Graceling

I never really got into Young Adult fiction. I skipped straight from The Baby-Sitter’s Club to John Steinbeck when my dad bought me The Pearl when I was like 10. Ain’t nobody got time for YA fiction (unless the title happens to be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

So this summer, when one of my friends lent me The Selection, City of Bones, and Graceling, I was not impressed. I was even less impressed about halfway through City of Bones, when I started texting another friend all the ridiculous similes Cassandra Clare wrote (Exhibit A: “The scent hit Clary, soft as the padded blow of a cat’s paw.” …Excuse me?)

By the time I finished The Selection and City of Bones, I wasn’t very excited to read Graceling, but it was summer, and I had a lot of free time, and YA books go by quickly, so I reluctantly started it. And just like that, the Graceling obsession took over, and I was converted from YA skeptic to believer.

Quick summary: Graceling takes place in the Seven Kingdoms, a medieval-ish world where Gracelings are people with different-colored eyes and special talents for a variety of things: some have extraordinary cooking abilities, while others have remarkable fighting skills (I know this sounds like it could be lame. It is not). Lady Katsa, the niece of a king, is graced with the ability to kill, and has been used by her uncle to enforce laws in his kingdom. However, when Po, a Graceling prince from a nearby kingdom, comes to her court in search of his kidnapped grandfather, Katsa decides she’s done being used, and the two embark on the best journey ever to solve the mystery of the long-lost grandfather.

Now, exactly how much do I love Graceling?  You guys. I risked my white duvet to take a hipster tea and book picture for this blog post. There is no higher expression of love.

Seriously, though, there are a lot of things to love about Graceling.  Kristin Cashore put years of careful thought into this book, and the resulting high quality is evident in every aspect of the book. The plot is intricate without being confusing, the characters have depth and unique personalities, there’s a strong female lead (!!!), the writing is pretty much impeccable, and the overall message of self-acceptance is positive and encouraging.

Also (this is potentially the most important detail for my fellow disillusioned YA readers), Kristin Cashore is not about those unnecessary love triangles. The romance in Graceling is realistic and reasonable, and the two main characters’ relationship brings out the best in both of them.

I could probably talk about the romance, the adventure, and everything in between for years to come, but I won’t, so I’ll wrap up the fangirling with this: I might have all my favorite scenes nearly memorized and the ending is probably engraved on my heart, but I can’t help but read Graceling over and over again. Even if this doesn’t seem like something you’d normally read, try taking a little vacation in the Graceling realm.

And after you’ve read Graceling 12 times, there’s a companion book that is equally fantastic called Fire, and a sequel which is marginally less incredible but still fantastic called Bitterblue. So you have at least two more days of Kristin Cashore love fests ahead of you when the book hangover hits.

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

[Immediately after publishing this post, I started rereading Graceling again.]