Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

212 reviews

meghan_w's review against another edition

This one is a little too dark for me right now. I might come back and finish it down the road.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Dysphoria

bella613's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The first half of the book felt like all the confusion of watching "Lost" with none of the intrigue. There was absolutely no explanation of how this "Grace Year" idea started or why anyone thought that toughing it in the woods for a year somehow got rid of ~magic~ that no one seemed to have in the first place. Don't even get me started on

the little jars of toes and eyeballs or whatever. Was that included to keep the reader horrified, or are we expected to believe that people in town really buy their daughters pickled phalanges to prolong their youth?

I was pretty sure that even the author had no clue what was going on. The excuse for having no context on anything was "we don't talk about the grace year", which, to me, isn't very believable and doesn't make you more curious.
There's no mystery when there is no clues. If you leave your reader completely in the dark it doesn't hook them in. It's assumed that the grace year is meant to be a way to control young women, but if you want to subdue them, why would you tell them they have strong magical powers? What is the incentive for them to get rid of their magic, and what is the plan for this glorified no-supply camping trip to do the trick? It's a cool idea for a premise but wayyy underdeveloped because none of it made any sense. 

I did enjoy the later-middle part of the book, which introduced a lot of possible outcomes. 

As Tierney gets close to Ryker, I thought they would talk about the community that he is from. Since they're adopting the outcasts of the town they probably understand what is going on. It sounded like the people on the outskirts were more than a few families' worth of people, and obviously if the main civilization only has 30 ish girls each year, it's a fairly small town. Seems like an extremely fragile system they've got going, especially since the leaders are only a handful of middle aged men in a council, and there seems to be no state leadership or anything. Possibilities moving forward from that point could include a mini-rebellion of outcasts against the measly leaders, or a rescue mission to take the women and children to the outskirt community instead. It was not in my reader bingo card for her to return from the woods with a surprise underage pregnancy, abandon her plan to actually tell the truth (to the citizens who somehow believe these teen girls are witches who can be fixed by a year in the woods) and willingly accept the marriage she's been against her entire life. Not to mention that in a matter of months, she falls in love with this guy she previously felt trapped by, despite recently having watched the father of her child be murdered in front of her. And her husband is the new leader (as a minor) but somehow hasn't done anything to change the town except secretly burn one shelf of human remains.

The ending, in summary, was extremely disappointing. I have no idea if there is a sequel planned but I have no interest in reading more of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kaz_brekkerrr's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Murder

monica_moser's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia

bendersanchez23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide

spectacles_and_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

The Handmaid's Tale meets Lord of the Flies.

I feel torn between loving this and wishing that the story went in the direction I was hoping for. The premise really got me hooked and the ending was intriguing. Some of the pacing was a little slow. Overall, I would recommend this if you're wanting a good dystopian read with feminine rage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

kparsons44'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

 Since I'm still processing this book, which I voraciously read in two or three sittings, I'd say I will recommend this book to everyone that loves dystopian fiction! Tierney was a strong, realistic, hopeful protagonist that inspired me to be more present with the conversations I have with my daughters and women around me.
The writing was very fast paced, broken into seasons of the Grace Year, so it reads more like a diary without marked chapters. There is an eeriness left in my imagination after reading this book about how similar our worlds are, or how precious the freedoms women have been "granted" by the men who owned them. Seeing good men represented in a feminist book, identifying what makes a great ally for women's rights, is great to see.
Like Tierney, we all have dreams of the world we want to see reality become. The ambiguous ending frustrates me but I do love getting decide what really happened.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

arsmagicalibrorum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Miscarriage and Medical content

ellakwatson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

meredithgweiss's review against another edition

I love young adult fiction, especially dystopian young adult fiction. I was a huge fan of Divergent, and the Hunger Games, as well as the Delirium and Matched series when I was a teenager. I really wanted to like this book given it had a lot of the tropes I generally enjoyed when I was reading young adult fiction.

Ultimately, I felt like the label young adult fiction was misleading because even as an adult, the graphic violence and gore in the book was almost too much to bear; you can write an engaging novel without explicit discussions of blood and gore. There are adult fiction books out there that still have the same adult themes without being uncomfortable to read. This is definitely a book meant for adults; there is no question about it.

Spoilers below.

I truly cannot believe that in a purported “feminist” work of literature that the protagonist fell in love while fighting for her life with a man who was originally meant to kill her. Not only that, they have absolutely nothing in common other than him not killing her and taking care of her. Especially given the revolting displays of violence, the idea of her ending up with a poacher was absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. 

“Well he’s not like the others.”

Sure, alright, but Riker has a map of her ENTIRE BODY. Every freckle and scar. Not only that, the main reason why he didn’t kill her was because of a deal her dad made with him. Only AFTER he saved one of the other poachers from smallpox

Calling this book a feminist and young adult piece of literature is incredibly misleading and inaccurate. It should be marketed as a horror, adult fiction. I don’t even think you could even call it a feminist novel given the above. The romance arc did not reflect the feminist plot line at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood