The Jewel by Amy Ewing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Described as “The Selection” meets “Handmaid’s Tale,” this dystopian fantasy was a total page-turner and I am so excited it’s part of a trilogy that’s entirely published because now I know what I’m doing for the next several days!
Our setting for this novel is a central city known as The Jewel. It is a circle, and is surrounded by four additional circles, all separated by walls, less exclusive as they move away from the Jewel. The outer ring, the poorest and shabbiest, is known as The Marsh — but it has one claim to fame; it’s young women at age 12 are tested and some are discovered to have special powers, or augeries, that can manipulate the color, shape, and growth of things. These women are taken from their families to institutions where they are carefully instructed and controlled until their later teenage years, when they are auctioned off to the royal families of The Jewel to serve as surrogates.
Our heroine is Violet, otherwise known as Surrogate 197 of 200 — the highest numbers are the most talented, and Violet has a particular talent for making things grow. The story begins on the eve of the auction and follows her plunge into the spectacular, twisted, complex world of The Jewel, with it’s terrible traditions, secrets, and the relentless competition between The Jewel’s most important families for the greatest treasures of all: offspring.
Cue the chills and I’m sorry now if you, like me, are unable to put this down. So good!!
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Tag: Young Adult Fiction
Book review: The Grace Year
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An amazing story. Tierney has grown up in an isolated county where men have all the power and women are sent away at age 16 for a mysterious rite of passage known as their Grace Year, where they will rid themselves of some terrible and self-destructive “magic” that they realize at this brink of womanhood. Before leaving, some will receive a veil from a local boy, meaning they’ve been chosen as his wife and will wed upon return. Those who do not get veiled will either be put into labor or sent into the Outskirts, of which little is known. Tierney has tried to learn what she can about the Grace Year, but knowledge is scarce. Women who return — and many don’t — are silent to what they’ve experienced, save for visual scars such as missing fingers and ears. It is Tierney’s turn, and on the cusp of leaving she is shocked to be veiled by her longtime best friend, who was supposed to select the village mean girl, who now has it out for Tierney. The book follows the girls as they embark on this terrifying, mind-altering, life-changing year, and really this is a book about female power and relationships, about fear, finding your voice, group think, fear, hysteria, and love. I could not put this book down. SO GOOD.
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