Action and Reflection in Cashore's Graceling

Graceling, the first novel of Kristin Cashore, is a young adult fantasy told from the point of view of eighteen year old Katsa, a Graceling.  In the world of Katsa, most people are average humans. A small portion of the population is “Graced” with special skills, each unique to the individual. These individuals are distinguishable by their heterochromatic eyes. Katsa has grown up trained as an assassin and enforcer for her uncle, the kind of the Middluns, and her blunt and hard nature informs the telling of Graceling not just in the thoughts expressed by Katsa directly but also in how Katsa chooses to describe the world around her. The world building and character development in Graceling, as told by Katsa, generally focus on action or reflection. Katsa’s observations about her surroundings are concrete in how they fix her in her world but do not include detail that the reader may be interested in but might not be true to how the character would reflect on a retelling. Alternatively, …