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Graceling |  | Author: Kristin Cashore
Publisher: Graphia
Category: Book
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $5.15
as of 11/23/2009 05:14 MST details
You Save: $4.84 (48%)
New (35) Used (12) from $3.34
Seller: smokymtnbooks
Rating:  253 reviews
Sales Rank: 957
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0547258305
EAN: 9780547258300
ASIN: 0547258305
Publication Date: September 7, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
If you had the power to kill with your bare hands, what would you do with it? Graceling takes readers inside the world of Katsa, a warrior-girl in her late teens with one blue eye and one green eye. This gives her haunting beauty, but also marks her as a Graceling. Gracelings are beings with special talents—swimming, storytelling, dancing. Katsa's Grace is considered more useful: her ability to fight (and kill, if she wanted to) is unequaled in the seven kingdoms. Forced to act as a henchman for a manipulative king, Katsa channels her guilt by forming a secret council of like-minded citizens who carry out secret missions to promote justice over cruelty and abuses of power. Combining elements of fantasy and romance, Cashore skillfully portrays the confusion, discovery, and angst that smart, strong-willed girls experience as they creep toward adulthood. Katsa wrestles with questions of freedom, truth, and knowing when to rely on a friend for help. This is no small task for an angry girl who had eschewed friendships (with the exception of one cousin that she trusts) for her more ready skills of self-reliance, hunting, and fighting. Katsa also comes to know the real power of her Grace and the nature of Graces in general: they are not always what they appear to be. Graceling is the first book in a series, and Kristin Cashore’s first work of fiction. It sets up a vivid world with engaging characters that readers will certainly look forward to following beyond the last chapter of this book. (Ages 14 and up) --Heidi Broadhead
Product Description
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 of 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. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa 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 lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 253
 A book with a very strong anti-commitment message November 20, 2009
T (NC)
This is my second reading of "Graceling" and I found myself enjoying it probably even more than when I read it the first time. I am once again convinced that Cashore is a very talented writer with a great future ahead of her.
"Graceling" is Cashore's first novel and what a great debut it is! Now, having read her second book "Fire," I know that she is developing as a writer in many ways. This particular book is very imaginative, the idea of Graces is original (at least to me) and intriguing - I especially enjoy the fact that the Graces are never what they appear to be at first. They are complex and ever evolving. I also appreciate Cashore's writing style - it is simple, concise, but yet very descriptive and emotional.
What greatly frustrates me about Cashore's writing, and the main reason I find it impossible for myself to give her books 5 stars, is ultimate weakness of her heroines (both Katsa and Fire) and their strange and obsessive attitudes toward marriage and children. Katsa is supposedly an independent woman who wants nobody to take care of her. I understand this desire for independence very well. For the longest time I myself refused idea of marriage and I don't have kids, but even I find Katsa's unyielding desire to never marry or to commit strange. There are never any reasons given why she feels so and it appears to be just a baseless fancy of hers. The saddest thing about this book is definitely the epilogue. It seems so strange to me that Katsa even after all her adventures and all the proof of Po's love and devotion to her, still chooses to do "as she pleases" - to go about her business leaving Po behind to be her occasional lover, to make sure she does not "stop him from loving anyone else." I can't stop myself from asking - is this really love? to go as you please and leave the man you love to look for someone else to love? is this really love to make your own choices without factoring in your partner and your partner's wishes in your plans for the future? is this love when you decide what will happen in your life and your partner settles for anything you can give him, no matter how little it is? My answer is "no." I am not propagating marriage here in any way, but I do feel that Katsa at the least is insecure and doesn't trust Po's love for her and at the most is selfish in her petulant decision to stay her own woman by refusing any claim Po can possible have on her (be that a wife or a life partner). I fail to understand why Katsa thinks that marrying Po or committing herself to him fully would ever put constraints on her independence? And how long such relationship can last while Katsa is being her own woman and encouraging Po to go around looking for someone else to love?
In the end, I just feel that Cashore here lost an opportunity to show Katsa's emotional growth. I don't mean that marriage to Po would have proven her to be a better person, but the ability to fully commit and to surrender to and to trust her partner, certainly would. In my eyes, Katsa starts her journey being scared of trusting people and fearful of commitment, and ends it without changing in any significant way. It makes me sad for her, because in real life people stuck on their fancyful but unexplainable trust issues, fail their relationships over and over again. Cashore tries to portray Katsa's decision as a triumph of her independence, but for me it is merely an indication of a victory of Katsa's fears over her life experiences.
Katsa and Po will appear in Cashore's next book "Bitterblue" and I am very curious to see where she is planning to take their relationship. I wish them happiness, but with current attitude of Katsa's I simply don't see it happening.
I understand that this rant might seem like a petty nitpicking, but I guess I appreciate Cashore's writing too much to leave my personal feelings about this book unexpressed.
 I'm going to check my eye colors now. November 20, 2009
DelusionalAngel (USA)
In a land of seven kingdoms, babies are monitored closely. Their eyes, mostly. If one changes colors, they're a graceling. Being being a Graceling is quite the burden. To be one, mean that you're nothing more than property of your king. Your parents must hand you over to them as it means you're graced with a natural skill. Of course Gracelings do not come with manuals. They must be monitored. Their skills tend to become obvious early on. If useful, the king keeps them in his employ. If not he'll send them home where they tend to be shunned.
In Katsa's case she spent her life being trained and used as a Graceling fighter. Her uncle/king abusing her grace to strike fear in people of all of the lands. She, however, had created her own secretive counsel on the side. Determined to do odd jobs on her own. Not to bully or kill, instead to help people who needed her skills.
It's in this capacity that she saves an elderly man who had been kidnapped from another kingdom . This leads her to meet his grandson -- Po. Thanks to his own grace, he presents her with the first true challenge that she has ever faced in a fight. Once they're sure that Po's grandfather is safe, they begin to train together and then set off to find who had kidnapped him -- and why.
A very good book. Of course like most YA books these days, there are some scenes that parents of younger teens may be leery of, even though they're not actually graphic. Sex and violence are here though done tastefully.
i really enjoyed this book November 19, 2009
S. Johnsen
i barely read. my teacher had the class read the first chapter from this book and after that i had to buy it. the book is great!
Fantastic and thrilling! November 14, 2009
Dharana St James (San Francisco,Ca. USA)
This is very well written with excellent character development and the element of surprise that just keeps wanting more! Wow! never a dull moment! Also the story is unique and not the same old damsel in distress type of story.I loved the book and I am waiting for the next exciting book from this new author.
 Utter drivel November 11, 2009
Pearnon (Portugal)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Good grief, this is one bad book.
- The protagonist is as Mary as Sue gets. She can do it all, and can do it better than everyone else.
- At times, it seems like the author is vicariously living out her femdom fantasies through said protagonist.
- The heroes accurately deduct the antagonist's ploy and methods halfway through the book... before even meeting him.
- The names are uncreative at best (Wester), and downright ludicrous at worst (Po).
- All characters are cardboard cutouts walking around with tags describing their roles and (lack of) personality.
- Juvenile setting (evil kings; bad men who vie for power; innocent peasants with good hearts).
- The third-person singular is used to death and back. "She did this. She did that. He saw it. He didn't like it. She sneered. He cowered. She felt satisfaction".
- The writing is all over the place, and is pretty weak in general.
- Cheesy, predictable ending
In short, I found no redeeming quality whatsoever in this waste of paper, and believe that all it deserves is accumulated dust on a woodworm-riddled shelf.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 253
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