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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