Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Young adult fantasy. In the seven kingdoms (no, very much not George R.R. Martin's, another seven, because seven is the number of fantasy) some people have graces, or extraordinary talents. Our heroine's is the grace of violence. This is the story of her flight from life as a court assassin and enforcer as she makes friends and battles evil.

This was cute and fun, but I find myself not enamored to the degree a lot of people were. Let me break it down a bit.

Things I liked: Young adult and fun without being totally whitewashed. Extremely prickly heroine who says that she won't get married and have kids and then doesn't change her mind when a man comes along. General lack of stupid about gender, sex, and disability, which is far rarer than I like to remember. Women and girls being capable and doing important and impossible things.

Things on the minus side: It's a debut, and you can tell in half a dozen ways, specifically some inconsistent or threadbare world building and rough writing in the beginning. That particular young adult sense of right and wrong – you know what I mean – that I just wasn't really in the mood for.

Good times. I'd buy it for a kid of my acquaintance.

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