Synopsis: Set in an unknown time, Tierney lives in the County, a place settled by immigrants generations ago. Each year, girls age 16 must go through the Grace Year, a year spent away from the town to expel their magic and become women of worth either as a wife and mother or a worker. Tierney has no desire to be a wife and mother, but her desires do not matter if she doesn’t survive her Grace Year.  

Review: I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning absolutely enthralled with this story. It is dark, bleak, terrifying, gripping, heartbreaking, and at the end, hopeful. It is also one of the most thought provoking books I’ve read. So much of the media, culture, even our families tell us that girls are catty, competitive, irrational, distractions and meant to be controlled. Every girl can appreciate Tierney’s inner struggle to want to be herself, but struggling with what society says a girl should be. The world is out there to beat us down and destroy who we are, to make us fit into a box so that we don’t cause ripples of change. I love this story so much. I love its message that we are stronger together rather than competing with each other. We are powerful as we are. We are world changers, everyone one of us in our way ways.

5/5

Romance: Yes mildly spicey

Violence: A lot, this book is BLOODY

Tropes: Enemies to lovers, group politics, minors abandoned on an island

Trigger Warnings: Bullying, brainwashing