Loading…
The Cupertino Library will be closed Monday, October 25 & Tuesday, October 26 for RFID equipment installation.Graceling
Add a Comment
Add Tags
Add More
Add to my Collection
Mark for Later
Save to a List
PrintDetails
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.
Katsa - (Female) Niece of King Randa; has the special skill to kill men; she helps her uncle control the towns people by killing anyone that gets in the kings way; she hates what she is doing and secretly sets up a plan to end the corrution in the kingdom and through her underground work meets her future love
The Horn Book
(High School) Lady Katsa of the Middluns, the most central of the Seven Kingdoms, was born with a terrifying Grace (the Seven Kingdoms term for the hyper-developed talents that occasionally surface in their populations). Katsa's seems to be for killing, and her thuggish uncle, the king, makes her his brute squad. She rebels by forming the Council, a sort of social justice league, and it is through this affiliation that she is drawn into a mystery involving the kidnapping of an elderly cross-kingdom prince, the secret Grace of the king of nearby Monsea, and the kidnapped royal's wicked cute, super-sensitive grandson Po -- also, like Katsa, a Graceling. Katsa's assertion of her independence, and her harnessing of her Grace as subservient to her humanity, form the philosophical skeleton of the narrative, but for the most part this is a straightforward journey-adventure with a hearty dose of too-good-to-be-true romance. Creepy villains aside, Graceling is light fare, anchored in Katsa and Po's fairly simple relationship; with a butt-kicking but emotionally vulnerable heroine, it should appeal to fans of recent girl-power urban fantasies as well as readers who've graduated from Tamora Pierce's Tortall series. From HORN BOOK, Copyright The Horn Book, used with permission.
Kirkus Reviews
An assured fantasy debut grapples with questions of identity, authenticity and autonomy. Lady Katsa is a Graceling, with an inborn magical gift marking her as both feared outcast and exploitable resource. While her peculiar Gracethe unsurpassed ability to killhas been honed over the years by her uncle the king to bully and punish, Katsa has also secretly used it to bring a measure of justice to the Seven Kingdoms. When she encounters a strange prince whose mysterious Grace may just be a match for her own, she learns the corrosive seduction of power corrupted, but also the courage to trust othersand herself. Katsa is an ideal adolescent heroine, simultaneously confident of her strengths yet unsure of her place in the world. Every character is crafted with the same meticulous devotion to human comprehensibility, making the villain all the more appalling in his understated, twisted madness. In a tale filled with graphic violence and subtle heartbreak, gentle passion and savage kindness, matter-of-fact heroics and bleak beauty, no defeat is ever total and no triumph comes without cost. Grace-full, in every sense. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Community Activity
Summaries
There are no summaries for this title.
Quotes
There are no quotes for this title.
Notices
Sexual Content: This book is riddled with pre-marital sex, celebrates non-commital relationships and promotes marriage as undesirable and unneccesary.
Age
Find it at SCCL
Connect With Others
Other users with this title in their collections
Comments
Really enjoyed it, although the ending was a tad disappointing.
I loved this book! It has action, adventure and a little romance. Perfect for anyone who wants a great read!
Did anyone else think this was really similar to Hunger Games? Katsa and Katniss, Po and Peeta. I still loved the book, just wished the names were different, but that's just my own little pet peeve!
this story is sooo goood!!! totally loved it!
The story is so interesting! Keeps you wanting more. I really love Katsa & Po relationship.
A must read. Definitely one of my favorite books. Well written and probably the best heroine I've ever read about.
This book was one of the best ones I've read this year. The idea is fresh; I like the idea of "Gracelings," people with special powers like the power to kill. I also liked the plot and nearly got a heart attack near the end since it was really surprising. I love this book and really recommend it. I'll probably end up buying it to add it to my bookshelf. I admit that at times I just wanted to smack Katsa on the head for thinking too much about the complications of a relationship though.
A YRCA 2011 nominee. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I found Kasta a bit annoying at times about her views on marriage. The author seemed to be making too much of a statement through the story. Also, some scenes were a bit risque for a teen novel, in my humble (and slightly old-fashioned) opinion. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the characters and the story, and I hope Kristin Cashore will be writing more in the future.
Katsa has a talent that makes her very good at one thing, called a Grace. Her two coloured eyes mark her as being gifted to any who meet her. And given that her Grace is fighting, Katsa is even more of an outcast than other gracelings.
Katsa spends her life living in her uncle, the king's, court, acting as his enforcer. Disgusted with what she has to do forthe king, Katsa forms a council, a secret organization bent on doing good. And it is this council that pulls her into a plot involving two kingdoms and an inasane man with a grace. Along the way, she meets the mysterious Prince Po, a young man with a grace that is not all it seems to be.
This is a solid first novel from Kristin Cashore full of action that appeals to both the boys and girls that are fantasy fans. Katsa can be a difficult heroine to like, given that she is so good at fighting, it makes her near invincible. Katsa's popularity is also bizarre, given how crusty she is, but I am willing to allow a little Mary-Sue on the part of Cashore in exchange for the sheer action this novel packs in the latter half. Hopefully her story-telling skills will continue to develop and future outings will offer more of the action and less of the character angst.
it was a great book, loved the part where Katsa tells Bitterblue she'll how to poke an eye and bitterble gets discusted... it was all just great. =)
I really enjoyed this book. I definitely recommend reading this book!
I listened to this on CD and I really enjoyed it. Katsa was hard to relate to, until I realized that she reminded me of the girl from the movie Serenity (and the TV show Firefly). Then I could totally picture the story in my mind. I'm looking forward to reading / listening to the next related story - Fire.
I think there was a lot of potential in this novel, but things just didn't turn out. I think it's worth a read, but I definitely don't consider it a great book- just average at best.
It seems like a lot of people really liked Katsa. I didn't, and I think that was why I didn't like the book as a whole as much as other people. I thought she was too extreme of a 'true action girl'- hates dresses, shoes, long hair, sewing, marriage, kids, being dependent, and other *girly* things- which isn't to say that I'm some ultra-tradtionalist who thinks all women should stay in kitchens. Rather, I felt like none of those traits really developed her as a character...at the end of the book, my biggest impression of Katsa was that she hated girly things.
Secondly about Katsa, I disliked the little details about her grace. It's an interesting grace, but I was under the impression that it was uncontrollable- so maybe she killed someone that she didn't mean to, and had hidden guilt etc... but since she was able to control it, it's essentially just a grace that makes her seem more awesome. Her survival grace I also thought was a little broad, since many things could be explained as "she would've died if she hadn't done ???, so her survival grace kicked in and she was successful".
And thirdly, I disliked the way Katsa's romance with Po was handled. For much of the book, it felt like Po was there *just* to be attractive and pretty for the readers. I was willing to accept that, but then came the scene where Katsa -all of a sudden- realizes how much she loves Po, followed by a half-heartedly euphemized scene...I realize that I sound like a prude here, but I felt like that was a little unnecessary. The romance would have been just fine without it....
I know this has already been said, but I freaking LOVE this book. The way the author creates this world and the people in it...amazing.
I only wish there was a way to fit more of Raffin in without taking away from Katsa and Po's story.
Fabulous book. i don't agree with 'couges', though, either on their comment or notice.
The book does not promote the message that marriage is 'undesirable' and 'unnecessary' as it was so... kindly... put.
I think it would be more accurate to say that it does not count marriage as a necessity for a relationship. a further step to which neither participant pushes the other to go to.
To 'couges'; I would examine my own beliefs about marriage and relationships carefully before putting out such a comment, if i were you.
This is an awesome book! I think everyone should read it.
amazing book! Fire isn't as good as this one though... I really like books with strong heroines.
i LOVE this book!
this is one of the best book i ever read!!
everyone should pick up this book and give it a try! :]
Coolest book ever!
This story had great potential, but the ending was very weak. The author seems to have a very feminist agenda and the book carries the message that marriage is unneccesary and undesirable. The heroine fails to grow past her insecurities about love and family and the ending leaves the reader without closure.
Team Edward? Nonsense. Team Po! This book (and its' companion, Fire) is a must-read for any fan of fantasy novels.