Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling Realm, Book 1

Synopsis: Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight – she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace – or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…

Review: This is a really cool read.

I wasn’t so sure about Katsa at first, she seemed to act a bit too much as a victim when I thought that wasn’t necessary. But it turned out that her behavior and the role she lets herself be put into were big parts of the story, which is as much about the mystery Katsa and Po try to solve, as it is about Katsa’s transformation.

And Katsa’s transformation is a really beautiful story to read. I liked how Cashore doesn’t shy away from touchy subjects like premarital sex, and a woman’s place in a medieval/fantasy marriage without it taking away from the flow of the story. She doesn’t treat her YA readers as if they’re too fragile to handle these issues.

The mystery Katsa and Po have to solve, and the journey they take is also very intriguing. I liked how they became friends along the way and how they interacted. There was heartache, cool action, intrigue and more. Everything I could wish for in a good Fantasy adventure. There were some things you could see coming from miles and miles away, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment.

The world building fell a bit short at times. There’s all these people with graces, skills that are so advanced and better than in normal people, but I felt that they weren’t explained enough. How common or uncommon are they exactly? Are some graces more common than others? I think they were supposed to be very uncommon, but Katsa keeps running into graced people once she leaves the castle she grew up in. I wanted to know more than was told.

But that one grumbling aside I really liked this book, and I will most certainly read the other books in this series as well.

 

4Sullivan McPig

26 thoughts on “Graceling by Kristin Cashore

  1. Been wanting to read this one for a while, shame on the world-building though, it does depend on if I have other things to distract me whether it will bother me or not. Overall, sounds great though! 😀

  2. Not a big fan of novels that rely heavily on world building so the fact that this aspect wasn’t all you’d hoped for would not bother me greatly.

  3. Too “clean” YA in either a fantasy or historical setting is good in some cases but I prefer it to be a little realistic. The environment is far from polite or even proper so a little talk about sex, as long as it’s done responsibly, is a good thing IMO.

  4. I wanted to read this series when it came out, but then something pulled me back and years passed by without realising it… Of course, now my curiosity is coming back in full force!
    Glad you enjoyed it, Sullivan! 🙂

  5. I’m glad you enjoyed this book. I really loved the first half of Graceling, but once they started traveling in the mountains I got bored and I really didn’t like the whole Po part. I was afraid that’s where she was going with his power. Oddly enough I felt the same way about the sequel, Fire. The first half was great, then she turned into a whiny weakling. But most people love these books. Nice review! 🙂

  6. I think my son read this one. I have it here on the shelf and would like to get to it one day. Glad to see you enjoyed it. 🙂

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *