Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I always go to the library in the company of my little girls, aged 3 and 1. So it's not a relaxing experience. As a result, I have a habit of blindly grabbing the first several books to catch my eye, even if I have no idea what the book is about. Sometimes this nets me a disappointment, and sometimes I get a wonderful surprise like Graceling.

Graceling takes place in a world where a certain number of people are "Graced" with an extreme talent. These people are feared and most often exploited or even enslaved. For Katsa, Graced with a gift for killing, life is a misery. She is forced to work as the king's personal thug, whether she agrees or not. To help ease her guilt, Katsa starts moonlighting by righting injustice wherever she can. It is on one of these missions that she meets Po (I'm not crazy on this name. It's what my 1 year old calls #2), a prince graced with combat skills. They become friends, and Katsa sets out with Po to help him discover the truth behind a mysterious plot that threatens his family, and perhaps the entire world.

Katsa and Po make a fantastic pair of protagonists. Early in the story, you get the sense that Katsa is a semi-feral human being, almost driven insane by the realities of her gift and her life. It takes Po's questions and his challenges to her thinking to make her realize she could control her own destiny. Po's perceptiveness compared to Katsa's complete inability to know what anyone is thinking (even herself) makes for an interesting companionship.

Cashore has a beautiful, flowing style that makes you really see what she's telling you about. I'm terrible for wanting to skip paragraphs of descriptions, but I read every single word of this book. Many parts a few times over. The plot flows smoothly, never jolting you out of your reading with a "that sounded weird" or "what just happened here."

I'm also giving Cashore some points for creativity on the way the Graces work in her story. She's come up with some pretty great super-powers. The villain, most particularly, has a power you don't want to be on the wrong side of. Katsa's powers are so formidable that I wondered how there could possibly be a final confrontation that wouldn't seem too easy for her, but it worked well.

In style, this novel reminded me a little of Twilight for some reason. The characters are completely different (no overbearing Edwards or mooning Bellas- don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Twilight, but doesn't Bella make you gag sometimes?). I think it maybe the similiarity is in the way this book pulls you completely into its world. And even though this book isn't written in the first person like Twilight, I kept feeling like it was written in the first person. It was a little bizarre, actually. I kept looking around for "I's" instead of "she's." That's never happened to me before. Cashore does an excellent job of showing you what Katsa is thinking even when she isn't telling you what Katsa is thinking.

My final word: 5 out of 5. A fast paced adventure with a sweet romantic core. Fantastic if you like romance, adventure, fantasy, or just a generally good story. Don't start this book unless you have several free hours, because you won't want to put it down.

Kristin Cashore keeps a blog. You might want to check it out. She seems like a really interesting, surprisingly normal kind of person, and she posts lots of interesting tidbits. There's a post today that says she's going to be speaking at the Sirens conference on women in fantasy writing. I had no idea there was such a thing, but I think it's a great idea.

Click the book cover image to purchase from Amazon.

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