Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Title: Graceling 

Author: Kristin Cashore

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books

Publication Date: October 2008

Hardcover: 471 pages

Summary: 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, and in her case horrifying, 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... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.




**WARNING THERE MAY BE SPOILERS**


Book Review: Katsa is a strong young women who is forced to act as a thug for the king. Being Graced is bad enough let alone being Graced with killing. She is privileged to live in the court, the only price is to follow all the king’s orders to a t. 

When Katsa is saving the prince of another kingdom she encounters another Graced. At first she believes him to be Graced with a fighting ability. During another one of her missions she sees that the king’s beliefs of justice are not totally correct. When he sends her to serve out a punishment Katsa can’t bring herself to follow through with the orders. Katsa learns to be happy with who she is and come to terms with her abilities. Katsa is eventually forced to chose between basic human emotions and serving her uncle the King.

During all this Po is looking for his grandfather. He travels all over looking for his grandfather. When he meets Katsa face to face they create an unlikely friendship, and they will need each other more than they can imagine. For there is an evil rising and only Po and Katsa working together can stop it. 

I thought that overall this book was okay. Though at the end I wanted to kick myself for reading it. Its hard to explain but something about the end really annoyed me. I thought that the writing was pretty well done and there was definably a good balance between too much and too little detail. The author did a pretty good job creating the characters. Personally I thought that Katsa was a little bratty. She was also head strong and a good strong heroine though. What I didn’t get was is she was so independent and strong then why did she practically melt when it came to dealing with Po. Talking of Po I thought that he was a good character. Though he was basically the stereotype boy character. I also didn’t really like his name and how he acted at the very end. I was disappointed in how the “romance” in this book turned out. I really don’t look for romance in a book but I really don’t like it when there is romance that is badly done in a book. I wouldn’t call what Po and Katsa had, “love”. It was more lust than “love”. I mean the getting to know each other parts were minimal and I almost missed to point when they relationship became more than friendship. Overall the book was just okay.


Rating: C

Kristin Cashore, author of The Seven Kingdoms.