Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

31 reviews

katelynndzindzio's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book follows the journey of Tiereny and depicts how she matures and adapts to the world she is in and tries to be that change that needs to happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Classism, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy

emilywemily6's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was a lot and I am still sifting through my feelings. It felt like a mix of The Handmaid’s Tale, Lord of the Flies, and The Hunger Games. This story was gruesome and the oppression the women are conditioned for within this society is horrendous. Unlike The Handmaid’s Tale, this book was more bizarre and less relatable to our current day, definitely leaning more towards horror than pure dystopian fiction. There was a lot of mystery inherent to the plot since no one in the community talks about what happens during the grace year, and I think my lack of knowledge about the book beyond the synopsis helped me enjoy the reading experience more. There were a lot of twists and turns and I really didn’t know where the book was headed! I really hated reading about the magic/madness of the girls in the enclosure and almost DNFed because I was very unsettled and frustrated with the behavior. This book was also pretty gorey. The romantic subplot was sweet and wholesome but I wanted more depth/deeper connection between the characters; they seemed to jump from trusting each other platonically to becoming intimate. The last 50 or so pages broke me. This book also uses a lot of ambiguity, which was intriguing yet sometimes frustrating. I really liked the realistic approach at the end where the girls supported each other in public for the first time, and while the world was the same, the girls and women were not. A sequel would be really fun to read to see how this world changes overtime! Revolution doesn’t happen in an instant. Lots of interesting themes that make this a great discussion book for YA and adults alike, though some of the author’s choices seemed to be more for shock value than for furthering the plot. Reading about sixteen year old girls was also not my favorite because these are the worst sixteen year old girls I have ever heard of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Trafficking, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Suicide, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Medical content, Ableism, and Sexual content

Minor: Infertility

lilawsahar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Holy shit. That was addicting. 

The author writes about society that believes women have to burn off their magic at the age of 16, so they banish them to a wooded encampment. During this time, the girls have to fed for themselves for a year, but some don’t make it back alive. When in reality, this year of grace is a way for the men to break young women’s spirits, so they don’t revolting against the misogynist practices of their society.

During this year of grace, the main character discovers that the girls are slowly going mad. And she becomes banished from the group for not accepting that it’s magic. This drives her to leave the encampment and fall in love with someone who would kill her if it weren’t for a promise. The man is a poacher who is tasked with killing girls who leave the camp so they can terrorize the girls in the camp. With him, she realized the girls in the camp are going mad because where the girls drink water is a well full of poison. The society had poisoned the well, so the girls go crazy and do horrible things to believe they are the weaker sex. She goes and helps the girls wean off of well. This starts a new movement of the final year girls, where women start to silently rebelling again the misogynistic society. What a wild plot. However, I didn’t like the happy ending, but I’ve never liked where everything ends perfectly.  

If you like dystopian novels, you’ll enjoy this read. This book is similar to hand maidens tale, lord of the flies, and hunger games. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, and Confinement

Minor: Suicide, Stalking, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Vomit

curlyewe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Blood, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, and Gore

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

mmestitches's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Death, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Blood, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Outing, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

rinku's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

tini_turtle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I loved the first two thirds of this book! The world building is really engaging and thought through, and the beginning of the actual grace year is incredibly written and super gripping. I found the ending to be a bit rushed, and not as thoughtful as the rest of the book. I felt that the

love triangle with Ryker and Michael

really unnecessary and cliche, and I found the entire

pregnancy storyline

honestly quite hard to get through. It's such a shame because it could have been so so good but the ending was just disappointing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Rape

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gore, Classism, Suicide, Death, Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Confinement, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

rachellherrington's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Suicide, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, and Medical trauma

planreadrepeat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book feels like a mix of so many others. Handmaid’s Tale mixed with Hunger Games spiced with Salem Witch Trials and Lord of the Flies. 

The overall theme of men ruling and women submitting is laid out with a nice bit of world building. How brutal the girls, and women, are to each other seems far fetched until you think of the Salem Witch Trials and other acts of mass hysteria. 

The ended was hopeful and sad at the same time. Good read to make you think of power in society. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, and Grief

Minor: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail