Graceling

Graceling by Kristin Cashore, 471 pages

In Katsa's world there are regular people and there are Gracelings, the latter of which have superhuman powers of some manner and are instantly recognizable by their eyes, which are always two different colors. Gracelings can have any type of power (or Grace), from predicting weather to swimming really well to swordfighting. Even among Gracelings though, Katsa's different. Her Grace is killing, and her uncle, a king, has put her to good use as a thug when his underlords need a bit of painful persuasion. That all changes though when Katsa meets Po, a Graceling prince from a nearby kingdom. The two Gracelings strike an unlikely friendship and embark upon a quest to solve the mystery of his grandfather's kidnapping.

There were several things I enjoyed about this book. Katsa registers high--nearly off the chart--of my Katniss-Bella Scale of YA Heroines, but manages some emotional growth that Katniss Everdeen could only dream of (but probably wouldn't because it wouldn't occur to her that she needed emotional growth. But that's a different book.). She's an excellent heroine, and I love love LOVE her feminist views and the relationship that develops between Katsa and Po. The only problem I had with the book was that the plot seemed a bit muddled toward the end, as if Cashore was putting all her energy into the developing relationship and didn't have any left over to make plot devices connect. But this was Cashore's first novel and the relationship was awesome, so I'll overlook that and simply call this an excellent book. Well worth the read, and thank you, Annie for recommending it.