The Grace Year

The Grace Year is a 2019 young adult dystopian fiction novel written by bestselling American author Kim Liggett. The novel follows the story of 16-year-old Tierney James as she and the other girls of Garner County are sent to live out their “grace year”: a special time in a young woman’s life where she is banished to the woods to burn through her evil magic so she can be purified and turned into a suitable bride. The novel touches on the genres of horror and speculative fiction, and Liggett uses tools from psychological thrillers as well as big ideas from classic works of literature such as Lord of the Flies, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Crucible. Shortly before the book’s official release, Universal Pictures announced that it had optioned the film rights, and The Grace Year film production began. The novel was awarded the Amazon Editors’ Young Adult Book of the Year award for 2019 and the 2020 Nous a Libre Prize for Young Adult Literature, and it was also on the Amelia Bloomer Book List for 2020. The version used for this guide is the e-book of the Wednesday Books imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Content Warning: The Grace Year depicts religious abuse, torture, dismemberment, sexual assault, and graphic violence.

Plot Summary

The people of Garner County believe that women harbor magic, and they use it to lead men astray. Every year, the 16-year-old girls in the county are sent into the woods, and they are expected to burn through their magic before returning home. However, there is a high price on the body parts of the “magical” grace year girls. An illegal market offers the flesh of the dead girls as aphrodisiacs and youth serums. To supply this market, poachers roam the woods looking for grace year girls to torture, kill, and dismember.

On the day before the girls leave, the eligible men and boys in Garner County choose their brides from among the grace year girls. Tierney James is independent, free-spirited, and uninterested in marriage. However, on the day before her grace year, her best friend Michael chooses her as his bride. Not only does this anger Tierney, but it also angers Kiersten, the beautiful girl who thought she would be marrying Michael. As the girls leave for their grace year, Kiersten makes it clear that she will get her revenge on Tierney for “stealing” Michael. The other girls follow Kiersten’s lead and turn against Tierney.

The girls are brought to a dirty, run-down encampment with a massive fence to keep out the poachers. All around the camp, evidence of cruelty and sadism lingers from the last group of grace year girls. The girls quickly split into groups: Tierney leads a small group of girls who try to clean the camp up and set up a more sustainable, comfortable way of life. She becomes friends with Gertrude, a girl who used to be friends with Kiersten but who was publicly punished the year before and now bears the nickname “Dirty Gertie.” Despite Tierney’s best efforts, Kiersten starts winning more and more of the girls to her side as she encourages them to embrace their magic, believe in the power of their abilities, and suffer for their sinful flesh. The girls start to have strange hallucinations and engage in violent behaviors, and Tierney isn’t sure if it’s the magic or something else affecting them. The tension between Tierney’s practicality and Kiersten’s violent mysticism grows until Kiersten attacks Tierney and banishes her from the camp. Tierney runs for her life through a hole in the fence.

Tierney is captured by a poacher named Ryker, but instead of killing her, he takes her back to his hunting blind and hides her there until she can recover from her wounds. Ryker explains that Tierney’s father is a good man who helps the people of the outskirts and that Ryker spared Tierney’s life as a favor to her father. Ryker has never killed a grace year girl, but like all of the poachers, he believes the girls are dangerous. As he and Tierney spend the winter and spring together, however, Ryker starts to question his long-held beliefs, and Tierney realizes that the poachers are only trying to provide for their families. Tierney learns that the well water in the girls’ camp is contaminated with hemlock silt, a hallucinogenic algae that causes insanity. Ryker and Tierney fall in love, but Ryker’s friend Anders, who believes Tierney has bewitched Ryker, orders Tierney to leave or he will kill her. Tierney reluctantly agrees after she and Ryker spend a night together and consummate their relationship.

When Tierney returns to the girls’ camp, chaos, disease, and filth have taken over. Tierney tries to get the girls to stop drinking the contaminated well water, and although she succeeds, the girls continue to act violent and unpredictable. Gertrude encourages Tierney to return to Ryker and seek happiness with him. Tierney agrees, but as she and Ryker are making their escape, another poacher kills Ryker. Tierney returns to the girls’ camp, and after she saves Kiersten from a poacher, the girls finally accept her logical approach to what has been happening to them. Still, the damage is done, and many of the girls have lost their lives under Kiersten’s cruel reign.

The girls return to Garner County, and Tierney reveals that she is pregnant. However, Michael rescues her from the gallows and still takes her as his wife. Tierney learns that there are many women in town—including her mother and sisters—who have formed an underground rebellion to fight the harmful systems in Garner County. In the final chapter of the novel, Tierney gives birth to her daughter, whom she names Grace. Tierney believes that Grace will be the one to change Garner County forever, and as she bleeds out, she sees a vision of Ryker walking toward her.