Graceling
I’m almost done reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore, which I bought because I’ve seen it recommendedseveral places as one of the best YA books of the last year or so. I’m liking it, but I can’t recommend it without warnings. The basic premise is that there are a few people, marked by two different-colored eyes, who are Gracelings gifted with some superlative talent. The Grace can be anything from cooking to fighting to mind-reading. Katsa’s Grace is killing; for most of her life she’s been the tool of her uncle King Randa, and now she much learn to trust others, take ownership of her own gift, and use it to help instead of hurting others. Graceling has a lot of interesting ideas, but it’s a first book, and not surprisingly it can be a bit obvious in presenting its theme and metaphors. That wouldn’t stop me – YA books need to be a little clearer about theme; I love the Tiffany Aching books and Pratchett isn’t overly subtle in those. But a strong theme here is abuse, of one’s own gifts and of other people, and there are some situations that are a bit too clearly metaphors of real-world abusive situations. I’m not prone to being triggered, never been abused or been around someone I cared about while they were being abused (that I knew about) but there was a point where I had to put the book down for a bit.
That’s not entirely a criticism – obviously, it wouldn’t have affected me enough to be painful if the book hadn’t made me care about the characters. So I’d recommend Graceling – but not without warning.
Rosemary and Rue
While traveling I read Seanan Maguire’s Rosemary and Rue The fantasy element is based on Faery Lore You Don’t See rather than Post-Apacalyptic Return of Magic, but in other ways it reminds me a bit of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series (Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes), and I liked it for the same reason. When the heroine kicks ass, there’s a reason she can. When she gets hurt, either it slows her down or she heals fast and there’s a reason for that too. Sometimes she needs her friends’ help, and sometimes they need hers, and there are still problems even after happy endings. Who she sleeps with is decided by her head as well as her gonads – or if not, there are problems. People who have been hurt have scars, physical and emotional, and those affect their reactions. I can’t exactly say either series is realistic, given that I don’t actually know any female PIs, paladins or mercenaries who go around fighting for the good guys on a regular basis. But if I did, I think they’d be like this.
Though it’s a dark-ish fantasy, Rosemary and Rue is somehow lighter than Graceling. So are the Kate Danials books, and those include parental abuse and abandonment, but they don’t bother me in the same way, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s mostly the tone of the book, and maybe partly that the situations are not as obviously analogous to real world ones. Except for the ones in RR that are (what happens to runaways) but those still feel a bit more distant, somehow.