Book Review: Graceling

Title: Graceling
Author: Kristin Cashore
Category: Young Adult; Dystopia; Romance
Length: 471 pages
My Rating: 6 – Good, recommend with reservations

From Goodreads.com: In a world where people born with an extreme skill—called a Grace—are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him.

When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.

She never expects to become Po's friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

My Thoughts

Wow, I've been reading a lot of twaddle so far this year. I'm not going to lie, the mindless reading just for fun has been, well, fun! I've enjoyed it immensely, and can definitely understand why many people I know read nothing but YA fiction. (That sounds like I'm a book snob but, really, I'm not. I promise!)

I'm going to say upfront that this entry will contain spoilers. This book journal is for myself, and I really want to highlight all of my thoughts concerning the books I read. At the bottom, I have included a description and information about the book, as well as my overall rating.

Like I said above, I had fun reading this book. I was inspired to pick it up by a reader who participated in Iris and Ana's Long-Awaited Reads Month. While I did not participate myself, I did follow along and was able to add several new titles to my to-be-read list, this title included. Yay!

So, I set this review aside and have since lost the notes. Ah! I was actually prepared to review this book with all of my thoughts jotted down fresh from reading. I cannot believe I did that. I'm blaming my children. ;)

Just a few things, then: It was entertaining and I finished it in three days, which is pretty darn good for me at this season in my life. I knew right away that my daughter would love it, and have since passed it on. I was somewhat leery about doing so considering the intimacy and Katsa's overall attitude about marriage, but finally decided to let her read it and discuss some of those things with her instead of censoring. The injuries sustained by Po were predictable. I knew what was going to happen to him the second he hit the water, and was flooded by Cashore's foreshadowing leading up to this turn of events.

I guess I'll let it go at that. The other two companion titles—Fire and Bitterblue— are on my daughter's bed as I type. We picked them up at the library two days ago.