So, I recently re-read this one for my book club. Though,
because I read so many books each year, and I read this one a few years ago
(maybe 400 books ago), it felt kind of like I was reading it again for the
first time. I kind of wish I read it again before reading
Bitterblue (
review),
which I read/reviewed this year, but I apparently cannot plan everything out as
perfectly as I should.
My good friend, Maheen, who’s in my book club, actually
recommended it to me right when it came out. Not only did she recommend it to
me, but she kind of made me purchase it (when she was working at Borders). From
years of experience, I know that when Maheen tells me I need to purchase a book
that I absolutely must do so (and vice versa, she takes my recommendations
seriously too)!
I remember falling in love with this book and its amazing
world building, and it’s very unique main characters. I especially remember
falling in love with Po, the love interest. I had a slightly different
experience reading it this time, but it was still a very good experience.
Katsa lives in a world where people who have two different
eye colors, is not that uncommon. And more importantly, people with two
different eye colors are known as the graced. Someone who is graced, is known
for having a remarkable ability that normal (same eye-colored) people don’t
have. People can be graced with clairvoyance or mindreading or even in simpler
things like cooking or dancing. It is learned early on for Katsa, as a child,
that she is graced in killing. She accidentally kills a relative who seemed
ready to hurt her.
And in Katsa’s world, the graced are at the mercy of the
kings. There are several different realms/kingdoms with various different
kings. All graced are sent to the king of the land, and the king can either
decide to keep the child and train them in their gifts at the castle, or to let
them go. The less useful graces are usually let go, but once a graced child
returns to their home, no one wants anything to do with them. People avoid the
graced like they would avoid people with disease. So you can imagine, how
people would avoid Katsa.
Yet, Katsa makes a few friends within the castle (including
the prince) who stand behind her like the best of friends should. Katsa does
not like having a useful grace for her king. He sends her on missions around
his kingdom, mostly to murder his enemies, collect taxes, torture townspeople,
and any other number of odd yet terrible things. And while she trains at the
castle, she never seems within complete control of her abilities because she is
always afraid of loosing her temper and accidentally killing the wrong person.
She hates killing and hurting people. And to sort of
counteract her day job, she does side missions with her own appointed secret
council that actually works to help save the people of her kingdom. It is on
once such mission (where she’s to rescue a certain royal’s grandfather) that she
first meets Po, a young man graced with what appears to be fighting.
Po proves to be Katsa’s match when it comes to physical
combat, and it’s not too long before he joins her both in training and in her
council. He requests their help in determining the reasons behind his
grandfather’s kidnapping.
With Po’s help, Katsa manages to defy her king, fight for
herself, save lots of people from a terrible fate, and learn as much as
possible how and what her grace actually is. There’s rebellion, battles, recue
missions, kidnappings, chase scenes, romance, evil dictators, magical powers,
and some downright amazing characters. Seriously, Katsa is awesome (so fierce
and brave –a true epic hero!) There’s a little bit of romance and a ton of
action (just how I like it). Also, there’s some hinting of a homosexual
relationship within the royalty, and I don’t remember that the first time, and
I loved that it is here.
Katsa’s world pulls you in and doesn’t want to let you go
until you’ve sat and read this cover to cover. Though, I didn’t quite enjoy
this as much as I did the first time. One of the things talked about in my book
club was the believability of Po. The first time I read this, I loved Po. But
as discussed at the meeting, Po is a little too perfect. He is everything Katsa
needs and more, and he puts up with all of her scary moments like a pro. He
didn’t really have any noticeable flaws, like Katsa had with her anger and her
control, and the further I got in this book, the more I noticed how un-flawed
he was. Because of this, I didn’t quite love his as much I remembered.
Other than that though I don’t think there was anything
wrong with this book. I’d love to learn about more of the graces and more of
the normal people who are graced, but I get that this wasn’t too relevant; it
was just so interesting that I could have read so much more about it! I’m glad
my book club picked this one and that I had another chance to read it. Of
course now I want to re-read all of them, and I absolutely don’t have the time
for that. I give this a 9/10. It really is some great, butt-kicking, YA
fantasy!
