I thought Graceling was OK but nothing special. The idea of the Graces is inventive and interesting. I really enjoyed the depiction of the different Graces and how they affected people's lives. The narrative became especially interesting once it turned into a chase movie as Po, Bitterblue and Katsa ran away from Leck. The concept of Leck's Grace was terrifying!Po's characterization was excellent, and I liked his rapport with Katsa very much, even if the romance aspect of it was boring and cliche. Another thing I enjoyed was how warmly Katsa behaved towards BItterblue and how well she took care of her. However, there were a number of factors that keep me from ranking the book higher. The first one is the quality of the writing. It could be much better. Bitterblue sounds like she is 50 years old, not a 10 year old child. The pacing is off, with long and repetitive passages describing everything the trio endures during their journey, including cold, hunger, hunting, eating, bad weather etc. I found myself skipping these passages to get to the next conversation or the next plot development - and ended up skipping a lot of things. Definitely the book should have been edited more tightly. I will say that Cashore does write dialogue (other than Bitterblue's) pretty well, and I truly enjoyed the sarcasm deployed by Po and Katsa.The other big reason is twofold and relates to Katsa's Grace. So her Grace is... survival? That's a bizarre concept in itself, and Cashore didn't develop it enough. What are the limits to this Grace? Will it keep developing as Katsa ages, just as Po's does? Doesn't it mean that Katsa is essentially immortal?? The other strange thing about it is that I never understood why, if Katsa was Graced to be a fighter that nobody could touch, she stayed under Randa's control all those years. She could have left at any time! Or she could have forcefully deposed him, or killed him, or done any number of things that free him from his control. Finally, I thought it would have been more interesting if Katsa defeated Leck because her survival Grace kicked in and somehow made her see sense. Instead she kills him because he threatens to out her boo. Eh. No es lo que esperaba, y no lo estoy diciendo en un buen sentido. Toda la tensión que podría haber creado se esfumó antes de la mitad del libro. Algunas cosas parecían excusas para generar drama. Otras, problemas más aislados, que sin embargo eran tomados como Eventos Que Perjudicarían de Inmediato al Mundo Entero. No sé... Así y todo tuvo algunos momentos (y algunos personajes) que levantaron la novela. Pero, no sé...Próximamente, una reseña hecha y derecha.
What do You think about Graceling (2009)?
*4,8 starsI really enjoyed this book, it was suprisingly good
—Rachel
It was a very good book: anyone should read it
—lea
