Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Overall, I liked this book. It contained a lot of elements that made it enjoyable: action, adventure and romance. Plus, it had a pretty kick-ass heroine and a swoon-worthy love interest. Also, the premise was really interesting and unique. That being said, there were certain aspects of this novel that made me nitpicky.

The book is mainly about Katsa. She lives in a completely made-up world where there are seven kingdoms ruled by some unjust and corrupt kings. In this world, there are also people born with "graces"--meaning that they have some extreme, unhuman-like abilities. Katsa is a graceling and her ability is probably the scariest one of all...killing. Her uncle is the king and he uses her as his personal "thug" to go out and kill, threaten or torture anyone who crosses him. Katsa spends a good chunk of the novel coming to terms with this horrible (although useful) grace while embarking on an adventure that teaches her not only about the world around her but also about herself.

I really liked the fact that Katsa was a strong heroine. She definitely didn't need saving like so many other female characters do. In fact, Katsa did all the "saving" in the book herself. She was a really strong character. But, when I say strong, I mean strong in the physical sense of the word. I felt like her strength was mentioned and described a little TOO much. So much so that I can't even think of another adjective for her other than just, well, strong. Also, it got annoying that she could do basically everything without fail. At the end, I got a little confused as to what her actual grace really was. Even though they do speculate what it could be, I just found that she was good at too many things. She didn't have enough flaws to make her relatable and likable. Not to say that she was downright unbearable because I did root for her and I was on her side but a lot of times I got annoyed with how she shunned anything and everything feminine like it made her a stronger person if she didn't dress up and grow out her hair.

On the flip side though, I did like that there wasn't too much fixation on looks in this book. Or at all, for that matter. It made the relationship between Katsa and Po, her love interest, that much more interesting. I've read so many YA books where the main characters fall for each other because they're gorgeous and hot and sexy. Katsa and Po definitely weren't like that. Their relationship was based more on friendship and understanding rather than lust and good looks. It was refreshing. However, I thought the transition from friendship to romance was a bit...abrupt. I mean, the author spent about half the book building a good friendship while the romance took about a page to go from nothing to everything. And I mean everything. I found that to be pretty unbelievable seeing as how Katsa hadn't ever had a boyfriend but she goes all the way in one fell swoop? It felt really rushed.

Another thing that was a major downfall for me was the pace of this book. A good section of the story dragged on and on and on. I can understand the beginning being slow because there's a lot of worldbuilding and explaining going on, but I don't need to see a hundred or so pages of the main characters going from point A to point B. There was a lot that could've been cut out and it would've made no difference to the plot. It was literally torture waiting for something to finally happen and for the characters to finally reach their destination. I was so incredibly tempted to skip ahead.

In the end, though, it was worth it. I thought the book was incredibly creative and most of the graces that the author came up with were really, really cool. I also liked how this fantasy world almost felt real at certain points. Like this could actually exist and happen. Sometimes there were moments where I could eerily draw parallels to our own world.

It's an excellent effort but the slowness of the story t made it something I probably wouldn't ever re-read.

I give it a: 3/5 stars.

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Review: Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee

I haven't really fully developed my thoughts on this book yet. I'm sort of on the fence about a lot of it and I don't know how I feel about many of the issues this novel presents. As I do with many of my problems, to figure out how I feel, I'm going to write through my thoughts and attempt to come to a conclusion. And I thought: why not bring you along for the ride?

The reason this book is so hard to put a rating on is because it's kind of about a touchy subject. Especially in today's society. The main character is overweight. I know that there are many books out there that have overweight protagonists in them but this is by and large ABOUT her weight. It addresses those uncomfortable topics of obesity and healthy eating habits and exercise and self-esteem that we'd like to ignore. And for that, I really appreciate this book. It's brave to take on this subject matter in today's social climate, when so many of us are already incredibly weight conscious and bombarded with conflicting messages to eat healthy, to look right, not too fat, not too skinny, etc, etc. Does it provide a clear answer to a lot of weight-related issues? No. Does it provide a unique perspective? I think it does, a little. Is it helpful to people actually going through these things? That's questionable.

The plot: Rosemary lives in a small, very southern, very gossipy town. Her mom owns a beauty parlor in which all the gorgeous, skinny girls from her school come to get their perfect hair done so that Rosemary can feel even more inferior. So, to deal with her pain, she eats. And eats. Then eats some more. This cycle is spiralling so out of control that Rosie decides to do something about it and attempts to lose the weight...however she can.

The problem with this book is that I didn't find it encouraging or uplifting at all. I was actually a little depressed after I read it. Rosie basically had to change a LOT about herself in order to feel good or feel remotely attractive and worthy of any attention. I felt like all she fixated on was her looks. She wanted OTHER people to see how smart she was and how she was interested in poetry and English but all WE ever saw her think about was her weight. It was really, really sad. Perhaps, this is the reality that so many girls go through today but in this book it felt like this obsession with weight was strangely justifiable. It was compared to having a serious health problem like cancer.

The book seemed to hint at the fact that the issue at hand is getting healthy. However, Rosie took some really UNhealthy routes to get to a "healthy" weight. And the biggest problem about that in the book was that it made it seem like these unhealthy habits were okay...as long as they were producing results. In fact, Rosie barely ate in the entire book and the reader was put in the uncomfortable position of having to go between rooting her on when she avoided the donuts and sweets and watching her drink only water for her lunch break. And the worst part is that there weren't really any consequences to this behavior, all she had to deal with were some stomachaches. Nobody ever found out about this weight-loss technique of hers except a friend who just said "It's so bad for you!" and that was that. But, she lost the weight, so it didn't even seem to matter anymore. I don't know, it just bugged me that I was rooting for her to get healthy but it ended up with me watching her become basically anorexic and increasingly MORE weight conscious than ever before.

Maybe this book is supposed to be realistic and honest which is perhaps why the author chose to write from this perspective. But, considering that this is such an important topic for lots of teens today, I just thought it could've been handled better. With more encouragement of self-esteem and personal strength rather than weight obsession and a fixation on outer covers, I feel this book could've been really good.

The setting was delightful--southern town? Beauty shop? Sign me up. Even though the characters were pretty two-dimensional and the writing was just okay, I felt engaged in the story. But, if there was less concentration on JUST the numbers on the scale, I feel I wouldn't be checking how many pages I had left until the ending.

I guess I give it a: 2/5 stars.