Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) by Kristin Cashore
This book is: A YA fantasy novel, the first in a series, about a girl with a supernatural gift for killing.
Other elements: Right vs wrong, romance, friendship.
Read it: If you like YA fantasy, if you enjoy ass-kicking women, if you liked The Hunger Games.
Overall rating: 8/10
I really like reading YA fantasy, even though I’m in my mid-20’s. (Mid-to-late 20’s? Where do you draw the line? I’m clinging to “mid” for now.) YA fantasy is comforting – usually good things happen to the good people and bad things happen to the bad people, for the most part. It’s free of things like vivid descriptions of how clothing in different lands shows different parts of breasts (ahem, Robert Jordan). It also tends to be simpler overall, unlike some epic fantasy series which can become extremely, sometimes overly, complex. Not to hate on those books, I enjoy them too, but sometimes they’re just not what you want.
I’ve read enough fantasy that I have certain pet peeves that I take as a sign that a book is going to be bad in a way only a fantasy book can be bad. This book was guilty of one of these right away and it took me quite a few pages to accept that I liked the book anyway. The sin? Weirdly-colored eyes. Bad fantasy novels love characters with weirdly colored eyes. (Even good fantasy novels use this sometimes.) In this case, I forgave it.
The characters who have weirdly colored eyes are those who have been blessed/cursed with the magical powers that exist in this book’s universe: something called a grace. A person who has a grace has an innate extraordinary skill for something. Swimming, cooking, climbing trees – it seems to be limitless in scope and can involve multiple abilities, as long as they come under the heading of the grace. I think it’s a cool idea, and not one I’ve encountered before.
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[…] Fire (Graceling Realm #2) by Kristin Cashore. This book is: wonderful. Other elements: femininity, love, moral imperatives, right vs wrong, family, duty, beauty. Read it: if you’re a Tamora Pierce fan. If you love a strong, intelligent, complex heroine. Overall rating: 10/10 […]