By a trick of luck, she ends up receiving a Veil – the sign that she’ll be married when she returns, should she survive, and a twist that puts her immediately at odds with one of the most popular and influential girls in her year.īut when Tierney, along with thirty-two other girls head off into the forest together to face the unknown, each sporting a red ribbon to symbolize her state of sin, the story takes a dark and disturbing turn. The Grace Year follows the story of Tierney, a smart, outdoorsy girl with little interest in becoming a wife on the eve of her Grace Year. Tired, scarred, tattered and changed in ways that are difficult to understand.

No one speaks of the Grace Year, but the women who come back afterward – and note, not all of them come back – are different. Therefore, when they turn sixteen, all girls are all sent off on what is known as a “grace year,” a trial of survival on a nearby island that will supposedly cleanse them and burn through their magic allowing them to return home, marry and live productive lives. You see, in this world, women supposedly harbor a dangerous form of magic within their very beings, one which allows them to manipulate, seduce and otherwise control men.

They’re allowed to aspire to little beyond a life of marriage and childbirth, and if they aren’t chosen for such by a man, they’re sent to the fields and workhouses for the rest of their lives. In the world of Garner County, women are not to be trusted.

(It’s that last bit I think we all really need to hear right now, just saying.) It not only acknowledges the terrible nature of world these young women find themselves in, it empowers them to come together and change their fates. Kim Liggett’s The Grace Yearis a dystopian tale in the vein of The Power and The Handmaid’s Tale, but one that has a slightly more hopeful and activist ending than either of those two stories. It’s not an accident that some of the most affecting stories of 2019 deal with female anger and empowerment in a world that both scoffs at their pain and devalues their contributions to the world around them. Basically, it’s exactly the story we need in 2019. By Lacy Baugher 3 years ago The Grace Year is a harrowing dystopian tale about female rage in a world full of male oppression.

Tierney the grace year