The Grace Year

Our Review

I didn’t so much read The Grace Year as I did devour it. It is definitely a must read for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and bound to be the next big dystopian novel. It has been described as a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid’s Tale, but it also strongly reminded me of both The Power and The Hunger Games.

This book was clearly aimed at the Young Adult market, but I enjoyed it immensely despite being well past the age of the intended reader.

This bleak dystopian novel is split into five sections; ‘Autumn’, ‘Winter’, ‘Spring’,  ‘Summer’ and ‘The Return.’

In the isolated village where Tierney lives it is forbidden to talk of The Grace Year. The year when all sixteen-year-old girls are banished to release their magical hold over men. This magic causes men and boys to be lustful and can drive wives insane with jealousy. It is considered highly dangerous and something to be eradicated.

“No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. We’re told we have the power to lure grown men from their beds, make boys lose their minds, and drive their wives mad with jealousy. They believe our very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why we’re banished for our sixteenth year, to release our magic into the wild before we’re allowed to return to civilization. But I don’t feel powerful. I don’t feel magical.”

Even though she is not allowed to discuss the grace year Tierney is aware that it probably isn’t a good thing. She observes those around her, and those returning from their grace year and knows that she needs to be wary when her turn comes around.

“The slip of a shawl, scarred shoulders bared under a harvest moon. Haunted fingertips skimming the pond, watching the ripples fade to black. Their eyes a million miles away. In wonderment. In horror.

I used to think that was my magic – having the power to see things others couldn’t – things they didn’t even want to admit to themselves. But all you have to do is open your eyes.

My eyes are wide open”

Girls are not supposed to dream because the men say it is a way of hiding their magic, but Tierney has the same dream over and over again. A young girl making a speech to a group of young women and girls. A speech about bringing about an end to the grace year.

The book begins on the day when the girls who are about to leave for their grace year are to be promised to their future husbands. They are branded at birth with their father’s sign and are bartered off like cattle.

“Being married off isn’t a privilege to me. There’s no freedom in comfort. They’re padded shackles, nonetheless. At least in the labour house my life will still belong to me.”

The women and girls in the village are unable to cut their hair, they have to wear it long in a braid and with a ribbon in it. The grace year girls have to wear a red ribbon, the colour of sin and warning. The warning is for the girls themselves but also an advance warning to the reader.

“All the women in Garner County have to wear their hair the same way, pulled back from the face, plaited down the back. In doing so, the men believe the women won’t be able to hide anything from them – a snide expression, a wandering eye, or a flash of magic. White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives.

Innocence. Blood. Death.”

The girls who return from their grace year are changed in some way and Tierney believes that some fates are worse than death. If she knew she were to return from her grace year to become the wife of someone she loathed, then she would almost take her chances with the poachers.

The poachers live on the outskirts of the village and lay in wait for a grace girl to go astray and when they do, they murder them and sell their body parts for people in the village to use as an aphrodisiac or youth serum.

In the village flowers are used as a form of communication, each one signifies a different thing and grace year girls are often given them when they are given a veil to signify, they are to be married upon their return.

The punishments for not adhering to the rules and social conducts of the village are severe and all the girls and women are supposed to watch all punishments, especially hangings.

“There’s a moment of silence that follows every hanging. Sometimes it feels like it stretches on forever, like they want us to dwell in it for as long as possible – dwell is the right word, to be domiciled, take up residence, to abide.”

The above quote was one of the areas that reminded me of The Handmaid’s Tale the most and Atwood’s clever use of language.

Another similarity that strikes me is the way in which female sexuality is punished and restricted and also the use of other women to police this. In some ways I found The Grace Year to be darker than The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Grace Year was a haunting book and one that has earnt itself a place among my favourites.

Our Final Rating...

Sun, 18th August 2019