Graceling -- Kristin Cashore

Here is the more I promised...

The Graced are very rare, and sometimes very powerful.  Easily identifiable by their different-colored eyes, they are born with special talents.  In most of the seven kingdoms that make up the world in Graceling, by law, those who are Graced belong to the king.  Those with useful talents, like cooking, singing, healing or fighting, stay in the king's service.  Those with interesting-but-not-very-useful talents, like the ability to speak backwards, are sent home, where, regardless of how harmless their Grace is, they are avoided by most people.  In most places, the Graced are feared.

Katsa, niece of King Randa, may be the most fearsome of all.  For she has the killing Grace, and her uncle has no compunction about sending her out as his heavy.  While she is feared by most people because of what she's done (and still does) at Randa's command, the few people who are aware of her involvement with the secret Council (Bet you want to know more about that, right?  TOO BAD, NOT TELLING!) know that she is something very much more than a mad dog*.  More than the general populace and even King Randa, of course, it's Katsa herself who needs to realize it.

In short, I adored it.  It's an adventure story with spot-on character development, a super-duper romantic love story (that yes, made me cry), a survival story with lots of political intrigue and yeah, there's more.  It's a story about Katsa learning to form connections with people, and that she doesn't have to be ruled by anyone or anything.  It's alsoan unputdownable page-turner that I read in one sitting and that I will read again, like maybe this weekend.  Oh, and I also loved how the Graces evolved as the characters became more comfortable with them and with themselves and I especially loved how Kristin Cashore showed that (WARNING:  the following idea is seemingly rare in recent YA fantasy and is maybe a little spoiler-y) not all love stories have to end in marriage and babies. 

Okay.  Now.  What did I say in my freakout a couple of days ago?  Ah, yes.  I cried when it was over.  Because I wanted more.  Very true.  However.  I've calmed down a bit since then, and checked out Kristin Cashore's blog and website, and it looks to me like this is the first book in a trilogy**.  So there will be more.  I just have to wait a while.  Which will be difficult, but I will persevere.  Sadly, I am not Graced with patience. 

Super-duper-ultra-mega-uber recommended to fans of Tamora Pierce, Shannon Hale***, Robin McKinley and anyone else who does the girl power fantasy thing. 

Oh, right.  ItcomesoutinOctoberpleasedon'thatemeokaybye.

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*"Underneath that angry young woman shell is a slightly less angry young woman..."  Name that quote!

**At least.  At this very moment, even three books feels like too few to me.  I WANT MORE.

***Oh, but do know that there's some tasteful non-explicit sex in here.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Curse your ARCs. I hate getting all excited about a book only to find out it hasn't been released.

[Alison]

Veronica Mars love!

This book is totally going on my to-read list. It sounds great.

[Michelle]

Arg! I was stoked to place a request for the book at my library... now I'm crushed I have to wait until October... Boo!

But really, thanks for the recommendation, I can't wait to read it. Due to your blog, I'm ahead of the curve for lots of books and get to be the first person to read them half the time. Let's hope this is one of them...

(fingers crossed)

[Jay Montville]

"...who's just dying to bake me something. You're a marshmallow, Veronica Mars. A twinkie." :)

LOVE Veronica. Also love your blog, which I found through Google reader, and I'm not really looking forward to this book. What a great review.

Jay

[Krista]

I'll be on the lookout for this once it's released. :)

[jess]

I was all set to go put it on hold...and then you dashed my hopes.

I knew I recognized that quote - good thing some people have a better memory than I do.

[Aljay]

Sounds good. In some ways it sounds similar to Ursula LeGuin's 'Gifts'. Was her writing style similar?

[Maureen E]

AGH. Another one to wait for. Along with Chalice, which I am incredibly excited about and may just have to pre-order.

[Leila]

Aljay: Nope. I love Le Guin and I loved Gifts, but something about her writing style makes me feel distanced from her characters, and it also makes me feel like she is, too. I didn't get that feeling at all in Graceling -- I did notice the similarity with the special powers, though, of course! But that's something that shows up in lots of stuff -- X-Men, Charlie Bone, Xanth...

[Casey]

Just wanted to let you know that Graceling is now available on Amazon so hopefully you'll be able to talk about it with people soon! :)

[Kristi]

I just picked this book up the other day, and I KNEW I'd heard rave reviews about it from somewhere. Suffice it to say, I loved it as well, staying up way too late in order to finish it, on a night when I knew I had to be up early for work the next morning. And of course, the next day I was tired and cranky because I was running on less than four hours of sleep, and I knew I didn't have any more of this story to look forward to.

[Str4y]

So, after buying this last fall, I finally waded through the piles of books and reached this one...and wanted to thank you for yet another great recommendation. This book was awesome. It seemed to start a little slower than it could have, but once she crossed the mountains, I was glued to the pages.
But not literally. I try not to use glue around my books, 'cause I'm klutzy and what I said above would happen.
I need more coffee.

[Str4y]

Oh, and also, I was amused that the romance was much more realistic and healthy in some ways than many literary romances, not only because of the marriage/babies thing, but also because the characters didn't have to be attached at the hip from the time they realized they liked each other. I mean, they worried if they were apart and in some sort of danger, but it wasn't like, 'oh! Half of my soul is gone! All is dark and gloom and emo!'

[Leila]

YES. I thought the romance was so well done in this one.