Kaede kicks ass in HUNTRESS by Malinda Lo

The ancient world in Huntress is dying.  The seasons won't change, the sky is a constant shade of grey, crops are dried up, and people are starving.  Kaede and Taisin are two teenage girls in an academy training to be sages.  Taisin is a gifted sage from a humble birth, while Kaede has remained in the academy despite any magical ability because she is the chancellor's daughter.

When the King receives an invitation from the Fairy Queen, Taisin's visions and a prophecy determine that Kaede and Taisin  must accompany Prince Con into the world of fairy.  Taisin's only worried about one thing: in her vision, she's in love with Kaede and sages must take a vow of celibacy. Taisin wants more than anything to be a sage and is determined to not let any feelings get in her way.

Huntress by Malinda Lo is a splendid fantasy full of both intense adventure and a sweet romance.  The love story in this book feels so genuine and pure.  I kept reading late into the night just to see more interaction between these two girls.

Huntress is technically a prequel to Ash, Lo's retelling of Cinderella.  Although I loved Ash as well, I feel like Huntress is the stronger book and is easy to read completely on its own.   If you like Graceling by Kristin Cashore ( I love it!) then I think you'll enjoy Huntress as well.

And for you writer-types, Lo does something interesting with point-of-view.  Huntress is told in 3rd person omniscient-ish.  We see inside several characters' heads.  I hadn't read a contemporary book that pulls this off until now.

So, check out Huntress and let me know what you think!

Ooh, also.  I just read this epilogue-ish short story by Malinda Lo here.

Not so little-- SISTERS RED By Jackson Pearce

My, what big eyes you have!

I loved Jackson Pearce's modern retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood."  In Sisters Red, Scarlett March lives for two things, hunting werewolves and protecting Rosie, her younger sister.  Rosie owes Scarlett her life and forgoes school and all the trappings of a normal life to join her sister in the hunt.  But unlike Scarlett, who feels most complete when she's sinking her hatchet into a wolf's belly, Rosie longs for more.

The book alternates between the two sisters' perspectives.  At first Scarlett was my favorite.  She's the strong one, the fighter.  But as I read, I kept rooting for Rosie's happiness, even if it was at the expense of her sister's.

It took me a second to adjust to the world Pearce created.  The story takes place in our world, in Atlanta, Georgia.  But Scarlett and Rosie aren't really a part of the world you and I know.  They live in a cottage in the woods, and walk everywhere, and don't work or go to school, and have a woodsman for a neighbor, and hunt werewolves, and don't have cell phones.  (do you have any idea how many of their problems would've been solved if they had freaking cell phones?)

But, once I figured out the whole fairy-tale world within our world thing, I was hooked.  And that's a huge part of the story.  Rosie wants to be part of our world so badly, while Scarlett is stuck in her own world of the hunt.

Sisters Red is bloody and ferocious as the two heroines kick some major wolf ass.  Oh, I wish I could tell you my favorite ass-kicking part!  But it's at the end. And a big spoiler.  So, read it and you'll see.

I also loved the romance in this book.  I liked how the love wasn't TOO forbidden.  It felt right for the characters to be together and they didn't get all dramatic about the reasons they *shouldn't* be.  I liked that.  Their love felt real.

Ooh, and also, Ms. Pearce, you are the Queen of red herrings!  I'm very impressed.  At first, I knew.  Then I was, oh wait, I'm wrong.  But it turns out, I was right!  Sneaky, sneaky.  (Sorry Junkies, if you're confused, just go read it already).

So, if you like books with girls hacking up evil werewolves with hatchets, sisterly love, hot romance with kissing in the rain, and kick-ass girls who say, "I won't wait for the woodsman to save me."  Then, what are you waiting for?

Oh, and have you seen Jackson Pearce's amazing blog?  She does these great videos that are both funny and informative.

I fell in love with THE REPLACEMENT by Brenna Yovanoff

OK Junkies, I'm breaking my own rules to tell you about how awesome The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff is, even though the main character is a boy.  But the girls in this book kick so much ass that I really think it makes up for it.

Mackie Doyle isn't like the rest of the people in Gentry, his small and gloomy town.  Actually, Mackie isn't even human.  His parents know it.  His sister knows it.  His best friend knows it.  Half the town might suspect it, but NO ONE talks about it.

In Gentry, babies sometimes get sick and die.  But the bodies in the tiny coffins aren't really the grieving parents' offspring.  They're replacements.

The creatures who live beneath the slag heap steal human babies and replace them with their own sick children.  The replacements all die in their cribs.  All except Mackie.

Thanks to his sister's love, Mackie has survived and grown into a teenager.  But he lives in fear that the town will learn his secret and persecute him.  He does his best to blend in, to be invisible.  He doesn't want to think or talk about the truth anymore than the next citizen of Gentry.

But when Tate's younger sister dies, she knows the corpse is not her sister.  Tate challenges Mackie to acknowledge who he is and how he can help.

One of the things I love about this book is that Mackie is not a typical hero.   He's not brave, or strong, or selfless, or any of the things we expect our heroes to be.  Mackie is sickly, poisoned by the iron in the world around him.  Sometimes he can barely walk into a room without swooning, let alone fight off bad guys.  Also, all Mackie wants is to blend in, be left alone, and survive. He stonewalls Tate to protect himself and at first he won't stick out his neck for anyone.

So that's where the girls come in.  Erin, Mackie's sister, will do anything to protect Mackie.  She puts herself in danger to save him and her strong love is what has kept him alive in a world his body rejects.  And Tate definitely earns the title of kick-ass heroine.  I don't want to spoil all the ways she kicks ass, but let's just say she's not afraid to hurt someone in order to protect herself and save her sister.

Tate is fierce.  She won't keep quiet, she won't put up with Mackie's crap.  She won't back down.  I love her.

The Replacement is a dark, creepy story.  I mean, how much creepier can you get than dead babies?  But there are also tons of universal themes.  I think every teenager has felt the urge to just fit in and be unnoticed, the strong desire to be just like everyone else.  And I know I've definitely felt like an outsider in my own family and maybe even wondered, was I replaced at birth?

Read The Replacement.  You won't be disappointed.

Evie tases her way to normal in PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White

So, sometimes when there's tons of hype surrounding a book, I'm tempted to automatically discount it.  It can't be THAT good right?

So I'd heard Paranormalcy by Kiersten White was funny.  I'd heard Evie, the teen heroine, used a pink sparkly taser to "bag and tag" vampires.  I'd heard the book poked fun at the whole paranormal romance genre.

Guess what?  The peoples on the interwebs were right!

One quick stop at Kiersten White's amazing blog will confirm that this chick is funny.  Paranormalcy has the same light-hearted tone as White's blog, which is awesome.

Paranormalcy reminded me of the movie Clueless, in a way.  The main character and plot seem very superficial at first.  But it's written so intelligently that you can't help but laugh and root for the heroine as she learns to be less selfish and discovers something deeper about herself and about life.

I loved how White threw in a few jabs at YA vampire romances.  The opening scene is hilarious as Evie tases a vamp and rants about how ridiculous it is that vampires think they're sexy.  She even uses the word "shimmery" to describe a vampire in an ironic way and I couldn't help but think of that as a direct poke at a certain franchise.  I also loved when, towards the end of the book, a vampire tells Evie, "Why on earth would a vampire go to high school?"  Hilarious!

The romance is so sweet and refreshing.  There was no I-love-you-but-kind-of-want-to-kill-you,  No I-love-you-but-our-love-will-probably-destroy-the-universe, and No I-love-you-but-I'm-so-damaged-from-my-hundred-year-old-past-so-I'm-really-mean-to-you.

It was more like, I-really-like-you-I-hope-your-dad-doesn't-catch-us-making-out-on-the-couch and then some I-think-I-love-you-but-I hope-you-accept-me-for-who-I-am-with-all-my-weirdness.

White shows us that we can have a paranormal novel with NORMAL teens.  We can read about teens who get grounded, love shopping sprees, eat pizza, and go to prom.  They also happen to have paranormal abilities and, you know, murderous faeries hunting them.

If you love paranormal romaces, or hate them, read Paranormalcy.  You won't be disappointed.

I can't wait for Supernaturally!

  

Some spoiler-free thoughts on Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

So, I feel like I can't really do Mockingjay justice in a review, and I don't want to give away any spoilers.  And more than writing a review, what I really need is a freakin' therapy session after that speed train of emotion.

I think Mockingjay is by far the best book in Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy.  The three books ask: what does it do to us when we kill another person, even in self-defense?  The Hunger Games touched on this theme, Catching Fire pushed it a little further, but Mockingjay blew it wide open.

As another character points out, Katniss is not the same girl who volunteered to take her sister's place at the reaping.  She's permanently and irrevocably scarred by the violence she's experienced and produced.  What I love is that even though she has nightmares and is sometimes "disoriented" she is in no way a victim.  Katniss is traumatized not by what's been done to her, but by the choices she's made.  I don't think she regrets any life she took to save herself, but that doesn't mean she sleeps well at night.

All the Victors are a wreck.  I love how in the beginning of The Hunger Games, Katniss views Haymitch as this pathetic creature who hides from life in the bottom of a bottle.  In Mockingjay, Katniss and Haymitch don't seem very different, Katniss even wishes for her own bottle at one point.

I thought Peeta's character arc was brilliant.  So much more heartbreaking than a typical love-triangle or the who-do-I-save dilemma I thought it was going to be.

I know some people are disappointed with the ending, but frankly I think those are the same people who are disappointed with life.  Collins's world and Katniss's story are so devastating because they are so real.  Collins doesn't pull any punches.  Katniss is, above everything else, a survivor.  And just like President Snow, Collins pushes Katniss to her breaking point.

I white-knuckled it, holding on with Katniss through her harrowing journey, not knowing what to even hope for at the end.  But some damage cannot be undone.  We still pick up the pieces and salvage what we can of our lives.  If reader's don't like Mockingjay's ending it's because it's too true.

The story is so critical of war and vengeance that I cried not just for the characters, but for humanity.  We sacrifice our children to overthrow dictators, only to replace them with more dictators.  We kill a few to save the many, over and over, and over again until we can't remember who we're saving and who we're fighting.

This book is amazing, but it drained me.  What are your thoughts?  Anything light and fluffy to recommend for recovery reading?

Ai Ling has some kick-ass spirit in SILVER PHOENIX by Cindy Pon

Silver Phoenix has been on my radar for a while, but I never found it in book stores.  Eventually I ordered it on Amazon.  It rose to the top of my TBR pile when I heard about the controversy over the new cover and I learned that Barnes & Noble and Borders never ordered the book with the original cover because it was too Asian.

Well some really smart people lament this horrible example of institutional racism better than I can.  But I just want to say, this book-buying-white-girl loved Silver Phoenix in all its Chinese splendor.

Ai Ling is the daughter of a scholar who was exiled from the Emperor's palace before she was born.  She wants to be a good daughter and honor her parents, but she has qualms about entering into an arranged marriage.  Unlike most girls in Xia, Ai Ling can read and write.  Without her father's knowledge, she's read all about mythical monsters in The Book of the Dead.

Ai Ling's father is summoned to the palace, but gives her a jade pendant before he goes.  When he doesn't return, Ai Ling decides to travel to the palace and bring him home.  So what if decorum dictates that single women shouldn't travel alone?

On her journey, Ai Ling discovers the monsters from The Book of the Dead are much more than myths. Ai Ling survives a demon attach thanks to her jade pendant and the courage of her spirit.

While traveling, Ai Ling crosses paths with Chen Yong, a young man whose fate has been intertwined with hers since before she was born.  They continue towards the palace together and embark on an adventure to fulfill their destinies.

I love how Ai Ling is a kick-ass heroine in a world that expects women to be seen and not heard.  Sure Chen Yong saves her the first time they meet, but pretty soon she does most of the saving and ass kicking.  I also loved the reincarnation/ancestor-worship/spiritual stuff interwoven throughout the fantasy.

In some ways this is a road-trip story.  Some friends travel to the palace and of course get side-tracked and have adventures along the way.  Of course, it's also a coming-of-age story as Ai Ling discovers her own strength.  I love how Ai Ling is not shy about eating and the descriptions of food made my mouth water.  The sexual tension between Ai Ling and Chen Yong definitely left me hankering for the sequel, Fury of the Phoenix.


Silver Phoenix  by Cindy Pon is a great fantasy and a quick read.  Buy the beautiful original cover before they're all gone!

A taste of middle-child-syndrome with CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins

OK Junkies, confession time: my first couple of years teaching were so awful that I had to break up the school year with little things to look forward to.  I'd count the weeks/days/hours until each holiday.  Oh what, you think that sounds normal?  I'm not finished.  In addition to counting down to holidays, I'd also count down the days and weeks until other moments of joy.  I would know at any given day, how many months until the next Harry Potter book came out, or how many weeks until the next Lemony Snicket installment, or even how many weeks until the next Harry Potter movie was released (in theaters and on DVD).   I told you, I'm an addict.

Well, in an attempt to ease some of my bitterness at having to work on Presidents' Day, I've decided to reinstate the countdown.

As of today, there are exactly:

• 4 weeks until Spring Break
• 16 weeks until summer vacation
• 27 weeks until the release of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins!

But Junkies, let's back up a second.  Before we can get all giddy about the third installment in the Hunger Games trilogy, we need to talk about Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games.

SPOLIER ALERT

You know that family member who yells at the TV during a sports game, or worse, the news?  Yeah, that was me while reading this book.

"No!  We can't go back into the arena.  Come on, Katniss, escape, revolt, go light stuff on fire with Gale. No!"  and "The watch!  Katniss, you saw the watch-with the bird, hello? Doh!" 

Suzanne Collins has created a great character with Katniss Everdeen.  Katniss is passionate and courageous.  She acts on instinct, but she can also be a little naiive.  None of these are great qualities for planning a secret revolution.  So Catching Fire is full of behind the scenes planning that Katniss is not aware of.  Unfortunately, because she's the first-person narrator, this means that the reader is also unaware of it. 

We get a few clues that Katniss doesn't understand the significance of, which can be a tad frustrating.  But, the thing is, Junkies, even though I shouted at the book and rolled my eyes a few times at Katniss's obliviousness, Collins knows what she's doing.

While The Hunger Games was full of physical suspense--is she going to die?  who is she going to kill?  Can she save Peeta?
Catching Fire is all about emotional suspense--what will she do?  When will she figure it out?  Who does she love?  Why won't Haymitch throw her a bone?

The middle book in any trilogy is tricky.  It struggles to compete with the excitement and originality of the first book, yet it has to continually build up to the climactic events to come in the third book.  It's like the middle-child-syndrome.  Or, I like to think of it as The Empire Strikes Back syndrome.  And like The Empire Strikes Back, in Catching Fire we spend a little too much time in the snow waiting for something to happen.

But in some ways, Catching Fire did surpass The Hunger Games.  Suzanne Collins is a genius at crafting characters and Haymitch and Cinna come alive in the sequel.  And we thought we knew Katniss and Peeta in the first book, but the second book really lets us see who they are, what they live for, and what they're willing to die for.

I do wish we got to know Gale a little more in this second book, though.  Because really, if we're going to have a love triangle, I need to know WHY Katniss loves Gale.  So as of right now, I'm in camp Peeta all the way, baby.

So, although I don't think it lived up to the awesomenes of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire is still a badass book and I can't wait until Mockingjay is in my hands 27 weeks from now.

Killer Katniss in THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins

Hey there, Junkies. So in the wee hours of the night, one fateful September, when the first inklings of the idea to write this blog came to me, I thought this book would definitely be the first I'd write about. Well, three months have passed and I still haven't posted about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I don't know why I've put it off. Part of me feels that there's been so much buzz about this book, that at this point it's a little redundant to encourage you to go read it. Because clearly, if you haven't read it yet, you've either been living under a rock or you simply have no interest in bad-ass heroines in dystopian YA novels. So really? What's the point? I can rant and rave about how action-packed and horrifying it is, but I'm just preaching to the choir.


But anyway.


Katniss lives with her mom and her younger sister, Prim, in District 12, the poorest district in Panem, the post-apocalyptic nation controlled by the Capitol. Katniss is a survivor. Despite the death of her father and dire poverty, Katniss takes care of her mother and sister. Katniss uses a bow her father made to poach wildlife with her bestfriend, Gale. Together, Gale and Katniss sneak behind the District 12 fences to hunt and speak freely about their disdain for the Capitol.



Each year the Capitol holds the Hunger Games. Two Tributes, a boy and girl between 12-18 years-old, are randomly selected from a lottery to represent their district in the Hunger Games. Basically, it's like Survivor, only to the death. Whoever stays alive the longest wins! The winner earns amazing riches and food for his/her district.



Prim is selected as the girl from District 12, but Katniss immediately volunteers to go in her sister's place. Peeta, a baker's son Katniss's age, is selected as the male tribute. Katniss accepts her entrance into the Hunger Games as certain death, she only hopes she won't have to kill Peeta.


Katniss and Peeta are pampered and prepared for the Hunger Games in the Capitol. Haymitch, District 12's only former winner of the games, serves as Peeta and Katniss's coach. Unfortunately Haymitch is an alcoholic.



The action starts once they enter the arena and the fight to the death begins. Some of the traps in the arena, and the way these teengagers willingly kill each other is quite horrifying. Once Katniss starts wielding a bow and arrow, her bad-assness erupts. She's a survivor and she'll do whatever it takes to save herself.



Yes, this book is full of gruesome action. But what I love about it are the other, more subtle parts. I love the kind-of-love-story and the emerging love-triangle. I love the dystopian political/social commentary. And I LOVE the question that is barely alluded to: What does killing a person, even in self-defense, do to one's psyche?


Ok, so get out from under your rock, catch up with the rest of us and read The Hunger Games.



Ok, so in a previous post, I challenged anyone to find a tougher heroine than Katsa from Graceling.

What do y'all think? Who's tougher? Katniss or Katsa?

FIRE by Kristin Cashore

OK Junkies, so her second book, Fire, definitely places Kristin Cashore on my read-anything-and-everything-by-this-author-list. I mean, Fire does suffer a little from middle-child-syndrome as it doesn't quite live up to Graceling, and now that I've finished Fire, I'm just really excited to have my third kid, ahem, I mean read Cashore's third book, Bitterblue.

Fire is a companion book to Graceling, but I really insist you read Graceling first, so get going. The two books have one character in common. Cashore brilliantly introduces him in the prologue and has the reader biting her nails in suspense waiting for him to reappear, knowing that when he does, it will be with devastating consequences (and it is).

Fire lives in the Dells, a kingdom left in chaos by the former King Nax and his evil adviser, Cansrel, Fire's father. There are monsters in the Dells, beautiful creatures with the ability to manipulate people's minds, typically with violent results. Cansrel was a monster who drove the kingdom to ruins for his amusement and left behind the only existing human-monster, Fire.

Fire is capable of enormous power, but she's terrified of using it and becoming the despicable creature her father was. Although Fire is powerful, being a monster makes her extremely vulnerable. She's the most gorgeous creature in the land and can control minds, but all the animal-monsters, and a great number of people, want to kill her. (It's kind of like the president, in a way. He has all this power, but can't even run to the corner market without an entourage of secret-service cuz some whack-job might shoot him).

So, while avoiding assassination attempts, Fire struggles for her independence and tries to find her place and purpose in a dangerous world. King Nax's two sons, Nash and Brigan, seek Fire out for her help, but the problem is while Brigan hates her, Nash likes her a little too much.

Cashore does a great job of interweaving all sorts of intriguing side plots and back story to keep the reader guessing, even when some other plot elements may be predictable and anticipated, such as the appearance of that Graceling character.

Even with all the war, sex, violence, and mind control, this story is really about family. It seemed very fitting to be reading it on Thanksgiving. The royal family of the Dells resembles most modern American families with half-brothers, step-sisters, adoptive fathers, love triangles, and illegitimate babies galore.

When men, raptors, and mountain lions want to kill her at the mere sight of her flowing red hair, Fire learns that the most dangerous thing she can do in the face of human mortality, is love someone.

Once again, Cashore brings us a young-adult fantasy with sophisticated grown-up relationships. (I mean, really, if I had to sum-up these relationships you'd think these people belong on Jerry Springer or One Life to Live, but Cashore's artful writing elevates all the baby-mommas up the literary ranks and turns them into one great story).

And I know this blog is about heroines, and Fire is pretty bad-ass, and Cashore does a great job of balancing Fire's power with her vulnerability. But can I just say one little thing about the men?

In addition to powerful heroines, Cashore writes great men. She writes horrible, misogynistic men, she writes good-intentioned but controlling and domineering men, and she writes men for her heroines to fall in love with who are...good. Both Katsa and Fire feared losing a part of themselves and sacrificing their independence to be in a relationship. But both of them fall for men who love them for the bad-ass independent heroines they are.

Also, one more thing. I like the sex in these books. Although Cashore barely describes a kiss, her characters have sex. Actually, in Fire, some of them have a lot of sex. The reader doesn't see it, it's barely mentioned, but it's there, and it's a part of life and normal messy relationships.

The combination of well-crafted male characters and a positive and realistic outlook on sex make Fire a breathtaking romance. Cashore sets up healthy adult relationships that young girls can look up to. Which is SO much more than I can say about some other YA books.

Anyways, go read Fire and let the countdown to Bitterblue begin!

Gutsy CORALINE by Neil Gaiman

I was fortunate enough to grow up with a great mom who was also an amateur actress. This resulted in great bed-time stories and dramatic readings of picture books. My mom's talent, however, also led to some terrifying moments.

There were a few times (I don't know if I was annoying the crap out of her or what) when I was hanging out with Mom, maybe even curled up in her lap, and she'd snap.

She'd look down her nose at me with disgust and in a weird British accent say, "Mother? I am not your Mother! I have no idea what your talking about! I don't know who you are, little girl."

She'd keep it up for a few minutes, sometimes even pushing me away as I clawed at her, whimpering, "Mom! Stop!" Of course my pleading only egged her on more. This terrified me.

She'd then laugh and say she was just kidding, but I never thought it was funny.

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, brought the horror of these moments all back to me.

Do not be fooled, Junkies. Sure the book is thin, there are illustrations, the font is huge. Looks like a quaint little children's book. Looks can be deceiving.

This book may be the most frightening thing I've ever read (granted, I do not enjoy being scared and stay away from horror, or anything with a spooky cover).

I finished Coraline in one night because I never found a safe place to put it down.

Coraline is an only child who moves with her parents into a new house and is feeling a little neglected. She finds a door in the house with a wall of bricks behind it.

One day she opens the door and instead of bricks, she finds a passage way to another house that is almost identical to her house, and a mom and dad that are almost identical to her mom and dad.

SPOILER ALERT!

The other mother has buttons for eyes and promises Coraline to love her, pay attention to her, and give her whatever she wants. The only thing is, the other mother needs to sew buttons onto Coraline's eyes.

Corlaine navigates her way through the eerie and grotesque alternate universe to save her parents and battle the other mother.

OK, forget the talking dogs, the killer rats, the sticky membrane filled with the neighbors. Just the whole idea of the other mother makes me think that Neil Gaiman is either a warped creative genius, hates children, or both.

It's been ten years since I lived with my mom, but the idea of the other mother trying to make me her daughter in her goth-version-of-Alice-in-Wonderland-only-way-more-f-ed-up world sent shivers down my spine.

But this is what makes Coraline such a great heroine. She's terrified, the reader is terrified, but Coraline faces her fear and fights to save her parents. Coraline learns that true bravery isn't lack of fear, but being scared and doing what's right despite that fear.

Gaiman's writing is clean, simple, and elegant. He doesn't beat around the bush, he just focuses on the story and the wacked-out world created by the other mother. Each sentence packs a punch in this story told by a smart, brave, no nonsense narrator, Coraline.

I wish I was as courageous as Coraline. If I opened a door in my living room and was faced with the other mother, I'd probably curl up in a ball and cry.

Deadly Katsa in GRACELING by Kristin Cashore

Hey Junkies! How I've missed you! Sorry this week's post is late but sometimes "real life" gets in the way of pursuing and chronicling my addiction. Sigh.

OK, let's get right down to it. Not since my She-Ra days, has anything made me want to jump up and fight invisible bad guys in the backyard as much as this book.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore packs a punch and Katsa is the ultimate kick-ass heroine. (I hereby challenge anyone to find a literary heroine tougher and deadlier than Katsa).

Cashore creates a fantasy world with seven kingdoms that fortunately does not require the reader to learn elvish nor refer constantly to a map, (and thank goodness cuz that would just kill our buzz). In this world, some people are born gracelings. They have two different colored eyes and a special ability that manifests itself in adolescence. Gracelings are feared and exploited, especially Katsa.

Katsa is an orphan (of course! This is a YA book, hello!) who lives with her uncle, a nasty king of one of the 7 kingdoms. Katsa's grace is killing. She can't be defeated in a fight, she's rarely injured, and she can snap a warrior's neck with a flick of her wrist. I told you, she's bad-ass. Katsa serves as a hired goon for her uncle, threatening and killing people who owe him money or have insulted him in some way.

Katsa has moral qualms about her role as a mercenary and secretly works to put her talents to better use. She meets Po, a graced hotty from another land. Po is the first person Katsa's met who can challenge her skills at fighting, and together they work to uncover the kingdoms' secrets.

Graceling is marketed for young adults BUT it is sophisticated enough to tickle my grown-up dendrites. It's beautifully and intelligently written and I never felt like I had to reach up and turn off part of my brain to enjoy it. Katsa and Po's relationship is so nuanced, I'm not sure most teenagers can fully appreciate it. Also, there was enough political intrigue, romance, and suspense to keep my mind busy that I never fully guessed the ending, unlike with some YA books.

Graceling is about a tough chick finding her humanity and learning to be vulnerable. It is wonderful to watch how Katsa is perfectly skilled at killing a man with her bare hands, but fumbles through simple social situations.

Cashore's characters are so real, I felt bad for their losses days after I'd finished reading.

Fire is on my to-read-list and I have a feeling I'll be posting about that heroine when I'm through.

Go read Graceling and then open up a can-of-whoop-ass on the bad guys in your yard when you're done.