Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

64 reviews

lilawsahar's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Holy shit. That was addicting. 

The author writes about society that believes women have to burn off their magic at the age of 16, so they banish them to a wooded encampment. During this time, the girls have to fed for themselves for a year, but some don’t make it back alive. When in reality, this year of grace is a way for the men to break young women’s spirits, so they don’t revolting against the misogynist practices of their society.

During this year of grace, the main character discovers that the girls are slowly going mad. And she becomes banished from the group for not accepting that it’s magic. This drives her to leave the encampment and fall in love with someone who would kill her if it weren’t for a promise. The man is a poacher who is tasked with killing girls who leave the camp so they can terrorize the girls in the camp. With him, she realized the girls in the camp are going mad because where the girls drink water is a well full of poison. The society had poisoned the well, so the girls go crazy and do horrible things to believe they are the weaker sex. She goes and helps the girls wean off of well. This starts a new movement of the final year girls, where women start to silently rebelling again the misogynistic society. What a wild plot. However, I didn’t like the happy ending, but I’ve never liked where everything ends perfectly.  

If you like dystopian novels, you’ll enjoy this read. This book is similar to hand maidens tale, lord of the flies, and hunger games. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, and Confinement

Minor: Suicide, Stalking, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Vomit

curlyewe's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Blood, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, and Gore

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

abidavisf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow. The Grace Year is so powerful and heart-wrenching, just a must read for everybody, particularly women but I urge men to read this to gain this perspective.

There were so many elements of The Grace Year that took me by surprise and so many that made complete sense to me like I’d been waiting for them forever. This dystopia is so real to me. Nothing feels out of the realm of possibility and that is terrifying. I’ve only just finished listening so I can’t gather my thoughts right now but please read this book.

[Edit] I've had time now to process so here are my thoughts!

Every sentence in The Grace Year is purposeful. Everything sits just where it needs to. The premise of The Grace Year is that all sixteen-year-old girls are sent away for one year to 'rid themselves' of their 'magic'. It is evident from the start that this 'magic' is clearly the fact that the girls have gone through puberty and are now attractive to the men of their county. They must therefore be sent away so as not to 'seduce' the men. Upon their return, they are either married off to men of the county or sent to work as labourers, if no man chooses them.

It is rare for a baby boy to be born, and so not all girls will be married, making those who are chosen 'worthy' and 'superior'. It is an excellent interpretation of classism, as well as the misogyny that women can feel towards each other, having been raised to compete against each other. Yes, this is a dystopia but it feels very real.

Our protagonist, Tierney, spends large portions of the book in isolation, meaning that Kim Liggett relies on internal monologue and description to tell this story. It can be hard to feature strong character development in such tales, and yet The Grace Year does this beautifully. Every character you meet has their own journey, particularly the Grace Year girls and it is testament to Liggett's story-telling that, as a reader, you love them all, regardless of their flaws.

I truly recommend The Grace Year to everybody. If I hadn't have had work, I would have blitzed through this in a day. I can't wait to reread.

”The things we do to girls. Whether we put them on pedestals only to tear them down, or use them for parts and holes, we're all complicit in this. But everything touches everything else, and I have to believe that some good will come out of all this destruction.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism, Classism, Gore, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Blood, Bullying, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Confinement, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Minor: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Addiction, Cannibalism, Classism, Infertility, Drug use, Lesbophobia, and Torture

rinku's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

unicornofthesea's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gore, Classism, Suicide, Death, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Confinement, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Bullying, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Gaslighting, Blood, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Outing

Minor: Infertility, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death

stonefruits's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Confinement, Infertility, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Gore, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ann_the_imp's review

dark emotional hopeful

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Vomit, Blood, Bullying, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Grief, Hate crime, Infertility, Sexual content, Excrement, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Addiction, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

elysianbud'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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Went into this expecting a bit more survival and a lot less love story, but overall I still enjoyed it. 
Quick read, finished it in one day. 
I do like that at the end of the book the main character hasn't magically fixed everything in society through the power of gutsy honesty, and that it takes a more realistic approach of showing small steps towards change instead. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Vomit, Confinement, Gore, Body horror, Death, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Stalking, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Suicide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Lesbophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, and Homophobia

readingwithmeredith's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Dark, heavy, dystopian, but so thought provoking. This definitely isn’t the book for everyone and I would be slow to recommend it as an actual YA book but if you could handle the graphic nature of the Hunger Games then you could handle this one. Definitely a story that will stick with me for a while and the author’s interview in the audiobook and discussion questions in the physical book really made me stop and reflect on this book more than I would have. Really reflecting on this took it from a 3 to 4🌟 book. 

I will say I don’t feel like this is the best written book and I feel like it could have benefited from some more editing and refinement and it could have been a 5🌟 dystopian read. But definitely a fascinating story that is going to stick with me for a while. 

Themes reminiscent of Handmaiden’s Tale and Hunger Games but also a completely new story in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content