Graceling

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.

Whens she fist 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...( Yet again, Dum, Dum, Duuuuuuum!)

Now, to understand what this book is about, you have to get the setting and the things that make it stand out. The setting is in an alternate dimension, or just an alternate reality. The people in this book are only human, with a few exceptions( Alright, I'll stop with the bad puns!) Their are 7 kingdoms, ruled by 7 kings, which with two exceptions are arguing with each other constantly. Now, the Graced are a special group of people with a wide variety of powers. There are mundane ones like amazing cooking, underwater breathing, and 360 torso rotation. And then there are the exotic ones, like psycosensory, psychopersuasion, and killing, as mentioned above. The Graced are distinguished by diffrent colored eyes, and once idnetified as Graced, are brought to the kingdoms king, who judges the Grace useful or worthless. The useful are forced to work for the king, while the worthless are sent back to their homes. Now, to the Bat-Review!

First of all, this book is about a girl who is forced to kill who meets a boy she first regards as a friend, then distrust due to a kept secret, then ultimately loves. Now, before everyone out their yells " Hunger Games rip!!!!!!", you might be intrested to know that this book came out a full two months before the Hunger Games. And that being said, I found this book amazing. And before you start laughing at a boy who says that he likes a romance book, let me tell you this. In this book, the relationship is more developed than The Hunger Games, but so is the plot. In the Hunger Games, it's " Go out their and kill everyone to survive." In this, their is a clearly defined antagonist for the first half, before shiftng seamlessly to another one in the next. And let me tell you, the second antagonist is EVIL! Someone is one hundred percent evil when they(Spoiler!!!!) maim harmless cute forest creatures for fun, claims that he found them injured, nurses them back to help, and does it all over again. He also has no regard for human life and must always have his way. That's why it's so sweet when he gets his reward.(Spoiler ends!!!!) Like I said, really good debut novel for miss Kristin Cashore, first in a series to. My one complaint is that Cashore ends the book with many loose ends, and doesn't plan to use these characters in the next book, with 1 exception(spoiler!!!!! It's the younger antagonist dude. Well, that's my opinion.) Message end

Author:Michael9t4/MM

Rating: 5 out of 5