Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1)

by Kristin Cashore

[clementine]

I'm so delighted by how much I enjoyed this book. Fantasy is, like, the opposite of my thing - with the exception of Harry Potter, I steer quite clear of the genre. If I'm going to read something that's not 100% realistic, it's going to be dystopian. I don't know why, really; I don't have anything concrete against it, it's just never interested me. I don't even remember when or why I downloaded Graceling, but I did, and I'm glad.

I think what impressed me the most was the structure and the pacing of the story. There were parts where it meandered a bit, but it wasn't slow. It meandered purposefully. And then there were parts that were quick and exciting and kept me turning the pages. (Well, the metaphorical pages, since, like most books these days, I read it on my Kobo.) The plot was so tight; everything fit together perfectly, and it was all tied up beautifully. I know there are more books in the series, which I will most certainly get around to reading at some point, but it works really well as a standalone book, which I appreciate. It's not forcing me to read the next one to find out something I don't care about (cough, The Selection, cough), it's just quietly saying, "Hey, there's more if you're into that," and I am into that.

Now, you know I struggle with romances sometimes (okay, fine, like, all the time) because I find them highly unnecessary. But this one was written so beautifully, and believably, and it was integrated in the plot in a way that I felt strengthened it. The whole book wasn't about the romance, and Katsa was still a BAMF and she didn't spend pages upon pages angsting about Po and how Giddon loves her, blah blah blah. I'm glad the love triangle thing wasn't really done here, because that shit annoys me so much and it was very nice for Katsa to just be like, "Bro, I'm not interested," and move on with it.

I loved the characters; Katsa is seriously awesome. Like I've mentioned, sometimes the archetype of the spunky, sassy female protagonist doesn't work, but Cashore wrote Katsa in such a way that she felt believable. I really felt like I could root for her. Po may be a bit too perfect, but, whatever, I loved him, so I'll let it slide. And Bitterblue is just so... everything. Adorable, smart, badass.

Just, dude. Great writing, awesome characters, inventive premise, superb plotting. I think my main issue is that the whole reason behind the mission they went on was kind of sketchily laid out. Leck needed more screen time, so to say, more explanation. His kidnapping of Tealiff needed more of an explanation and probably more of a motivation. I kept getting stuck there, because the whole book kind of revolves around that and I just didn't feel like it was properly explored. Seriously, though, this impressed me so much and I would definitely recommend it both to people who love fantasy and those who are apathetic towards it!