Graceling (Seven Kingdoms Trilogy #1)

Reader reviewed by Siera

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is very well written and the characters are very well developed. The plot of this book is kind of unusual which makes me want to read on! Some of the scenes in the book are pretty gory, though. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about fiction and adventures.

Reader reviewed by Lea

Once I get over the name Katsa, I loved this novel. At first, I was a little hesitant to read it. A girl graced with the skill to kill? Creepy...

It took me awhile to really like Katsa, but she has a good heart. She's strong and powerful, but she's kind. Po was a great character to throw into the mix, especially once we learn more about his mysterious Grace, and that it's not what it seems. The two of them are a good match, he can calm her down a little. There was romance without too much, views on marriage, and plenty of action. I loved this novel, and what an amazing concept.

Fantastic. Cashore has a Grace of her own.

Reader reviewed by mearley

There was a lot to like about Graceling. Kristin Cashore created an interesting fantasy world where some children are born with a Grace. Some graces are practical-you might be graced with cooking or sewing and be in high demand in the king's kitchen or tailor shop. Other graces are scary. Katsa is graced with killing; no target can escape her.

By her teenage years, Katsa grew to despise her grace and the way the king used her against his enemies. She and a few trusted friends formed the Council which carries out missions of mercy instead of killing. Through the course of one of these missions, Katsa meets Po, a prince who is also graced. His grace places him on level footing with Katsa, a situation she is unaccustomed to!

My disappointment in Graceling comes from the message Cashore seems to be sending about love and commitment. Katsa is determined to never marry, but decides that she and Po can become lovers until one of them decides it's not working out anymore. It is unfortunate that love and sex are treated as trivial choices and the consequences are so easily brushed aside. Because of this, I will have trouble recommending Graceling to my middle school students.

Reprinted here with author's permission.

Reader reviewed by Beth Revis

GRACELING was a book that I much anticipated. As a fan of the old school high fantasy for YA, I was really looking forward to the title.

And some of it didn't disappoint. I love Kristin Cashore's neat twist on magic, and her world building was excellent. Everything was logical--there was an explanation behind why the magic worked in the way it did that I greatly appreciated. Clearly, Cashore paid attention to detail and worked hard to make her story realistic on every level.

On the other hand, though, I could help but feel as if, at points, Cashore was more focused on making her characters feminist than realistic. It felt forced at times, particularly near the end, and I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I felt like I was being preached to less. It's not that the feminist morals were bad--they were just too obvious and didn't seem to fit in realistically with the other characters.

I don't think that you should ignore this book because of that, however. It was a truly original work, and one I'm glad I read. And, for the record, I felt that the companion novel, FIRE, was much better written, with clearer character motivations.

I was interested in this book at first because of the plot; sounds pretty good doesn't it?? But quite honestly I was a little disappointed in it. There was so much that could have been done with this book, but it fell short. I think maybe a good squeal could redeem the story, but the characters didn't come to life on the page like they should in a good book. I would recommend it if you were bored and just needed something new to read.

A minority of people are gifted with special abilities that are marked by mismatched eyes, these are known as the Graced. They are treated with disdain, fear and hate. Used as servants and weapons they belong to their King, having little to no freedom of their own. The seven kings are often at war with each other using Gracelings gifted with great fighting skills as their swords. The main character Katsa is one such Graceling serving her uncle King Randa. Unfortunately for her, she is gifted with the ability to kill, hence making her feared by all and used as her uncle's own personal thug.

Katsa uses her gifts for good as well; secretly creating a Council that aims to protecting the average person from the idiocy of the seven kings. She rescues the father of the Lienid king taking the interest of Prince Po from Lienid. Po is also a Graceling gifted with fighting and has one silver and one gold eye. Together they escape Katsa's uncle, searching for the truth of why the grandfather was kidnapped. However, they get more than they bargained for; discovering horrible secrets about Po's family, the Graced and the royalty of a neighbouring kingdom.

I loved the strong female character of Katsa. She is a woman who can defend herself and those she loves, survive pretty much anything and kicking butt while doing so! Bitterblue, a young princess is also a strong girl who survives a lot of physical and emotional difficulties.

It was a bit slow in the middle but the end had a good twist. It was written well with good development of the main characters, Graced abilities and the world they live in.

Doesn't the plot sound absolutely kick-ass? Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately, the plotline overall failed to meet my expectations.

Let’s start with Katsa, though. Meet the protagonist: young, beautiful, powerful—and controlled by her cruel uncle, the king. The premise is just reaching to tug your heartstrings. And it does suck, the situation she is in, because she finds it difficult to stand up for her own self and be independent. That said, she is also one of the most clichéd characters I have ever read. Cashore tries too hard to make her unique, and in doing so, makes her completely ordinary for YA books these days. A girl who rebels against the norm, by not wanting to get married, not wanting children, hating dresses and makeup and hair, preferring practicality over beauty. Add in to that the fact that her Grace – her natural born talent – gives her the ability to kill, and you’ve got the typical, against-societal-expectations, bright, independent girl, whose main flaw, after the first third of the novel, is that she’s got a bit of a temper and that she doesn’t think she actually is all that.

Mary Sue, much?

Other than Katsa, the characters range from average to awesome. Unfortunately, two of my favorite characters, Oll, Katsa’s mentor, and Raffin, Katsa’s cousin, only show up in the first third of the novel before Katsa goes on a road trip, so to speak. Po is a great character, though, and of course, he’s in pretty much the entire book. He’s kind, but unlike a lot of the boys on YA shelves these days, he’s not a bipolar, mysterious young man whose only attraction is his sulkiness. At least, not for most of the book.

The plot was really just great, and intense. I was almost always at the edge of my seat, wanting to know what’s going to happen next… almost always. There happens to be this one stretch of pages that just goes on and on and on and on about how COLD it happens to be in this extraordinary leg of adventure of Katsa’s and it really just talks about how cold and how tired Katsa is for about twenty pages. Needless to say, it killed the suspense.

I also wasn’t a fan of the climax. After all of that traveling and worrying, the main antagonist is defeated in roughly 0.2 seconds. A little bit of a disappointment, as it sort of just happened, and it barely registered because of the lack of focus on it.

The ending was sad, but not heartbreaking. It was wrapped up cleanly and neatly, with no loose ends, so you can just stop and not read the prequel, or the sequel that is coming out later this year. It didn’t leave me any desire to read any more books by this author, unfortunately. Fortunately, I have the fortune of having friends, who highly recommended the prequel Cashore wrote to this book, Fire, which, believe it or not, I actually loved, especially compared to this bore of a book.

I just couldn't get into this book. The characters didn't appeal to me and I found the story to be too slow to be interesting.