Kari C. reviewed on 9/11/2010 + 77 more book reviews

This book is about a girl named Katsa. Katsa has eyes that are two different colors. This marks her as a Graceling - someone who has been graced with some great talent. Sometimes it's not a very useful talent, like being able to climb trees really well. There are mentions of Gracelings who are talented at cooking or sewing or working with animals, even mindreading. Katsa is gifted with the ability to kill (according to the book. I would have called it a fighting gift personally). All Gracelings "belong" to the King of the country they are born in. The multi-colored eye don't appear until at least a few months after a child is born. Once their eyes settle into two different colors they are sent to the capital to be raised in a royal nursery until their gift shows itself. If it's useful you'll work for the king. If not you get sent home. Katsa is kept by the king as a bully boy.

This is a decent young adult book. It was more interesting in the beginning than in the end. There was a lot of traveling which wasn't interesting to read. I think I skipped over a 5-10 page section of traveling though mountains which could have been summarized as "traveling through the mountains in winter is really cold and really sucks."

There was some very good character growth seen during the book. However, the plot development wasn't that great. There was this mystery set up and the bad guy was intriguing. However, he was made so overpowered that the only way to defeat him was by accident, which is pretty anticlimactic. There were a few other plot things that were brought up and then swept neatly under the rug without properly solving them.

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