is based on hating women.

Pedophilia: This made me so sick but yeah these men are all pedophiles and you can’t change my mind, the way they looked at the girls or talked about them was sickening.

Sexual assault: In the beginning is mentioned the story of a girl who was taken and she screamed and fought but no one helped.

Cannibalism: They fucking eat the girls parts?? When the girls leave for their grace year they’re hunted by poachers and they skin them alive and cut them in little pieces and sell them to be eaten wtf

Suicide: After the girls leave for their grace year, this girl kills herself in the river.

Death, child death, violence, gore and blood: That grace year is way more dark than I expected 😭 (the girls killed each other or cut their fingers as punishment, the poachers skin the girls alive, the girls fight, etc)

Sexual content: Some nudity and

the fmc had sex.

Pregnancy:

I guess the fmc learned simply biology lol but yeah she ends up pregnant.

Infertility: This is minor, but her older sister is mocked by some woman because it’s been years and she hasn’t had any baby yet.

Lesbophobia: One of the girls kissed another and she was "dirty" ever since.

kaleighmadden's review against another edition

dark inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Child death, and Sexism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, and Medical content

bubblybelle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Child death, Gore, Murder, Sexism, and Blood

Moderate: Gaslighting and Confinement

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

shannonredwine8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic friendship, Classism, Confinement, Death, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Child death, Colonisation, Suicide, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Bullying, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Animal death, Cannibalism, Blood, Grief, and Gore

hazybee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia and Pregnancy