Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Graceling

Quite frankly, I did not care for this book at all and only read the entirety of it as it had been sitting on my shelf for possibly 10 years and made it through multiple moves. Katsa is an unlikeable character, very annoying, has some Mary Sue tendencies going on, and doesn’t seem to care about anyone unless it benefits her. Not mention how she’s inconsistent, able to focus just on the mission one minute and crying and holding up the mission the next. Po was fine, a bit more balanced, and not near as nerve grating. They’re relationship thought was extremely annoying. Po seemed to actually care about her, but she wouldn’t marry him even though she “loved” him for some reason not truly explained. Sure, she says it’d take away her freedom to be married, but freedom to do what? Po would have let her go and do anything she liked. Not to mention how it felt like they jumped straight from “I can’t love you” to saying “I love you” and having sex. There wasn’t even a kiss before it to lead up to their growing relationship.
Finally, the world. The world and the other characters felt very flat and one dimensional, especially the main villain Leck. Sure, he has this great power and can do basically anything he wants, but why? Why does he do it? Even the characters asked that, but it never was explained. And I’m sure he wanted to do bad things to his daughter, but that was also very vague.
The writing was also a big factor for me. It was very hard to sink into as it seemed redundant at times and very passive and filtered. Yeah, we are seeing things through Katsa’s eyes, but I don’t want to be constantly reminded of it.
In short, you have an annoying heroine with a bad, unredeemable attitude, a love interest that Katsa can walk all over and even hit, events that happen RIGHT at the PERFECT moment (referring to the death of Ashen, Leck’s wife. Such perfect timing) two dimensional characters, and a world that could be interesting but just ends up basic and flat with misplaced descriptions (could have done more about the world like history, relations, and more than hunting geese, fish, rabbits, etc)
Oh, forgot to mention the animal cruelty that is not just a villain trait in the book. Poor horses…

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katebella's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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cordeliant's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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dreadspawn's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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plumpeony's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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katievallin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Had a good start but got boring around halfway. Didn't really like the anti-marriage message. Katsa was entirely too good at all things, which made her and the plot boring. Also didn't really understand why she was so determined to help Bitterblue. And the climax was entirely anticlimactic. The world-building was a bit confusing, but that might've been because I listened to the audiobook, which wasn't very good (the full-cast version, at least).

I did like Bitterblue as a character, and I thought Katsa and Po's relationship was sweet.

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noetical's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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niclantsov's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The perfect YA high fantasy, if I do say so myself.

Graceling follows Katsa, our main girl, and her adventure to solve the mysterious reason why the neighboring kingdom kidnap the other's king's father (pls this is so confusing). Written beautifully like a lore, with a slow paced adventurous everything-is-at-stake journey, an exceptional characters, and a map that we actually use (not just for decorations 😉).

This also have an unforgettable love story with a cathartic confession+ realization, it made me blush like a school girl and kick my feet in the air.

The only problem(s) with this book is, I feel the 'bad guy' died too easy, and since page 1, this 'bad guy' was literally the main problem for these characters, and it just didn't sit quite well to me that they killed them off so easily. The second one is: his name is Po 😃😇🙃🤡, EVERYTIME I SEE THAT NAME IT REMINDS ME OF THAT GAME WE USED TO PLAY (Pou!) even though the spelling is different but it's pronounced the same nonetheless and it bothers me so 😞

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