Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you doing? I hope you’re well!
I’ve just finished “Graceling” by Kristen Cashore, which I enjoyed. I read it as an ebook YEARS ago, but earlier in 2021 I bought the first three books in the Graceling Realm series in paperback. I’ll hopefully get the fourth book for Christmas! I never continued when I was younger so next year at some point and maybe into 2023 as well, I’ll continue with Fire, Bitterblue and Winterkeep.
3 Stars!
“Graceling” starts a series of companion novels. Each book has a different main character. I’m only going to talk about “Graceling” here. A main character from the third book, is in “Graceling” too, although the cast of characters is pretty small. Graces are a unique power. This book is based on that idea. Our heroine is Katsa. She’s Graced in the form of fighting although it’s seen as killing for the majority of the book, which, in turn makes her look badly upon herself! Whenever she wants she can end someones life through fighting them. Does this work in her favour? You’ll need to read to find out! Our other main character is Po. He’s a Lienid prince. Lienid is place you want to be from in this world, as it’s the posh, most luxurious part of the Graceling world. When Po’s grandfather is caught by Randa, Katsa’s uncle it’s up to her to work out who he is, what he’s doing and ultimately who is evil. Can she do these things or will someone try to stop her? You’ll need to read to find out.
There’s another plot that starts over half way through the book too. This one is about a young girl, a princess named Bitterblue. She needs to escape someone. Who? You’ll need to read to find out!
Readathons
I read “Gracling” for a few readathons, which were:
* The Popsugar 2021 Reading Challenge - Read a book with something broken on the cover - The rose has a sword going through it on my cover, so the rose is technically broken, right?
* Reading Rivalry - I started reading “Graceling” in June 2021, so it would have counted for June’s RR if I had finished it.
* I buddyread “Graceling” with a friend on facebook. She finished it well before I did, though. She gave the book 3 stars too.
Spoilers Below...
“What might she be capable of — if she acted of her own volition and outside Randa’s domain? It was something she thought about, something to distract herself as she broke fingers for Randa and twisted men’s arms from their sockets. And the more she considered the question, the more urgent it became, until she thought she would blaze up and burn from the frustration of not doing it.”
Early on in “Graceling,” Katsa wonders what it would be like to be free of Randa’s rule. We don’t see too much of Randa in book 1 to the “Graceling Realm series” I don’t know if we’ll see him more in the other books but if we do I hope that Katsa and the other main characters takes him down! All she wants is to be free. It’s what she thinks about as she carries out orders for Randa. The opportunity for freedom comes a few chapters later, in the form of a young man, Po. As I said, he’s our other lead character, and Katsa’s love interest in “Graceling.” I enjoyed reading about him.
“I’m going to my rooms,” she said, “and if I must knock you over to do so, I will.”
“I won’t allow you to go,” he said, “until you tell me where my grandfather is.”
This is Katsa and Po’s first interaction. This happens at just after the 50 page mark, so it takes a little while for the first plot to get going or even start up, as Po’s a pretty major part of it. Katsa is threatening Po, by saying she’ll hurt him if he doesn’t let her go to her rooms. She doesn’t meet many people because Randa makes her believe her ability is killing, when it’s fighting! He wants her to think she’s dangerous. Too dangerous to be normal. Po, luckily doesn’t let Katsa go, however. She takes him to his grandfather couple of pages later.
“She was not normal.”
Katsa doesn’t think she’s normal. She doesn’t have any friends before Po.
“Come,” she said. For it was time to get him out of here, this strange person, this cat-eyed person who seemed created to rattle her. She would knock those eyes out of his face the next time they fought. She would knock the hoops from his ears and the rings from his hands.
It was time to get him out of here, so that she could return to her rooms and return to herself.”
Katsa needs time to think, alone. She’s not used to having someone that rattles her quite the same way that Po seems to. She plans to hurt him the next time they fight. Does she? Can she? You’ll need to read “Graceling” to find out. She doesn’t like who she becomes around Po at first. Does this change as the novel progresses? If so, how does Po make her see that she’s not the person she thought she was? The person Randa made her think she was? You’ll need to read to find out!
“They were eyes, they were only his eyes, and she wasn’t a coward. And besides, she didn’t want to behave toward him, as the entire court behaved towards her, avoiding her eyes, awkwardly, coldly. She didn’t want to do that to a friend.”
Katsa doesn’t want to look at Po’s eyes but feels drawn to them. Each Graced one has odd eyes; one is one colour and one is another colour. Katsa’s for instance are blue and green and Po’s are silver and gold. Katsa wants Po to feel welcome in Randa’s court so tries not to avoid his eyes. He’s become her friend.
“...for the first time in her life, Randa’s court became a place of contentment for Katsa.” She isn’t afraid to be in Randa’s court, for once, because of Po. She feels safe and protected by him already, and the main plot of the book hasn’t even begun.
Katsa wants to find more out about Po, so asks him where his name came from. He tells her that a Po is a type of tree, that bears gold and silver fruit, like his eyes.
“It’s a kind of tree in Lienid, the po tree. In autumn its leaves turn silver and gold. Inevitable nickname, I guess.”
Po goes on to tell Katsa that he has several brothers and that his father is King Ror, one of the rulers of the seven kingdoms. His Kingdom is Lienid. He has his own castle as do all of his brothers. Po’s is the smallest because he’s the youngest heir to the Lienid royal family.
“He was handsome enough, as handsome as Giddon or Raffin, with his straight nose and the set of his mouth, and his strong shoulders. And even those gleaming eyes, even they might be considered handsome.”
This is character building. We see Katsa at first as a harsh killer, a person that doesn’t care who she kills. But as the story progresses we feel pity for her. Especially in the second half of the novel. She’s developing feelings for Po in the quote above. She isn’t sure what to do with these feelings. All she knows is that she shouldn’t be falling for someone that’s not from Randa’s court.
The romance in Graceling was there but not very much. The plot was more focused on the action. I would have liked to have seen a more equal distribution between the action and the romance. This is another reason for my 3 star rating. It’s alluded to that they have sex but it’s off the page so it’s fine for a younger reader to read. There’s still fighting and killing, though.
Po gives Katsa one of his rings later in the novel. These rings are very significant to the people of Lienid. Katsa is angry when she learns that he gave her his ring in case he died at the hand of an evil character. He entrusts his castle, fortune and life to her, is basically what giving her his ring meant.
There are a couple of side characters in “Graceling,” such as Oll and Giddon. I didn’t really like either of them. I thought Oll wasn’t necessary to the plot and Giddon annoyed me as all he wanted was Katsa to fall for him. That’s literally all he was interested in. Luckily, Po, who I much preferred was Katsa’s choice. If Giddon had gotten her, the plot would have been more boring too. Other side characters like a female pirate captain and her first mate later in the novel added more than either Oll or Giddon if you ask me. Katsa travels to Monsea, where Leck, the truly evil character and Bitterblue, Leck’s innocent daughter are from with them. They give Katsa information on the Lienid people that Po has missed out accidentally or deliberately from his upbringing. This again, angers Katsa to no end.
Now, to the second and main plot of the book. It’s quite simple, really. Simple enough to wrap up in a few lines, even. After all that character building, we see Katsa and Po head off out of Randa’s court to find King Leck and kill him. Do they succeed? What bumps do they hit along the way? You’ll need to read to find out.
Bitterblue as I said above, is King Leck’s daughter. She’s hiding from him when Katsa and Po find her hiding in a log. King Leck has the Grace of mind manipulation, and uses it for evil purposes. He doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he’s in power. This is reflected in how he kills Bitterblue’s mother. Po and Bitterblue are cousins, so of course he wants to save her and get King Leck off the throne.
“You aren’t really like the person in the stories,” Bitterblue said. “The stories I heard before I met you.”
Katsa braced herself against the flood of memories that never seemed to lose their freshness and always made her ashamed. “The stories are true,” she said. “I am that person.”
“But how can you be? You wouldn’t break an innocent man’s arm or cut off his fingers.”
“I did those things for my uncle,” Katsa said, “at a time when he had power over me.”
And Katsa felt certain again that they were doing the right thing, to climb toward Grella’s Pass, to the only place Leck wouldn’t follow. Because Katsa couldn’t protect Bitterblue unless her power remained her own. Her arm tightened around the girl.”
This is when Bitterblue and Katsa get to know and really trust one another, I feel. This trust ultimately is what helps both of them in the end. Before this, Bitterblue is scared of Katsa because she doesn’t really know of her. Do they both survive the events of Graceling, and what happens to Po?
Overall then, “Graceling” was a good novel. It wasn’t my favourite but I didn’t hate it either. It was very middle of the road for me. That’s why I’m giving it 3 stars! It had a few elements I loved, but also parts that I found rather boring and that I didn’t think were needed, like all the character building at the beginning. We need some, yes but not two hundred or so pages of it! Did we really need so much character building for such a simple plot? I don’t think we did. In Fire, book 2, the story is focused on a different character so I hope it’s not quite as long winded or a pain about getting to the point. The main plot starts over half way through the “Graceling.” This made the book incredibly slow for me, which was why it took me so long to finish it (over 2 months)! When I previously read “Graceling,” I gave it 4 stars, I can remember. My tastes have changed since then, and I now prefer to read adult fantasy with far more concise character profiles but wider plots.
I will continue to Fire because when I start a series I never like to leave it unfinished! It’s spooky season starting tomorrow, so expect some witchy/creepy reviews from me with my next few books!
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