I haven’t love a book like this in such a very long time, but leave it to Kim Liggett to haunt me with her story telling. Elizabeth Banks knew what a game changer this book is, too–enough to have signed on to produce and direct The Grace Year for Universal.
While this book isn’t technically horror, this story is full of tension and parts were absolutely terrifying. If you love dystopian stories along the lines of The Handmaid’s Tale…make sure to pick this book up when it releases on October 8, 2019!
XOXO,
A
No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden. Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for their chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.
With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.