Inventive, Captivating, and Intriguing are three words that I would use to describe Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. This Young Adult (YA) Fantasy was unexpectedly good, and unlike any other book I’ve read to date. It’s imaginative plot will keep you enthralled, and eagerly awaiting each new original concept.
The story surrounds seven kingdoms: Nander, Wester, Estill, Sunder, Monsea, Middluns, and Lienid. There are two kinds of people in these kingdoms, the villagers and the graced:those who were born with extreme abilities and enhanced traits. Some gracelings are gifted in conventional skills such as sculpting, painting, or cooking; while others have more serious abilities like mind reading, combat skills, wielding knives, or seeing the future. The graced are easily recognizable to others, as they are all born with two different colored eyes. Unfortunately, this “defect”, along with their intimidating abilities, lead most villagers to fear them.
The main character, Katsa, is the niece of the King of Middlun; and is especially feared since she has the most unfortunate gift of all…one of killing (or so she believes). To Katsa’s extreme displeasure, her uncle (the King) uses this fear to manipulate the nobles of other kingdoms, and keep his own villagers in check. While reading this story, I kept thinking how Katsa would just totally RAWK ‘Vixenhood’ and easily make a great role model for young women today; she is courageous, powerful, full of integrity, and a little afraid of love. Although, we could probably teach her a thing or two on the ‘DIRTAY’ factor we all possess! OOWWWW!!!
Po is Katsa’s companion and eventual love interest; He is the Prince of Lienid and also graced. Though their personalities are very opposite from each other, life seems to have dictated their friendship, and they are thrown together to face many dangerous ventures. These two characters had just the right amount of chemistry. It was very easy to get lost in their story; yearning for their next kiss, and hoping to get some juicy deets from their ‘SHAG-Session’. Which, btw was quite disappointing, as they never did divulge the DEED! UGH! But I guess Dems are da breaks when you read a Young Adult novel. Since I’m on the topic of discontentment, I would also have to admit that some of the romantic plot was a bit predictable; Girl meets boy – Girl fights with boy – Girl falls in love with boy. You get the drift…
Aside from her exceptional creativity, Kristin Cashore’s writing style was just about average. I didn’t have any qualms with it, but nothing about her word usage or writing technique stood out to me as exceptional either. That said, I still think it was a great story, and definitely worth your time to read. Overall, I give this book a 3.5 pumps for running my imagination wild, and introducing characters that are just as odd as they are charming!
