Summary:
Katsa,
niece to King Randa of the Middluns was born Graced, which means she
is unnaturally skilled at a specific talent. When it is descovered
that Katsa's Grace is Killing the King makes her into his personal
assassin. Katsa doesn't want to kill and torcher, however, and would
much rather rescue people.
While
rescueing an old man, who is the prince Tealiff of the lienid
kingdom, from a dungeon of Sunder Katsa encounters another a man
Graced with fighting. She beats him and knocks him unconscious.
Katsa hides and nurses Tealiff back to health at her cousin's castle.
The Graced fighter shows up and reveals himself to be Prince
Tealiff's Grandson named Po.
Katsa
decides to remove herself from her uncle Randa's service and goes off
with Po to descover why Tealiff was kidnapped. Signs lead the pair
to King Leck of the Monsea kingdom, Leck is belived to be a kinda
benevolent ruler, but it turns out these are all lies as Leck is
graced and able to manipulate anyone he talks to.
Katsa
and Po then must save Bitterblue, Leck's daughter, from a horrible
fate Leck has in store for her. Po is injured and Katsa is forced to
leave him to get Bitterblue to saftey. Along the way Katsa discovers
her Grace is not killing, but survival, which lifts a great burden
from her shoulders.
Eventaully,
after passing through and impassible mountain pass, Katsa meets up
with Po's family defeats Leck, and makes Bitterblue the new queen of
Monsea. In the end she is reunited with Po as well after she goes
back for him and resolves to spend the rest of her days with him.
Cashore,
K. (2008). Graceling. Orlando, FL: Harcourt inc.
My
Impressions:
I
really enjoyed Graceling, and I feel it was a compelling read. Once
I started I was unable to put the book down. The world is really
well developed and fleshed out, and the characters are fantastic. It
was also interesting how Katsa's grace turned out to be survival, and
the only reason she was good at killing people is because it helped
her survive. I am definitely planning on reading the other books by
Cashore set in this world.
Reviews:
“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-adventiure 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.”
Gross,
C. E. (2008). [A Review of the book Graceling by K. Cashore]. Horn
Book Magazine,
84(6),
697-698 retrieved from
https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:9443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brd&AN=518499299&scope=site
Usage
in a Library Setting:
Perhaps
after a book talk or discussion of what graces are students or
patrons at a program could be asked to think of what Grace they would
have if they were graced, write about it or draw some images of
themselves with a grace.
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