Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Yes, yes, everyone has read and reviewed Graceling, but I finally got around to it. And enjoyed it! Though am looking more forward to the book about Bitterblue than I am Fire.

Graceling is set in a world where some people are born with Graces, or a natural ability to do something uncommonly well. Some people are born with the Grace of cooking, or swimming, or fighting, or singing. Katsa, niece to the King of Middluns, one of the Seven Countries, is born with the Grace of killing.

This Grace weighs heavily on the 16 year old girl, whose main purpose is to injure, maim, and kill at her uncle’s command. Katsa does not take easily to this and so has started a Council to help innocent and wronged people. While on a mission for the Council, Katsa meets a man with a fighting Grace and from their tentative friendship, she begins to discover more about herself.

Graceling is an excellent fantasy novel, filled with adventure, action, a quest, and a little bit of romance. Cashore has created memorable characters (especially, in my opinion, in Bitterblue, who is star of Cashore’s third book, yet to be released) and in interesting world. In our world we like to think our differences are celebrated, but in Katsa’s world people with Graces are seen as freaks and meant to be used by the kings of their countries.