Today, I started a new book called Graceling. The main character is a girl named Katsa living in the kingdom of Middluns. In her world, people may be born with a talent called a Grace. They are marked by unmatched eye colors (hers are blue and green), and are disliked by the majority of those in the kingdoms. She fears her Grace of killing. Her uncle, King Randa uses Katsa to punish those who disobey him. She has grown to despise him. His ignorance to the needs of the people has caused Katsa to secretly has set up "the Council" in order to help throughout the Kingdom. This book starts when Girron, Oll, and Katsa rescue an old Liedin (neighboring kingdom) from a dungeon of Murgon, a kingdom that is payed to do other's bidding. It goes smoothly until she meets someone else graced with fighting. He is a Liedin as well, whom she quickly knocks unconscious. She refuses to kill him, and is troubled by him for some time.

So far, I think that this is a really good book. The characters are well developed, and are interesting to follow. I think that Katsa uses her Grace out of fear of herself. Whenever anyone gets near her, she uses it to scare them away. This makes me wonder if her character wishes that her Grace was different. I think that she is wrong to use it either way. She needs to learn to control her anger, not the talent itself. Maybe its her anger that she's afraid of? Does she do as her uncle says out of fear of herself or him?

Also, I think that the Liedin fighter will be a large part of the story. None of the other guards she disabled are dwelled upon, but he is described, and continually mentioned. Maybe he was there to rescue the old man as well, or was the one who put him there to begin with. Either way, I think that he will continue play a large part in the story.

I finished Fairest today. Since my last blog, many of the problems changed, and resolved themselves. Ijori(still loves her) and Aza's family know she is alive. When ZhamM(dwarf who stayed at her in) goes out of town, Ivi, disguised as a dwarf, gives her a poisoned apple. Nearly dead, she is sent into the Skulni's mirror to fill in for him on his break. Every time someone who has used his potion dies, he gets to go out in the world (he likes to speed up this process). Aza breaks the mirror, and is sent back to her body. When she wakes up, Ijori, who has come to see her, accompanies Aza back to the castle. When the King recovers, he pardons Aza. Then, he proceeds to exile himself and Ivi for the good of Ayortha. The book end with Aza marrying Ijori. They rule together for the rest of their lives.

Overall, I think that this ending was too predictable. You knew that she was going to end up happy, even when she was dying. I think that the ending is actually unoriginal because of this. The poisoned apple was even taken straight from Snow White. Although the rest of the book did have some depth, the ending did not. Ivi is suddenly happy to leave, and the King is suddenly better. I think that I would actually have enjoyed it more if these changes had not happened so suddenly. Overall, I think it was an OK book.

I read about a hundred more pages of Fairest today, and a lot has happened. When the castle found out that Aza was illusing for the Queen, Ivi claimed that Aza was an ogre who forced convinced her to lie. Besides this, the Prince kissed Aza, but abandoned her when he found out about her illusing. Does he really like her? Fortunately, Aza was able to escape from jail after being convicted of being an ogre, and is now at the underground dwarf city. She drank the same potion as the Queen, so she is beautiful by human standards. The last thing that happened was that she found out she wasn't ogre, she was part dwarf.

I believe that she won't be able to stay underground permanently. Although she won't admit it, she still has feelings for Ijori, and he probably still likes her as well. I think that she is going to come out of hiding to show him she isn't dead. No matter how nice these characters are, Ivi is generally mean tempered. I think that this is part of what makes her character so interesting. She only cares for herself. She is very self-conscious, so she surrounds herself by those who she thinks are uglier than her. I believe that she will figure out she didn't succeed in killing Aza.

Another thing to consider about this book is that Skulni, or man in the mirror. The beauty potion came with him. I believe that maybe he is the one advising Ivi. Will he gain anything if she dies? Also, is Aza under his control since she only drank part of the potion? I think that the Skulni will end up being a driving force in the conclusion of the book. I do like this book so far. Although some of the plot has been taken already existing fairy tales, it has added a new twist in the way it views the characters. The characters actually are believable. Their personalities have flaws, but this makes them seem realer, not flat. I think that by the end of the story, each character will be fully developed. We will know how they have good in them as well as bad.

Today, I read the next sixty pages of Fairest. Since my last blog, Aza has been made Ivi's lady-in-waiting. This means that Aza's family gets land, and she gets a large salary. She saw Ivi in the garden, and helped her hide from her voice teacher. In the process, she got herself stuck in a window. Ivi didn't care. She left to have a good time with the rest of the royal family. Will she abandon her subject's needs as well?

At the lunch performance, the king is hit in the head with a metal ring. He receives a concussion that causes a coma. This means that Ivi is now the ruler. She begins to make changes immediately. The government council (the peasants fought a civil war to get it) is permanently disbanded. She cares only for herself. Queen Ivi even thinks about marrying the king's nephew, Prince Ijori. She then forces Aza to illuse for her. Every time she has to sing, she uses Aza's voice. I believe that Ivi will get more controlling throughout the book. So far, this book is pretty good. It is imaginative which makes it an easy read.