I think I'll post an review every Saturday! :)
Basics
Title: Graceling
Series: Graceling Realm #1
Series: Graceling Realm #1
Author: Kristin Cashore
Release date: October 1st
2008
Publisher: Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152063962
Publisher: Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152063962
Number of pages: 480
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
What's special? In the world of Graceling, there are people graced with special abilities.
They can be recognized by their different-colored eyes.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
What's special? In the world of Graceling, there are people graced with special abilities.
They can be recognized by their different-colored eyes.
Summary
The
story takes place on a continent which is divided into 7 kingdoms.
Middluns, Estill, Sunder, Nander, Wester, Lienid and Monsea.
There are some
people who are 'graced' which means they have special abilities, such
as storm sensing, or highly developed skills at healing. Some can
even read minds but nobody trusts those gracelings. Gracelings are
visibly identifiable by their mismatched eyes.
Lady Katsa, our heroine, is the niece of the king of Middluns - and is graced in the art of killing.
It is said that she can kill a man with only her small finger.
She discovered her grace at the age of eight when she easily killed a man without intending to.
Back then she had no control over her powers but now, ten years later, she's an amazing fighter and every knife, every arrow hits its target. She is incredibly fast and has an extended endurance.
Her uncle, King Randa, uses her to punish Lords who disobeyed him.
Because of her
reputation as a „murderous dog“ and her grace in general she is
feared even more than an 'usual' Graceling.
Her
only friend is her cousin Raffin, the son of Randa.
Together with him, to escape the guilt which her grace brings along, she secretly founded The Council, to fight injustice since the kings aren't doing it.
On their latest mission, rescuing the kidnapped father of the king of Lienid, she comes across a graced fighter who appears kind of trustworthy to her.
She knocks him out and doesn't kill him like she normally would have done. (How nice of you, Katsa!)
A few days later she meets him again – at king Randa's court.
It turns out that he is the youngest prince of Lienid, Prince Greening Grandemalion(I laughed so hard) or simply Po.
The actual plot of Graceling is the story of Katsa travelling with Po to uncover the mysteries of Prince Tealiff's abduction.
Together with him, to escape the guilt which her grace brings along, she secretly founded The Council, to fight injustice since the kings aren't doing it.
On their latest mission, rescuing the kidnapped father of the king of Lienid, she comes across a graced fighter who appears kind of trustworthy to her.
She knocks him out and doesn't kill him like she normally would have done. (How nice of you, Katsa!)
A few days later she meets him again – at king Randa's court.
It turns out that he is the youngest prince of Lienid, Prince Greening Grandemalion(I laughed so hard) or simply Po.
The actual plot of Graceling is the story of Katsa travelling with Po to uncover the mysteries of Prince Tealiff's abduction.
My opinion:
Okay, first of all: I love, love, love the
idea! I'm always fond of books about people with supernatural
abilities and this one is a great one!
The graces are well thought out and I love the idea of changing eye colors. Gracelings are not always Gracelings. They are born with a normal eye color. As soon as their power is fully developed the color changes. This progress happens between the age of a few months and the early years of their childhood.
So I go with 5 out of 5 stars for the plot idea!
The graces are well thought out and I love the idea of changing eye colors. Gracelings are not always Gracelings. They are born with a normal eye color. As soon as their power is fully developed the color changes. This progress happens between the age of a few months and the early years of their childhood.
So I go with 5 out of 5 stars for the plot idea!
The execution of
it gets 4 to 4.5 stars.
Katsa
is a wonderful female character. She is a badass and can stand up for
herself. She hates being used as a weapon by her uncle and her
emancipation is one of the main plot points.
She doesn't want to marry or have children, sadly that causes a lot of readers to call her a „man-hating protagonist“ but I disagree.
She fears to be suppressed by her husband as she is by her uncle. After gaining her freedom I can understand that she wants to stay 'independent'. Maybe she doensn't recognise that you can be independent in a marriage, too, some may say. But: that's how common marriage is today and Graceling takes place in a more medieval time.
Even though there's one passage at the beginning of chapter 20 which was a little bit over the top.
I won't quote it here, so I don't spoiler those of you who haven't read the book yet!
Katsa is a mix of deadly power and angry teenager who doesn't see any good in her grace until Prince Po(he has a silver and golden eye; also he's hot. You really don't need to know more) helps her to see another view of herself.
Speaking of Po – he's a wonderful male character. Well, actually you do need to know more because I couldn't skip such an awesome guy. I would even say that he is my favourite male character so far. He's lovely, kind, funny and caring – what do you want more?
She doesn't want to marry or have children, sadly that causes a lot of readers to call her a „man-hating protagonist“ but I disagree.
She fears to be suppressed by her husband as she is by her uncle. After gaining her freedom I can understand that she wants to stay 'independent'. Maybe she doensn't recognise that you can be independent in a marriage, too, some may say. But: that's how common marriage is today and Graceling takes place in a more medieval time.
Even though there's one passage at the beginning of chapter 20 which was a little bit over the top.
I won't quote it here, so I don't spoiler those of you who haven't read the book yet!
Katsa is a mix of deadly power and angry teenager who doesn't see any good in her grace until Prince Po(he has a silver and golden eye; also he's hot. You really don't need to know more) helps her to see another view of herself.
Speaking of Po – he's a wonderful male character. Well, actually you do need to know more because I couldn't skip such an awesome guy. I would even say that he is my favourite male character so far. He's lovely, kind, funny and caring – what do you want more?
The other
characters, too, are written wonderfully. I love to read the
dialogues between Katsa and her cousin Raffin! Also, once he
accidentally dyes his hair blue while searching for a cure for
headaches. That describes him perfectly!
Also Bitterblue is a great character. She is Prince Po's cousin but I don't want to spoiler you!
I'm really happy that there's a whole book about her. I'm currently re-reading it and there will be a review on it soon! But first I'll write one for Fire which is the second book in the trilogy. So stay tuned for that!
Gracling has a good, well thought-out dialogue with enough severity and some wit.
The writing style is not cheesy but simple. Everything else wouldn't have fit with the main character.
My
last point is fittingly: the ending. That. Ending, guys. My eyes
couldn't decide if they want to drop out or get lost in a sea of
tears.
I'm actually not that much of a cry baby when it comes to books or movies but this one hit me right between the eyes.
I think I only cried twice while reading. Once at the ending of Forbidden and actually the whole time reading The Storyteller. God, these books are awful. Wonderful, but so sad.
Well, anyway, that book is awesome. I really recommend it to you! Go, strong women!
Here's a quote that summarizes Katsa completely:
“I'm not going to wear a red dress," Katsa said.
"It would look stunning, My Lady," she called.
She spoke to the bubbles gathered on the surface of the water. "If there's anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I'll hit him in the face.”
I'm actually not that much of a cry baby when it comes to books or movies but this one hit me right between the eyes.
I think I only cried twice while reading. Once at the ending of Forbidden and actually the whole time reading The Storyteller. God, these books are awful. Wonderful, but so sad.
Well, anyway, that book is awesome. I really recommend it to you! Go, strong women!
Here's a quote that summarizes Katsa completely:
“I'm not going to wear a red dress," Katsa said.
"It would look stunning, My Lady," she called.
She spoke to the bubbles gathered on the surface of the water. "If there's anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I'll hit him in the face.”
Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Here are some drawings of Prince Po and
Katsa! I'm sorry but I don't know who painted Prince Po. Please tell
me if you do!
Katsa is drawn by Jiinsy from
DeviantArt.
doesn't he look just lovely? *swoon*
I really like the detailed tattoos on his arms!
What do you think about Graceling?
Have you read it more than once? Tell me in the comments, I would be happy to read your opinion!
Stay tuned for next week, I'll be back with "Fire" the second book in the Graceling Realm trilogy!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Franzi
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