#graceling

[ace-artemis-fanartist]

Bitterblue redraw from this 2018 one.

[bookcub]

okay but do you ever think about how amazing graceling is? like a main character who is physically unmatched, who has been raised as a killer but decides to start a secret spy network to protect people? even tho her whole life she has been called a brute and acted as the enforcer to a cruel king? yeah she might say shes not like other girls but shes mad about how the patriarchy robs them of the ability to defend themselves and decides her mission in life is to train those who have not been trained. she is tearing the patriarchy down with her bare hands and recruiting more people to help her every day. romantasy wishes they could have a main character as nuanced as katsa. and she punched a mountain lion in the face.

[morningsaidthemoon]

Wanted to have a go drawing how Fire’s hair is described!

[dl4draws]

my most beloved gracelings

[squidsyes]

I've been rereading the Graceling series

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Yoooo you read Graceling!!!! I just recently reread Bitterblue, remembering nothing about it beforehand, and I was floored by its amazing depiction of abuse/gaslighting. I never would have thought to represent gaslighting as an evil superpower. Using it to support the plot of a political mystery novel is just so cool.

I fully agree. Normally I'm not a big fan of characters having had their memories changed, since it risks giving the author a little too much license to straight-up lie to the reader to conceal information, and/or introduce a world with no internal logic at all which doesn't make for an enjoyable story.

BUT that's clearly not what Cashore is doing with Bitterblue. Instead, that plot is so clearly about propaganda, about how history becomes story and what's lost along the way, and about how a "hero" is in the eyes of the people who benefited from that hero's violence. Like, are George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson heroes? It sure as heck depends on whether you ask a white person, or a Black or Native American one. Human memory is short, history is malleable. People in power can edit the past.

Are you a butcher or a great warrior? Are you a freedom fighter or a terrorist? Depends on who's telling the story and how. The fantastical interpretation in Graceling is clearly Cashore pulling the classic SF trick of taking something figurative and making it literal, and asking a lot of fascinating questions about the responsibilities of leadership along the way.

[ofliterarynature]

tbr challenges • september 2025

Print: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (DNF); The Hospital by Brian Alexander

Graphic Novel: Graceling by Kristin Cashore & Gareth Hinds

25-in-25: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

[geisterblumen]

okay but wait, hear me out

I read Graceling around 2010 (that’s 15 years ago)

I was a teeny tiny teenager around that time and have you ever considered the marks that Kristin Cashore left on all those girls who got around to read about Katsas story?

Not only did I, who was forbidden to show anger, learn that anger can lead to freedom and safety, but also I learned at such a young age that it is entirely fine, even beautiful, to commit to partnership in ways that are not marriage.

Cashore also described how Katsa took seabane to prevent pregnancy. She deliberately formed it into its own moment, but didn’t make a big deal out of it at the same time - which meant a lot to teenager me and even more to the adult that I am today.

Also making the male main character into someone who is emotionally intelligent, sensitive and also capable to appreciate the beauty of his surroundings, even after losing eye-sight must have left imprints on young boys who got around to read Po‘s story.