5 Stars
Pros: The grisly, violent oppressiveness of the Patriarchy, always a good setting for dystopian fiction//It was tied up so well at the end and though it wasn't the ending I thought it would be, it was definitely a good one.
Cons: There were so many girls in the Grace year that it was hard to remember them all, they kind of faded into background noise/Everyone and their mother was willing to go to the ends of the Earth for the MC.
Full Review
Tierney is terrified, knowing that in just a day, her Grace year will start. The time when she and all girls of a similar age are sent off into the wilderness for a year, to survive on their own and hopefully dispel their evil magic that drives men to be wild, lustful creatures.
She clings to the small and silly hope, that her dreams, which consist of a young girl holding a red flower and urging all the women to work together will come true. Maybe her Grace year will be different. She knows that to speak of those dreams is blasphemy and could very well mean the gallows and so she keeps quiet but still, the hope is there.
The morning they're to be sent into the woods, some lucky women receive veils from the men that will be their husbands. Tierney has done everything she can to evade suitors. She's a tom boy, she's mischievous, always sneaking out and is forever a strain on her mother. Her rationale is if she survives the year she can at least come back and work in the fields. It's not a life that seems as terrible as being shackled to someone.
Of course, that morning, she's given a veil, horrified and appalled at her future husband but she has no say in the matter. It's decided and it is law.
She's caught between a rock and a hard place. If she just runs off, her sisters will be punished and banished to the Outskirts of the County where they'll be forced to live as Prostitutes. If she survives, she'll come back to a life of servitude, silence and shame.
They leave the Village and are sent to the encampment. And when the girls "magic' starts to take hold and things in the camp take a turn for the horrific, Tierney is cast out and knows she'll never survive. There's the ever present threat of the Poachers that are always hunting the woods, waiting to kill a Grace girl and skin her for parts. The more pain, the more potent her magic. But the longer she stays away from the camp, the more she realizes how wrong she was, about everything.
This was a gut wrenching, no punches pulled, grabs you and won't let go kind of story, which I always love. And though Tierney had her moments of being an oblivious imbecile, there were also moments of true kindness. Her friendship with Gertie, her sisters protectiveness, her Mother, cold and aloof but for a reason, all of it came to life and was shown anew at the end. Liggett really made it great. The hope was silent but strong and this book will definitely stick with me for a long time.
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