A review by sarahweyand
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

This feels like a 2012 YA dystopia that was forgotten about and then published in 2019. I thought the plot was interesting enough but didn't feel super connected to any of the characters. However, I do think the idea was interesting and I did enjoy the atmosphere and challenges the Grace Year presented. It certainly had a lot going for it and I could tell this book had something it wanted to say.

Downfalls: The main female antagonist felt so evil and for what? Very one-dimensional and shallow. I wish there had been more world-building as well, but the book already felt long enough as-is that more exposition would have dragged it down even more. The romance was boring and I felt no chemistry between the characters. So on and so forth. I probably would have enjoyed this in my post-Hunger Games quest for The Next Great Dystopia.

I think this book works well and is enjoyable as a horror/thriller when viewed from a lens of religious misogyny / extremism, which is why I'm rounding up to three stars and not down to two, but I went in expecting a feminist book and that's not what I got. With the exception of the last couple pages, this was not a feminist book - and that's okay! A book can be about religious oppression, or even about the oppression of women, and not have to have a feminist tone (the rebellion plot felt kind of shoehorned in save for the last few pages), and I felt the plot could have really shined as a horror without that aspect. Even if you argue that this book is feminist, it certainly doesn't present any sort of intersectionality along with it, which is a little disappointing. Overall, I'd pass on this one.