Graceling by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 4/5 cats
it is so hard to write reviews for books i actually like. no, love.
talking about this book is like trying to describe to someone a relationship from long ago that was bittersweet and is now over, but i have never had a relationship that involved so many horses and swordplay, not even metaphorically. and fewer people care about my love life than about this book.
(i see you ariel – you are glowering at me with tiny slitted eyes)
but this book is like a wonderfully sweet relationship. at the beginning, you can’t even imagine how you ever got along without it. and your friends (ariel) try to talk you out of it, “oh, don’t get with that guy, he gave me herpes” or whatever… but at the beginning everything was shiny and magical and when things started to go a little bit awry, i wrote it off as a glitch – a bad day that didn’t necessarily mean that we weren’t super awesome soulmates.
(because it’s true – the “girl time in the mountain” sequence was the weakest, but i really thought the book rebounded to perfection afterward. we can forgive one drunken dalliance, can’t we? one lapse in judgment?? what happens in graceling stays in graceling? yes?)
i just loved so much about this book – i never ever get invested in the love story side plots of these teen fiction books – i have yet to be on a “team.” but this time, i fully believed in their attraction, and i really wanted these crazy kids to get together and kick ass together forever. their fighting scenes, when they were fighting each other, were hugely erotic, and for once the male lead seemed worthy in a way that others have not been. their shyness, their tenderness…. i found it very sweet. and if i was a crying type of girl, i would definitely have cried at this one.
so i am seriously bummed that the sequel is about the early life and times of king lamewad and not about anyone i actually cared about. but i will probably read it anyway, completist that i am.
and eventually, because i think i have largely abandoned this metaphor, and it is very important to follow through, even though there were bumps in the road and people got hurt and friends were less free with advice in the future, the experience was a generally positive one, and the memory lives on as an Important Time where everything seemed possible. even liking a book ariel said was bad…
