THE GRACE YEAR by Kim Liggett
✯✯✯✯ Review by Astrid Galactic
Women's oppression and the various ways this is carried out is a popular theme in the world of Literature, be it Fiction or Non-Fiction. In the area of Fiction, it's often portrayed in ways we have experienced throughout history in the manner we read about in works of Non-Fiction. Occasionally, an author comes along and presents the subject in a whole different light such as we've read in works from Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy. Throw in a heavy dose of religion and superstition and we have The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Kim Liggett offers up such a work in her new book The Grace Year set for release in September of 2019.
The Grace Year is a reference within the book to a girl's 16th year in Garner County, an isolated community with its own set of standards and laws not at all favorable to its females. On a specific day, Veiling Day, a set number of the girls shall be presented with a veil which is equivalent to a proposal of marriage from one of the males in the community. The girls have no say as it's solely up to the available males to offer up the veil to a female of his choosing. Those selected will then become the bride of the presenter but not until after they've survived a full Grace Year in a wilderness camp set up for that year's girls. Survival is the key word as it's rugged, dangerous and along with the other girls who can be deadly vicious due to their own insecurities and twisted beliefs. If that isn't enough, they have to be very careful to avoid the poachers in the woods outside the camp.
Our protagonist is Tierney, a very strong and rebellious girl who has just reached her time for this year's pickings. Due to her free-spirited nature, no one expects for Tierney to be selected to receive a veil. In fact, she doesn't even want to be veiled because she's just not the type to be beholden to any man. But, as luck would have it, Tierney is presented with a veil. It is not allowed in Garner County for any women to speak her mind, so off to her Grace Year excursion she must go.
Mind you, this is not the Girl Scouts or any other such wilderness outing that one would venture into as we know such things to be. Imagine the girls from The Crucible forced to go off for a year in a test of survival from a community much like that from M. Night Shyamalan's film The Village. It's all rather frightening with twists and turns you weren't expecting at every juncture, all making life barely livable.
As the year progresses, Tierney is essentially banished by the others which forces her to survive on her own against all odds. But Tierney is a survivor. She's smart, strong and has several interesting encounters and finds that keep her going.
The Grace Year is billed as being a Feminist novel. The book portrays extreme misogyny and patriarchy while repressing women to unimaginable degrees. As mentioned, there's also a very independent minded female lead who doesn't step in line to follow anyone's lead as she is a leader herself in her own right. Personally, I appreciated that Liggett manages to create a character who fights against male oppression yet does not turn the book into a screed against all males. Tierney is not anti-male at all. She just hates the subjugation of females by males within her community and acts to bring equality to all in the best ways she can.
All in all, I found this to be a rather interesting book that allows one to consider alternative societies and how what was intended to become a utopia too often ends up being a miserable dystopia. The book reads well and great for when you want to spend the weekend getting lost in a book that you just can't put down.
(ARC)
(Paperback)
Science Fiction
Dystopian
Hardcover, 416 pages
1250145449 (ISBN13: 9781250145444)
Expected Publication: October 8th, 2019 by Wednesday Books
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