Title: The Grace Year
Author: Kim Liggett
Page Count: 416
Series: N/A
Publishing Date/Publisher: October 8, 2019 by Wednesday Books
Format: Hardcover
Review: This book has been likened to the Handmaid’s Tale, and I would say that is fairly accurate. Liggett took a page from Atwood’s handbook and created a world ruled by men who will do everything in their power to subjugate women. It was bloody, it was brutal, and it was ripe with misogyny. In this society, young women are blamed for their sexuality and are sent to a special camp to “burn off their magic.” Rather than band together, the girls are torn apart by jealousy and girl on girl cruelty.
My biggest issue with this book is the lack of world building. The reader is simply dropped into an insular society of undetermined size that is using a story from the Bible to justify the dehumanization of women. The society is very primitive, and it is unclear to me how this dystopian society came into existence. I generally like some context for dystopian novels, so I had great difficulty buying the setting.
I think this book has the potential to garner some popularity because there are still many readers who love dystopian fiction, but I do not think it does anything new to revolutionize the genre.
Reader: Bekah
Rating:
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