An assured fantasy debut grapples with questions of identity, authenticity and autonomy. Lady Katsa is a Graceling, with an inborn magical gift marking her as both feared outcast and exploitable resource. While her peculiar Gracethe unsurpassed ability to killhas been honed over the years by her uncle the king to bully and punish, Katsa has also secretly used it to bring a measure of justice to the Seven Kingdoms. When she encounters a strange prince whose mysterious Grace may just be a match for her own, she learns the corrosive seduction of power corrupted, but also the courage to trust othersand herself. Katsa is an ideal adolescent heroine, simultaneously confident of her strengths yet unsure of her place in the world. Every character is crafted with the same meticulous devotion to human comprehensibility, making the villain all the more appalling in his understated, twisted madness. In a tale filled with graphic violence and subtle heartbreak, gentle passion and savage kindness, matter-of-fact heroics and bleak beauty, no defeat is ever total and no triumph comes without cost. Grace-full, in every sense. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 8 Up-In this debut fantasy novel, Cashore treats readers to compelling and eminently likable characters and a story that draws them in from the first paragraph. In Katsa's world, the "Graced," those gifted in a particular way, are marked by eyes that are different colors. Katsa's Grace is that she is a gifted fighter, and, as such, she is virtually invincible. She is in the service of her tyrannical uncle, king of one of the seven kingdoms, and she is forced to torture people for infractions against him. She has secretly formed the Council, which acts in the service of justice and fairness for those who have been accused and abused. Readers meet her as she is rescuing the father of the Lienid king, who has been abducted. The reasons for his capture are part of a tightening plot that Katsa unravels and resolves, with the help of Prince Po, the captive's grandson. He has his own particular Grace, and he becomes Katsa's lover and partner in what becomes a mortally dangerous mission. Cashore's style is exemplary: while each detail helps to paint a picture, the description is always in the service of the story, always helping readers to a greater understanding of what is happening and why. This is gorgeous storytelling: exciting, stirring, and accessible. Fantasy and romance readers will be thrilled.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

IN a world of gossip girls, it is perhaps refreshing to have a teenage heroine who cuts off all her hair because it gets in her way; and Kristin Cashore's eccentric and absorbing first novel, "Graceling," has such a heroine. Katsa is tough, awkward, beautiful and consumed by pressing moral issues. She is extremely serious; it could be said she lacks a sense of humor. The story is set in a rich fantasy world where children born with extreme talents, called Graces, are "Gracelings." These Gracelings occupy a vexed and complicated place in their kingdoms, as they are both shunned and respected by ordinary people and exploited by kings. Katsa's Grace happens to be murder. She can kill a man with her bare hands. This peculiar talent is discovered when, as an 8-year-old, she accidentally kills a distant cousin who is leering at women servants and touching them. Her uncle, the king, recognizes the potential of Katsa's power and begins to train her. He turns his niece into his creature, his own private girl assassin, forcing her to do the dirty work of the court: wreaking vengeance on his enemies, subduing those who dare to defy him. As one might expect, the adult world in "Graceling" is irrational, whimsical, cruel - the young people band together into a secret Council, which Katsa dreams up to protect the innocent and correct the sins of narcissistic kings. Katsa comes from the tradition of heroines like Pippi Longstocking, who scandalize the adult world with impossible feats of physical strength like lifting a horse or fighting a pirate. Katsa gets into a brawl with a mountain lion and wins. She subdues an entire army of guards. In other words, she overturns every biological reality and cultural stereotype of feminine weakness, which is a large part of her charm. She is the girl's dream of female power unloosed. On one of her secret missions, Katsa encounters another Graceling, Prince Po, who can read minds. He also happens to be extremely handsome. After a great deal of wrangling, Katsa finally frees herself from her tyrannical uncle, and together she and Po try to save his young cousin Princess Bitterblue from her pathologically insane father, King Leck, who is in possession of a dangerous and bewildering Grace. Many harrowing adventures ensue. There is a touching ordinariness to these characters as they go about their work breaking arms and legs. Unable to fall asleep one night, Katsa "listened to make sure no one woke. Normal. She wasn't normal." As in every self-respecting fantasy story, all the good characters, the ones we're supposed to like, are freaks and outcasts. Po admits: "I do a decent job of folding myself into normal society, when I must. But it's an act, Katsa; it's always an act. ... When I'm in my father's city there's a part of me that's simply waiting until I can travel again. Or return to my own castle, where I'm left alone." In the course of her dark and eventful tale, Cashore plays with the idea of awkwardness, how at a certain age gifts and talents are burdens, how they make it impossible to feel comfortable in the world. And in this she writes a fairly realistic portrait of teenage life into the baroque courts of her outlandish kingdoms. There is also embedded in this adventure a tempestuous love story; it begins with the two Gracelings fighting, and the anger that flows between them is as interesting as the attraction. They train together, as both are gifted in physical combat. And somehow in all of this struggle and resistance Cashore offers an acute portrayal of sexual awakening: ambivalent, rageful, exhilarating, wistful in turns. At one point Katsa thinks of herself as a "vicious beast that struck out at friends in uncontrollable anger." In many respects "Graceling" is a study of mysterious angers: it offers a perfect parable of adolescence, as its characters struggle with turbulent emotions they must learn to control. The consequences are more tangible than they usually are in more mundane settings - if Katsa loses control, she breaks someone's jaw by accident - but the principle is the same. The teenage characters in this novel, like some we may know in life, grow into their graces. They realize that their monstrous individuality is not so monstrous after all. Katie Roiphe teaches in the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University and is the author of "Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages."

Read by David Baker and a full cast. (Middle School, High School)In the Seven Kingdoms, an exceptional few are burdened with gifts that brand them as Gracelings. This lush world is the perfect backdrop for the complex interplay of a full cast of voices, each ideally suited to their roles. Director Todd Hobin composed an evocative musical score that sets the stage and presents a sweeping panorama through aural imagery. David Baker voices the narration with a gravitas that provides a firm foundation for the fantasy world. As Lady Katsa, Chelsea Mixon projects an utterly natural range of emotions that reveal Katsa's efforts to reconcile her Grace for killing with her quest for social justice; Zachary Exton, as Prince Po, serves as Katsa's sharp-witted foil through high adventure and romantic sparring, his balanced tones touched with an edge of mystery as listeners decipher the limits of his Grace. Both Mixon's and Exton's authentically teen voices forge a strong connection to young adults struggling with issues of identity and responsibility. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred Review. In a land of seven kingdoms, people with special talents, called Gracelings, are identified by their eyes--Katsa's are green and blue, one of each--although she's eight before her specific Grace is identified as a talent for killing. (While in the court of her uncle, King Randa, she swiped at a man attempting to grope her and struck him dead.) By 18 she's King Randa's henchwoman, dispatched to knock heads and lop off appendages when subjects disobey, but she hates the job. As an antidote, she leads a secret council whose members work against corrupt power, and in this role, while rescuing a kidnapped royal, she meets the silver-and-gold-eyed Po, the Graced seventh son of the Lienid king. That these two are destined to be lovers is obvious, though beautiful, defiant Katsa convincingly claims no man will control her. Their exquisitely drawn romance (the sex is offstage) will slake the thirst of Twilight fans, but one measure of this novel's achievements lies in its broad appeal. Tamora Pierce fans will embrace the take-charge heroine; there's also enough political intrigue to recommend it to readers of Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia trilogy. And while adult readers, too, will enjoy the author's originality, the writing is perfectly pitched at teens struggling to put their own talents to good use. With this riveting debut, Cashore has set the bar exceedingly high. Ages 14-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.

Highly acclaimed around the world, Cashore's fantasy centers on gracelings, gifted beings who use their supernatural abilities for both good and evil. Katsa, an unusually strong fighter, has been controlled by her uncle, rey Randa, who manipulates Katsa to intimidate and even kill others. Then Katsa meets Po, a young prince, whose special gifts and friendship convince her to use her fighting skills for better purposes. The fast action, convincing protagonists, and intriguing domains create an engrossing read.--Schon, Isabel Copyright 2009 Booklist