Kristin Cashore’s Graceling is the first book in the Graceling Realm Trilogy. This fantasy world is made up of seven kingdoms: Middluns, Lienid, Wester, Nander, Estill, Sunder, and Monsea. In each of the countries there are people known as Gracelings. Gracelings people who are born a master of a particular skill like swimming, sword fighting, or cooking. They are marked by two different colored eyes. Katsa is a Graceling with one blue eye and one green eye. Her Grace makes her an exceptionally good killer.
Katsa is the niece of King Randa of Middluns. She is Graced with killing, giving her astounding speed strength, and endurance. Because of her Grace, she is forced to kill and maim for her king. Almost everyone she knows fears her because of her power, leaving her with little friends. She also feels trapped in her life and longs for freedom. Because of this wish for freedom, she refuses to marry. Katsa meets another Graceling named Po. This Graceling marks a change in Katsa’s life and helps Katsa discover the secrets of her Grace.
Graceling is a good book. Kristin Cashore builds an amazing and intricate world that will be interesting to discover in further installments. The plot is interesting and the book is full of humorous moments. Where the book falls short is delivery. This book isn’t written with the intense rawness of most YA novels. It is more polished. While some readers may favor this writing style, it is clear that this book is not for readers just going into the YA section. The book is very difficult to get into. There is a lot of explaining and world building in the first few chapters of the book. Patience is necessity if you want to get to the plot. Once the plot picks up, Graceling is an interesting and enthralling read, but until then, the book is slow. I give this 471 page book 4 stars.
Graceling Realm
The world of this series is divided into seven kingdoms: Middluns, Lienid, Wester, Nander, Estill, Sunder, and Monsea. In all of the kingdoms, there are people known as Gracelings. Gracelings have two different colored eyes and develop a mastery of a skill at a pre-adolescent age. A person's Grace can range from sword fighting to mind reading to cooking. Each of the books are more like companion novels. Each has a new protagonist.