Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1) in Nerdfighteria

Aug 24, 2012 Siyang Wei rated it liked it

Shelves: secondary-books, series-concluded, series-finished

This book ... you were so promising. Ish.
What can I say? The premise of the book is interesting. I'd heard quite a lot about it, mostly positive, so I thought I'd give it a go, and it started off ok (by 'started off' I mean like the first half of chapter one). Soon, however, it became clear that Kristin Cashore's brand of supposedly feminist writing is one I particularly hate.
It involves the female main protagonist being extremely badass in a traditionally masculine way. Great. That's cool. But This book ... you were so promising. Ish.
What can I say? The premise of the book is interesting. I'd heard quite a lot about it, mostly positive, so I thought I'd give it a go, and it started off ok (by 'started off' I mean like the first half of chapter one). Soon, however, it became clear that Kristin Cashore's brand of supposedly feminist writing is one I particularly hate.
It involves the female main protagonist being extremely badass in a traditionally masculine way. Great. That's cool. But then it turns out that she's strong and badass because she is 'masculine'. She's not a 'normal girl'; she is special. She doesn't care about how she looks, or about being attractive; she hates dresses; she wants never to marry; and she has an (irrational, and unexplained) fear/hatred of having children (I mean, she could have justified that by explaining that she was afraid of hurting them with her Grace or something, and actually having a reason, but she doesn't. It just is.) Which is ok, too, I suppose. And the other (very few) female characters (seriously, aside from Katsa, there are about two at-least-slightly-major female characters, to about a dozen male) are feminine women who care about 'feminine' things like dresses and looking pretty and romance and getting married, and only these things. Helda, especially, immediately assumes that Katsa's upset is caused by 'one of her young men' (i.e. romance issues) and thinks that all of her problems can be solved by pretty dresses. And they are 'normal women', who are weak, because they are feminine. The book seems to be saying that women can only empower themselves by becoming less feminine, which is absurd.
I suppose it's a testament to my ability to be a very non-intellectual reader (which is turned on most of the time) that, despite this (and the occasional distraction of a brain-meltingly terrible sentence here or there, or the odd (ok, no, all the time) section of Katsa being a terrible, terrible (annoying) person), I actually kind of enjoyed it, even though I guessed The Great Twist when (view spoiler). The world-building was ... not very good, to say the least, and it seemed Cashore had not really thought about whether or not what the Council was doing would actually work/how the hell so many people knew about it if it was secret, but I liked Po (view spoiler), Bitterblue, and Raffinand also Po's family. That was kind of it, though. There was kind of a plot, too. But I'm a sucker for trashy romance, so, whatever. Let's pretend that that was just it. ...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Miriam rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is very easy to get into Kristin Cashore's story. The language is not hard to understand, but not simple, too. I fell in love with Katsa's character and personality easily, even though I have to admit I could not identify myself with her in the way I did with other fictional characters. Nevertheless she seems to be a likeable and sometimes even fun character, even though her stubborn and thoughtful sides stand out a lot more visibly.

Graceling took me by surprise a few times. From the rescuein It is very easy to get into Kristin Cashore's story. The language is not hard to understand, but not simple, too. I fell in love with Katsa's character and personality easily, even though I have to admit I could not identify myself with her in the way I did with other fictional characters. Nevertheless she seems to be a likeable and sometimes even fun character, even though her stubborn and thoughtful sides stand out a lot more visibly.

Graceling took me by surprise a few times. From the rescueing of the Lienid King's father to the ongoing development of the story, the author manages to set up a high speed. Various plots combine at the point where Katsa decides not to be her uncle's savage anymore so that she sets up to solve the mystery of the kidnapped (but by then saved) grandfather of Po - a Lienid Prince she meets on her rescue mission. This mission seems to be easy or at least not dangerous in the first place, but step by step the reader discovers this estimation as wrong. There is indeed a lot more behind the kidnapping than it appears to be at first sight.

This all is combined with the very sweet lovestory of Katsa and Po. I think the reader can guess at a very early stage, that there is more between the both of them than they want to admit. You cannot wait to discover the outcome of the story. Nevertheless this is the point that I really did not like about the book.
I read because I want to discover worlds I haven't heard of before and to go on adventures I can't go on in real life. I want to feel, not only, but above all positive feelings when I read a book. But at the point when Katsa realises she is in love with Po she completely looses it and cannot stand him being close to her anymore. At first, this is comprehensible. She is overstrained, does not know how to cope with her feelings and does not know if to trust him as he lied to her about his Grace. But then I wanted her to come to him, to forgive him or to feel more - to become emotional, at least a bit. Instead she seals off everything, especially Po and so the reader, too. This period of time, before both of them naturally confessed their feelings towards each other, was far too long for me.
Additionally I did not get why the first thing that comes to Katsa's mind when she realises her feelings, is that she does not want to marry Po. In my opinion, Kristin Cashore should have stated more clearly before, that marriage is kind of a natural thing connected with love in the society she invented, because I think that is what she wants to say. But at first this really confused me.

In the course of the story, I really enjoyed the interaction between Katsa and Po once they figured out how their relationship worked. That made me get a lot closer to both characters and made me lose myself in this wonderful story again.
But not only Katsa's and Po's journey to Monsea, but also their and Bitterblue's escape from Monsea and the journey to Lienid was a very nice and entertaining read. And again, I loved the little surprises in the story, such as Katsa's discovery of her real Grace and what happens at the arrival at Po's castle.

But I am still not sure how to feel about the ending of Graceling. These scenes in the forest where Po seems to live now and his blindness kind did not set a darker, but a sad notion to the book. On the one hand, I kind of liked it because I think it is really realistic. That happens to people, they get hurt in some way, either mental (Bitterblue) or physical (Po). On the other hand it really did not seem like a real ending, but more like a delayed one. You do not have the feeling the story ends at that point.
But as Fire, the second book in this series, is already released, this will probably find a remedy soon.

I know this sounds like a negative review, but I have to say that I really enjoyed reading Graceling. The story managed to catch my attention right away and I highly recommend anyone who is interested in storys like that, to read this book. ...more

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May 24, 2012 Allie rated it it was amazing

I like it a lot!!! But I wasn't so sure if I liked the ending too much.... to me it just seemed like ti ended.... I don't know.... maybe it's just me but the ending just didn't feel.... right if you know what I mean.... ...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Lexie added it

really liked it. very fun and interesting, even thought-provoking, and great romance. just didn't care for the rejection of all things feminine--as if it weren't possible for a girl to be strong and feminine at the same time. also, the world itself was rather shallow--not much complexity or depth--and the plot didn't feel very...direct. all that aside, though, it really was a good book. I want to find myself a Po. ...more

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