Fantasy Novels Strike Again

Kristin Cashore's first novel, Graceling, is a present to fantasy lovers. It has all the elements of a great fantasy novel-believable characters, a little mystery, a far away world, romance, action and adventure-all packaged and tied up with powerful prose.

I am going to present a brief summary, without giving away too many details. Partly because this is the type of book one needs to explore on their own, and partly because I think a teacher could do wonders with a book talk on this book, beckoning students on the edge of their seats, then dangling them there…you will have them begging for a copy!

Katsa, the main character, is forced to work as the Kings killing machine. The king is her uncle, and she is his murder weapon. She is a Graceling, one of a select number of people born with two different colored eyes and an extreme skill. Katsa’s is the ability to kill. Almost everyone fears Katsa and she dislikes this. Although she physically may be in control, emotionally Katsa is struggling. She seems rather untamed in the first part of the book, and she is so often in a struggle between good and bad. Katsa is fueled by her emotions, like almost all teens, and Cashore does a great job on characterization in this novel and really stirring up the emotions they go through. Katsa meets Po, a prince from another kingdom, and one of the few people to live through a fight with Katsa. They form a friendship, which soon blossoms into a romantic relationship. The great thing about this book is Katsa gains control of her emotional state. She gains self-actualization and proves to be a very dynamic character, and Po seems to be a catalyst to her development. The ending, which is anything but cliché, comes as a shock to many readers, especially female readers. The book introduces themes of patriarchal dominance, loss of innocence, love, romance, sex and marriage, and the balance between good and evil.

Such themes, which are touched on in many YA novels, are presented in this fantasy context. So what does this do for readers? Coming from a person who is not a fan of the whole fantasy mumbo jumbo, I think books like this enable me to think critically. This book allows readers to think more broadly about the themes, rather than just in relation to the novels characters and settings. Readers can think about issues raised in the book in relation to the world and/or society. The book is fantasy for a reason-it is not a real world-so why can we as readers still relate and understand? I think it is because it is saying something bigger, it should be looked at analytically as a possible social and cultural critique. If students have the ability to do this—they can take away so much more from a novel.