Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

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

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

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, and Medical content

Minor: Infertility

rachelcotter1's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

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

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

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

The Grace Year is honestly one of the creepiest and most intense books I’ve read in a while. Even though the world building is quite thin, what we see of the world is still terrifying enough. 

I don’t want to say too much about the plot because it lives from its surprises. From the little we see from the world; the author is able to create such a tense and dark atmosphere throughout the story that you just wait for the big catastrophe to happen. In this world, women are strongly oppressed, and are only there to get married and to bear children. The men claim that women have some magic to them which makes them dangerous – those talking points reminded of how witches were described back in the times. The main character Tierney and other girls have to go and live one her aware from civilization so that they lose their supposed magic. I don’t know why but books with inevitable things like this happening just have something about them that resonate with me. 

Thus, survival elements are a crucial element to the story, and they are executed so well here. They kinda reminded me of The Hunger Games, but I honestly haven’t read many survival stories besides them lmao. We see how the girls antagonize themselves and each other and we see how some of them lose their minds and start to believe the wildest things. It’s so terrible how the girls

conspire against Tierney, just as learning that the count is working together with the hunters,

and many other shocking things. 

Some moments were a bit predictable, like the fact that

it was Hans or that Ryker would die

. Then again, the ending surprised me, especially that

her mother is rebelling against the system and that Tierney is pregnant

. 

At the same time, The Grace Year is also a story about hope. Even though it takes its time, we also see solidarity between women, see how they try to find hope in this horrible world. The book shows well that the women are not inherently antagonistic to each other but the men pitting them against each other are the reason for it. This is also why I feel so ambivalent towards many characters: They treat our main character horribly, but you can still somewhat understand why they turned out the way they did. Talking about Tierney, there were some moments where I wished that she would just communicate a little bit more. 

The romance is for me the weakest aspect about The Grace Year. It gives me Stockholm syndrome vibes and came too fast for my taste. But on the other side, I can understand why

Tierney fell so fast in love since it’s one of the few moments she gets a choice since all other men in her life have patronized her

. 

Still, The Grace Year is some of the better feminist dystopian novels out there and a recommendation for everyone who likes to read about those elements. 

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Outing

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Infertility

stonefruits's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

ann_the_imp's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Excrement, Grief, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

alidathealien's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I picked up this book because it was recommended for people looking for more Yellowjackets, and I think on that front it really delivered! Loved seeing how the girls responded to being alone for the first time in their lives, not to mention alone in the wilderness and having to survive. It was every other aspect of the book that made me roll my eyes. 

Firstly, there's a semi love triangle, because of course there is. But having the love interest be someone who's literal job is to torture and kill these girls???? Jfc. 

Secondly, it doesn't make sense to me that Tierney would be so against the customs of the county when that's all she's known her whole life. The whole time reading it I was thinking "but what if Tierney was a stout believer in the magic and everything? What if it's not until her grace year when she can't find her magic that she begins to realize something's off?" And tbh I think that would be a much more interesting story than a girl who already thinks it's all bullshit from before the book even starts.

Anyways, shout out to the scene where Ryker is telling Tierney about his family while staring wistfully at his figurines and Tierney thinks to herself "I thought the figurines represented girls he's killed, but I'm starting to think they're actually his family" YEAH NO SHIT. you're just STARTING to think that????

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

auri_underthing's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

To describe this book in three words: 
Horror. Desperate. Clawing.

Woah. That was… intense. A haunting and almost grotesque story about a girl becoming a woman and realising she can be just as powerful as a man. 
Read it in one sitting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship