Graceling by Kristen Cashore
As a New
York Times Bestseller, I’d say that Kristen Cashore’s debut novel, Graceling,
has done pretty well for itself. This book is full of adventure and action.
Though it isn’t one of the main themes, there is a glimpse of romance in there
as well.
Although my
reading of this particular book was completely by chance, I have easily fallen
in love with the characters and the storyline. The main character, Katsa, has
been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight. She’s a
Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As
niece to the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced
as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. There are
several different Graces, really one for anything you could think of as a
skill. Cooking, hunting, fighting, and anything else. A Graceling is identified
by their unusual eyes. One eye is a different color than the other. When Katsa
first meet’s Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, she 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’s hidden far away in another kingdom.
I could not
put the book down, and although this book has 471 pages, I finished it in two
days. The number is formidable to some, but it is a good read and is highly recommended.
