History Literature / TheGraceYear

** When Gertrude is punished for depravity, her knuckles are whipped almost to the bone. She hides the scars with lace gloves.

* MushroomSamba: The girls are in one thanks to the water in the well, more specifically the hemlock silt that makes it taste funny. Kiersten insists that they drink from it despite Tierney telling them it's better to drink water from a spring or what is collected in rain barrels.

* SinisterSuffocation: Tierney finds a set of female skeletal remains with a red hair ribbon wrapped around the neck, indicating that whoever killed her choked her with the ribbon. Later, she wakes up with ''her'' ribbon wrapped around her neck in a knot that becomes tighter the more she tries to removed. [[spoiler: At first she thinks this was done by one of the poachers trying to hunt down the girls, but later learns that it was Hans, [[IfICantHaveYou who killed the first girl and now wants ''her'' dead]]]].

->''My father always told me that a person is made up of all the little choices they make in life. The choices no one ever sees. I may not be in control of much, like who I marry, the children I’ll bear, but I have control over this moment. And I’m not going to waste it.''

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Ryker]] prepares a bath for Tierney, complete with flowers in the bathwater. She is left speechless, because back home, bathing with flowers is considered a sin and [[WhipItGood punishable by whipping]].

* BrokenMasquerade: Tierney asks Ryker why he did not kill her. [[spoiler:Her father tends to the medical needs of the people of the outskirts of town and saved Ryker's best friend. In exchange Ryker agreed to protect Tierney if he could.]] He is surprised she didn’t about this.

* EarAche: One of the girls from the grace year before Tierney’s comes back minus one ear. No explanation is given.

** Gertrude is punished for depravity, and the other girls nickname her "Dirty Gertie". The name sticks as they go off into the wild.

** Tierney’s mother is missing the top of her finger; Tierney thinks it happened during grace year.

* GroinAttack: Sixteen-year-old Hans was given a choice between being sent out to the fields and being castrated so he could get guard duty. Most men in his situation chose the former but he chooses the latter. A seven-year-old Tierney gets to see him in the "healing house" (the infirmary) with a bag of ice between his legs.

* AnAxeToGrind: Kiersten uses the hatchet to assert her authority and to destroy Tierney's efforts to make things more comfortable.

* KnifeNut: Poachers' favorite weapon. They are particularly good at throwing them and hitting their target.

* EunuchsAreEvil: [[spoiler:Hans]] voluntarily submits himself to "the cut" so he can be a guard and escort the girl he likes on her way to her grace year. Instead, he pulls an IfICantHaveYou when she rejects him. He stalks Tierney and later tries to kill her.

* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: Rather than get caught by a poacher, Tierney runs out into thin ice and slashes a crack. The ice gives beneath her feet and she falls into freezing water.

* BrokenPedestal: Tierney learns her father bought an ear at the apothecary and is disappointed he would buy a part belonging to a girl. [[spoiler: She later learns he uses it to find a cure for smallpox. This becomes a RestoredPedestal.]
* BurnBabyBurn: The grace year girls arrive to be their camp to find that before the prior group left, they burned anything that could have made the newcomers' lives easier. Before ''they'' leave, they only burn the punishment tree.

* BrokenMasquerade: Tierney asks Ryker why he did not kill her. [[spoiler:Her father tends to the medical needs of the people of the outskirts of town and saved Ryker's best friend. In exchange Ryker agreed to protect Tierney if he could.]] He is surprised he didn’t about her father’s actions.

* NoWomansLand: It ''sucks'' to be a female in Garner County. Even if you survive your grace year without being hunted and killed by poachers who will sell your parts or succumbing to elements without major physical or emotional trauma, your options are to marry a husband not of your choosing or enter a life of labor. Women are not allowed to do ''anything'' that might suggest they are hiding their magic, like praying in silence or hide behind their hair. As a wife, Tierney's oldest sister is not allowed to ''garden''. Punishments are severe for those who stray, ranging from a TraumaticHaircut to execution.

This novel contains examples of the following tropes:

* NoWomansLand: It ''sucks'' to be a female in Garner County. Even if you manage to survive your grace year without being hunted and killed by poachers who will sell your parts or succumbing to elements without major physical or emotional trauma, your options are to marry a husband not of your choosing or enter a life of labor. As a wife, Tierney's oldest sister is not allowed to ''garden''. Punishments are severe for those who stray, ranging from a TraumaticHaircut to execution.

* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: Tierney wants to make sure no one offering her a veil during the veiling ceremony. Otherwise, ''if'' she returns from the grace year, she would be obligated to marry that man.

* DontGoInTheWoods: The grace year girls are convinced that there are ghosts (not true) and wild animals (true) in the woods. The biggest danger to them is the poachers hunting the girls for their parts. When Debbie runs off into the woods after being bullied, they can hear her screaming for hours. Tierney is relieved when the screaming stops.
* DrivenToSuicide: On their way to the camp, Laura, one of the grace year girls, gathers rocks and stuffs them in her dress. Then they get into canoes and are rowed in. Somewhere in the middle of the river, Laura asks Tierney to tell her little sisters that she is sorry, and rolls out of the canoe to drown.