Book: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Pages/Format: 471/Hardcover
My Thoughts: Graceling about Katsa, who carries the Grace of killing. In the world that Cashore thought up, there are people who are born with extreme skills (called Graces) and they are both fear and exploited. Katsa lives with her uncle, who is King of the Middluns, and does his dirty work.
Like Fairy Tale, I was bored reading it, and I liked the premise of the book more than I liked the actual book. I loved the world she built, and I loved the idea of people being born with extreme skills and being feared and exploited and even shunned because of it.
It was very well-written, but I didn’t like the pace of the novel during certain parts of the book. I would’ve liked to have gotten into Katsa’s head a little more, and to see what she was thinking.
Katsa’s very independent and insisted that she would never get married. It was nice to see such an indpendent female.
For a debut novel, it was decent, and I’m hoping that her second book (which is a prequel to this one) is better.
Rating: It gets a 3 out of 5. I liked it, but felt there was room for improvement.
Reading Books With Coffee 
My brother read this; he felt that Katsa wasn’t much of a character at all. Just the ‘stubborn female’ trope with ultimate power. I was pretty determined not to read it because of that, as character makes or breaks a story for me. I didn’t know it was her debut, though, so she can be forgiven in part. 😉 I might give it a shot after all, after your review.
I wasn’t a big fan of Katsa, but I still found her an interesting character.