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Review - Graceling
May. 27th, 2009 02:10 amI don't really know how I feel about Graceling (Kristin Cashore). It didn't take me long to read it, and I didn't hate reading it, but some things definitely bugged me and I didn't exactly get sucked in.
I did find it interesting that despite the medieval-ish setting, the main character, Katsa, is allowed so much agency. Then again, it's not a thing she's accorded as a right. Just because she's strong and can fight doesn't mean she can escape from being prettied up, from having people insist on her getting married, etc. Thankfully, the book isn't unaware of this, but it feels like it focuses mainly on the point of marriage, as if marriage can never be an equal partnership and is to be avoided at all costs. I didn't like the handling of marriage at all in the book. It's just fine with me if someone doesn't want their fantasy heroine to get married, but if there's going to be so much of a point made of it, I'd prefer there was actually a good reason. The idea of loss of freedom was barely explored, it was just played as A Bad Thing. In one way I'm glad there's a fantasy book out there where the main character is female and has a relationship without it ending up in stereotypical marriage and happily ever after. In another, it just felt like it was, well, to borrow internets vocab, "pastede on yay".
That's partially because I didn't feel the characters that much, either. I never felt all that invested in the characters, so even when one of them goes blind, which is normally one of my big buttons, I didn't really care. Katsa should be an interesting character, hopefully a likeable one, and Po definitely both. But I couldn't muster up much care, I think because we kept being told how awesome they both are. I'd rather form that opinion myself, thanks. I don't like it when people write by checklist, bolting on faults, but did Katsa have any faults? I suppose that she was blunt, perhaps that she was unfeminine if that's a fault from your perspective. Inclined to not thinking things through. But we don't see any consequences of her faults -- everything turns out just fine for her. And Po... I guess his conceit is a fault, but again. Everything turns out fine. Bitterblue is a strange character: she's meant to be ten years old, but she doesn't act it. There are reasons for that, but it's still a thing that bugged me while reading.
There were definitely bits of it that I liked. Katsa's dislike of mindreading was something I identified with. The idea of mindreading creeps the hell out of me, actually. The way she dealt with it irritated me a little, but it was still interesting and a good idea. I liked the idea of Graces, and that the two main characters' Graces were not straight forward. That's another two-edged sword, though, because Katsa and Po just get more and more special as the book goes on. Katsa's indestructible -- the one thing that counters her Grace, the one thing that might beat her, and she manages to beat it anyway. Bad things happen to Po, but it doesn't matter, he has his Grace.
It was quite fun, for a single read, and I might give it to my sister because I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy the kickass heroine. If you want a fantasy heroine who kicks ass and takes names, Katsa's definitely a good choice, and I doubt the things that bugged me about it would bug everyone -- far from it. I can definitely see the appeal for teenage girls. I don't think I'll be reading the prequel or the sequel, unless I spot them in the library or something
I did find it interesting that despite the medieval-ish setting, the main character, Katsa, is allowed so much agency. Then again, it's not a thing she's accorded as a right. Just because she's strong and can fight doesn't mean she can escape from being prettied up, from having people insist on her getting married, etc. Thankfully, the book isn't unaware of this, but it feels like it focuses mainly on the point of marriage, as if marriage can never be an equal partnership and is to be avoided at all costs. I didn't like the handling of marriage at all in the book. It's just fine with me if someone doesn't want their fantasy heroine to get married, but if there's going to be so much of a point made of it, I'd prefer there was actually a good reason. The idea of loss of freedom was barely explored, it was just played as A Bad Thing. In one way I'm glad there's a fantasy book out there where the main character is female and has a relationship without it ending up in stereotypical marriage and happily ever after. In another, it just felt like it was, well, to borrow internets vocab, "pastede on yay".
That's partially because I didn't feel the characters that much, either. I never felt all that invested in the characters, so even when one of them goes blind, which is normally one of my big buttons, I didn't really care. Katsa should be an interesting character, hopefully a likeable one, and Po definitely both. But I couldn't muster up much care, I think because we kept being told how awesome they both are. I'd rather form that opinion myself, thanks. I don't like it when people write by checklist, bolting on faults, but did Katsa have any faults? I suppose that she was blunt, perhaps that she was unfeminine if that's a fault from your perspective. Inclined to not thinking things through. But we don't see any consequences of her faults -- everything turns out just fine for her. And Po... I guess his conceit is a fault, but again. Everything turns out fine. Bitterblue is a strange character: she's meant to be ten years old, but she doesn't act it. There are reasons for that, but it's still a thing that bugged me while reading.
There were definitely bits of it that I liked. Katsa's dislike of mindreading was something I identified with. The idea of mindreading creeps the hell out of me, actually. The way she dealt with it irritated me a little, but it was still interesting and a good idea. I liked the idea of Graces, and that the two main characters' Graces were not straight forward. That's another two-edged sword, though, because Katsa and Po just get more and more special as the book goes on. Katsa's indestructible -- the one thing that counters her Grace, the one thing that might beat her, and she manages to beat it anyway. Bad things happen to Po, but it doesn't matter, he has his Grace.
It was quite fun, for a single read, and I might give it to my sister because I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy the kickass heroine. If you want a fantasy heroine who kicks ass and takes names, Katsa's definitely a good choice, and I doubt the things that bugged me about it would bug everyone -- far from it. I can definitely see the appeal for teenage girls. I don't think I'll be reading the prequel or the sequel, unless I spot them in the library or something
