Review: Graceling, by Kristin Cashore
Nov. 19th, 2011 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseRating this book was frustrating, as I wavered between a B and a C for most of it. So I'm giving this a C+, as it wasn't quite into full-on B territory, but I very much wanted it to be.
To get into specifics: I liked the characters a lot. Katsa, the main character, could be a little moody, but I didn't find her mood swings terribly unrealistic; she's a teenager, after all, and one of the joys (or curses) of teenagerhood is that heightened sense of emotion and drama. Occasionally she could be annoyingly angsty, but her fierceness and independence were both excellent character traits, and she had a voice strong enough to overcome that tendency. Similarly, I liked her love interest, Po - he had that quiet confidence, maturity and intelligence that so few fictional men do (and that is far more attractive than any number of rippling abs). The other characters were similarly authentic-feeling: Bitterblue, the girl forced to do a lot of growing up in a short time, and Raffin, the (possibly gay?) heir-to-one-kingdom mostly interested in brewing medicines, both felt like people I'd like very much to get to know. And the villains weren't bad either; the petty king who relied on emotional manipulation to keep control over his subjects felt very much like a real person, and the major villain was in many ways an extension of his personality type.
Unfortunately, likable characters are only part of a story; equally important is good writing, and it is here that Graceling often falls down on the job. Parts of the story are very well-told, but other parts feel very much like an outline; the author had a bad case of the "tell, don't show" bug. Normally this wouldn't bother me so much (I just wouldn't have finished the story), but in this case I liked the characters enough that I was practically howling "No! Don't tell me what happened! Show me! When did Katsa decide to do xyz? What's going on with Po? I want to see these moments!"
Ms. Cashore? Next time you get tired of writing and tempted to just sum things up, email me. I'll be happy to write these scenes for you. C+
To get into specifics: I liked the characters a lot. Katsa, the main character, could be a little moody, but I didn't find her mood swings terribly unrealistic; she's a teenager, after all, and one of the joys (or curses) of teenagerhood is that heightened sense of emotion and drama. Occasionally she could be annoyingly angsty, but her fierceness and independence were both excellent character traits, and she had a voice strong enough to overcome that tendency. Similarly, I liked her love interest, Po - he had that quiet confidence, maturity and intelligence that so few fictional men do (and that is far more attractive than any number of rippling abs). The other characters were similarly authentic-feeling: Bitterblue, the girl forced to do a lot of growing up in a short time, and Raffin, the (possibly gay?) heir-to-one-kingdom mostly interested in brewing medicines, both felt like people I'd like very much to get to know. And the villains weren't bad either; the petty king who relied on emotional manipulation to keep control over his subjects felt very much like a real person, and the major villain was in many ways an extension of his personality type.
Unfortunately, likable characters are only part of a story; equally important is good writing, and it is here that Graceling often falls down on the job. Parts of the story are very well-told, but other parts feel very much like an outline; the author had a bad case of the "tell, don't show" bug. Normally this wouldn't bother me so much (I just wouldn't have finished the story), but in this case I liked the characters enough that I was practically howling "No! Don't tell me what happened! Show me! When did Katsa decide to do xyz? What's going on with Po? I want to see these moments!"
Ms. Cashore? Next time you get tired of writing and tempted to just sum things up, email me. I'll be happy to write these scenes for you. C+
