Book Review #4

Yay, I had time for reading! Today (er, tonight) I shall tackle:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

As always, it will be subjected to the rigorous 5 Steps of Doom: Summary, What I Liked, What I Didn't Like, The Overall Mood Said Book Left Me In, and The Overall Rating. The Overall Rating will be based on my highly selective Sara's Scale of Suck or Soar, as follows, lowest to highest:

Level 1: This is How Not to Write a Book
Level 2: What Editor Read this and said "Hmm, Let's Publish it"?
Level 3: My Faith in Writers is Wavering Precariously
Level 4: This Doesn't Suck
Level 5: I'd Read the Sequel
And the coveted Level 6: Fan-FREAKING-tastic. Buy at All Costs.

Summary: I really can't explain it any better than this slightly cheesy yet fun to watch book trailer. Yes, the fight sequences are painfully staged, but they couldn't exactly hire the guy who choreographed Lord of the Rings, could they (ten points to anyone who can name him!)?

What I Liked: Po. Po, Po, Po. Oops, sorry: Po was the love interest. A deliciously Mediterranean-esque, butt-kicking, gold-and-silver eyed love interest. Mmmmm. Random side note: One sure-fire way to win me over with any book is to give the love interest a dark complexion. You know, olive skin, dark hair, flashing eyes. All of my fantasy love interests can be described this way: Kartik (the Gemma Doyle Trilogy), Farid (Inkheart), and Jacob Black (Twilight. Yes, I just admitted it. I have a crush on Jacob Black). But see the pattern? So it's only proper that when Po leapt onto the screen (literally. He attacked Katsa from a bush/tree concotion.) that he would also leap into my heart. I love you, Po.

Other things I liked that had more substance: It really was a unique story. I had absolutely no quarrels with the writing style. There was plenty of romance/action/adventure to keep me reading late into the night. But like I said, my main "like" thing was Po. Oh, Po. Consider yourself added to my list of fantasy love interests.

What I Didn't Like: In parts, it dragged. There was a lot of traveling, here there and everywhere. The scenery changed, but still, after ten or more pages of "camped here, traveled this long, another camp, traveled this long" Cashore really should have said "After so many days of traveling, they made it." Spare us the unnecessary details. Also, at the beginning, Katsa did something that really turned me off toward her. I can't say what it was because it kind of gives away a plot thread, but she reacted very selfishly to some information about Po that she, of all people, should've been sympathetic about instead. She was rather, excuse me, bitchy. It took me a few chapters to get that image of her out of my head. And there was one romance scene that, ahem, went a wee bit too far. The book until that moment had been rather PG, leaning toward some more PG-13-esque moments with some fighting, but nothing bad. Then all of a sudden we're thrown into a love scene that's, um, detailed, to say the least. Mothers, cover your childrens' eyes.

The Overall Mood Said Book Left Me In: Fight-y. I now want to know how to disarm a man with nothing but a cooking knife tucked in my boot. On-guard!

The Overall Rating: It wasn't a bad book; I quite enjoyed parts of it. But it were the parts that stopped me in my tracks, that confused me or made me not like Katsa, that left the most impact. Po was amazing, but not amazing enough to carry the book up the Scale of Suck or Soar. So, that being said, I hereby give Graceling a Level 5: I'd Read the Sequel. And I will, in fact; apparently Cashore is working on a sequel from one of the other character's points of view. Which means less Po. Which will be unendingly sad for me. But then I shall just have to pick up A Great and Terrible Beauty, Inkheart, and New Moon, and be rejuvenated. Ah, lovelies.