Book 21: Graceling

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Book Summary:
Katsa lives in a world where some are born with innate skills. These Graces are feared by many but exploited by those in power. When she was young, Katsa learned that her Grace was that of killing, and though she despises it, her uncle Randa, king of the Middluns, uses her to punish and torture those who displease him. When she meets Prince Po, a Graced fighter, her world is turned upside down. In the midst of turmoil surrounding a horrid secret in a faraway kingdom, she doesn't expect that this cocky prince will become a true friend and that he will show her more about herself and her Grace than she thought possible.

Book Review:
As far as debut novels go, Kristin Cashore did a decent job writing this one. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book and read it in record time. Overall, the story was engaging and the main characters were interesting. I found Katsa and Po to be pretty well rounded characters, and I loved reading their evolution from strangers to friends to lovers. The back story on both of these characters was decently written, so I definitely felt like I knew them really well by the end of the novel. I think Katsa's character was possibly my favorite thing about this story. Even though she believes her Grace to be terrible, she finds a way to use it for good by helping others whenever she can. I've read multiple reviews where people didn't like that she had such a big issue with marriage and couldn't understand why she hadn't changed her mind by the end of the book given everything she's gone through with Po. I, however, felt that this added so much to her character and that it made perfect sense. Until she leaves Randa's court, she's never had freedom, and even though Po loves her and would never cage her, if she married him she would be giving up her freedom again. Even though I don't agree with that train of thought, I think that it completely matches Katsa's character.

As far as other characterization goes, I don't think Cashore did a great job. Most of the characters other than Katsa and Po are very one-dimensional. I wish we had gotten a little more background on characters like Oll, Raffin, Giddon, and Bitterblue. I felt that these characters were very important to the plot; however, I didn't really feel like I knew them. They felt more like characters instead of friends. And then we have Randa and Leck. I felt that these two characters were very poorly formed, especially Leck since he is the main villain of this plot. Other than the two of them being kings who crave power, I don't fell that I knew anything about them like why they actually acted the way they did. The author definitely could have done a better job writing these two.

I really liked the idea behind the plot of people with Graces that could be as mundane as swimming or as powerful as mind-reading or suggestion. I thought, though, that the plot as a whole was somewhat poorly formed. They say over and over again how people are afraid to be around those who are Graced, but most people that Katsa and Po come in contact with don't seem that scared until either Katsa and Po get angry. And even though the main plot is supposed to be about Katsa and Po finding out who had kidnapped Po's grandfather and in turn learning of a great threat and thwarting it, I couldn't help but feel that this was actually secondary to Katsa and Po's relationship. I know that the novel is supposed to be a coming-of-age story and that their relationship is a big part of that, but it just seemed to overwhelm the book to a point that the rest of the plot outside of their relationship was not well written. For the first half of the book they're trying to figure out who kidnapped Po's grandfather, and then once they figure it out, they realize that King Leck is not what he seems and the rest of the story is them trying to kill him. When if finally gets to the climax of the book, the scene in very underwhelming. Cashore definitely could have put a little more effort into this aspect of her story.

As I said earlier, overall I did really enjoy this book. It was an easy read, and even with the issues of secondary characters and plots, it was definitely worth the time. As far as family friendliness goes, there is no cursing that I remember, but there are some definite sexual references as Katsa and Po decide to become lovers instead of marrying. I would say the killing and torture in the book (there isn't a ton of it, but there is some) is probably worse than the sexual stuff. If I had a younger teen I would probably let them read this.

My Rating: 7/10