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…
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
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.