He wasn't Graced like you. But he was mad like you.
Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: Katsa has one eye blue and one eye green - the mark of someone Graced with exceptional skill. Only her Grace isn't singing, or mind-reading, her skill is killing. She's feared in all the seven kingdoms as a monster that her king uses to keep his people in check. But she also tries to use her skill for good. When she hears of a strange kidnapping involving royal blood, she knows her skill will be needed to help free the hostage. Finding out the why and the who's behind it, though, will test Katsa in unexpected ways, and perhaps not even a killing Grace can save her.
The Good
This is a really well-written and well-paced novel. Katsa and Po are the two main characters and they both have great development: why they do the things they do, and how it affects them, always makes sense. I loved their journey and really felt for them as characters. And the dialogue is stand-out, it's very quotable and often made me laugh or smile, or just generally feel things. There are lots of little details that pull you into the world and the story, and I really felt like I'd gone through a big, epic adventure by the end.
The Bad
I'm not thrilled at the idea that none of the subsequent books of this series follow Katsa or Po. I'm going to read them and if they're as well-written as this one, I'll probably love them, but I feel invested in Katsa and Po - I want more of their story. Also I want more answers. I wish we'd been given POVs from the villain or maybe the victims because it wasn't clear what exactly the goal was. From what I can tell, the third novel of the series might answer this, but it would have been good to understand more of the why in this novel.
The Somewhat Iffy
The Graces are a cool idea and the way they work are interesting, however, they are crazy powerful and sort of vague in terms of limits. It feels like some Graces amount to not much and others are so incredibly far reaching in power since they seem to encompass being good at so many things. Katsa and Po both have an ever growing list of super powers. Also Bitterblue - she's not 10. No way.
Overall
This was massively enjoyable to read. I wasn't super invested in the first part (although it's still good), but once Katsa unleashed, it steamrolled from good to great to I-can't-stop-reading to what'd-you-mean-the-next-book-isn't-about-Katsa?
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