Book Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight - she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.

She never expects to become Po's friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace - or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...

I expected so much out of Graceling, it was incredibly hyped up and had been noted as a fantastic YA Fantasy novel. 

I was thoroughly disappointed. 

In my opinion the strongest feature to a Fantasy novel (especially if it is the first in a series) is the world building, it is the foundation of the novel and without it, everything will crumble. Sadly, Graceling had very little world building, and the little that there was happened to be very jumbled, convoluted, and thrown in the reader's face at an alarming rate. Such a terrible way to start off the book.

I had hoped that since the world was lacking, that the characters would be strong and well developed. However, Katsa, our main character, was incredibly two-dimensional and so very unlikable. She didn't seem to develop at all throughout the novel, she was stubborn, rash, and so annoyingly immature. Her love interest, Po, is a little more likable and a tad more developed, but this isn't saying much. They're relationship has quite a few elements of "insta-love" and turns into a weird sexual relationship for reasons that honestly do not meld well with the time period. I am in no way bashing non-committal relationships or open relationships, however, in this fantasy universe it simply would not make sense for them to do the things they do and not get married (especially when Katsa's reasoning is so pathetic). 

The plot was barely existent, it would have made more sense to provide some information earlier in the novel to make it a little more intense, but so much of the beginning of the novel was just flat, ugh. The ending was no better, who ends a book like that?! There was barely anything to it.

1 star