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A review by mysticmuffin
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
2.0
First of all TW for pretty much everything you can think about. Old men who want to marry young women, women who have NO choice when it comes to their bodies and who they marry. Gore. Disturbing scenes. This book just about has it all, which is why I struggled with deciding whether to DNF it or not at 42%.
When I first read the summary for The Grace Year I thought this book would be so much fun. I love stories where young teens are sent to live by themselves without parents. Whenever I find a book with a summary similar to it, I instantly read it. Same with Netflix Shows like The Society, and Between. They're fun to read and watch. But The Grace Year, for me, was not fun at all.
What I expected was girls with magic, as the summary describes, turning against one another and struggling to survive. That is kind of sort of what I got. Except it was about 1000 times more disturbing than I could have ever imagined. This is a book that makes you uncomfortable from the very beginning. Where an old guy wants to marry a teenager. To Tommy Pearson who tortures birds. But all the violence and disturbing scenes only build up more and more as each chapter goes. Girls are apparently poached and their parts sent back to their county in little jars where people drink or use their parts in potions (I guess?). Then it becomes sickening when Kiersten literally chops a girls scalp off.
Honestly I understand what the author was trying to do. She's trying to show a world that hates women (basically), a world where women don't have choices and turn against each other because that's what they've been taught since they were young. She wants to show a dangerous world. One where girls' imaginations run wild, and they slowly turn on one another. This can all be fun to read, but I personally can only take so much before it becomes unfun.
I wish there were some moments of peace in The Grace Year. I think it would have lightened the book up to the point where I could have enjoyed it. But instead, as I mentioned, it was one hit after another.
Other than the story itself, I had problems with the characters. None of them seemed very developed to me. They all didn't have very much depth like Kiersten who bullies people the whole time. She had nothing else to her. Or Gertie, who was nice, but that was it, there was nothing else to her.
I also didn't like the writing, at some points it was hard for me to focus on what was being said. I'm not sure how to elaborate on that.
So, I didn't enjoy The Grace Year at all. It was way too dark for me, to the point it was almost sickening. I thought it would have been fun but I was wrong.
I might finish it, but for now I'm just going to put this book on hold.
When I first read the summary for The Grace Year I thought this book would be so much fun. I love stories where young teens are sent to live by themselves without parents. Whenever I find a book with a summary similar to it, I instantly read it. Same with Netflix Shows like The Society, and Between. They're fun to read and watch. But The Grace Year, for me, was not fun at all.
What I expected was girls with magic, as the summary describes, turning against one another and struggling to survive. That is kind of sort of what I got. Except it was about 1000 times more disturbing than I could have ever imagined. This is a book that makes you uncomfortable from the very beginning. Where an old guy wants to marry a teenager. To Tommy Pearson who tortures birds. But all the violence and disturbing scenes only build up more and more as each chapter goes. Girls are apparently poached and their parts sent back to their county in little jars where people drink or use their parts in potions (I guess?). Then it becomes sickening when Kiersten literally chops a girls scalp off.
Honestly I understand what the author was trying to do. She's trying to show a world that hates women (basically), a world where women don't have choices and turn against each other because that's what they've been taught since they were young. She wants to show a dangerous world. One where girls' imaginations run wild, and they slowly turn on one another. This can all be fun to read, but I personally can only take so much before it becomes unfun.
I wish there were some moments of peace in The Grace Year. I think it would have lightened the book up to the point where I could have enjoyed it. But instead, as I mentioned, it was one hit after another.
Other than the story itself, I had problems with the characters. None of them seemed very developed to me. They all didn't have very much depth like Kiersten who bullies people the whole time. She had nothing else to her. Or Gertie, who was nice, but that was it, there was nothing else to her.
I also didn't like the writing, at some points it was hard for me to focus on what was being said. I'm not sure how to elaborate on that.
So, I didn't enjoy The Grace Year at all. It was way too dark for me, to the point it was almost sickening. I thought it would have been fun but I was wrong.
I might finish it, but for now I'm just going to put this book on hold.