Graceling was a fun reread. The romance in this book is one of my favourites in YA. Po and Katsa's relationship is gripping from the start because of Kristin Cashore's emphasis on building trust between the two. I adored Po's consistent respect for Katsa's boundaries. Cashore develops their love for each other deeply making the romance the most engaging and dynamic part of the story.

Unfortunately, Graceling's plot lacked the dynamism of its romance. This is because Katsa's journey largely felt unmotivated. While Graceling's first act felt tightly plotted and character-driven the rest of the story was directionless. The book nominally had an antagonist, but he played such a minimal role in the story and interacted in such a limited capacity with Katsa that he genuinely felt secondary to the narrative. In my opinion, Po would have been the ideal protagonist for the story because he had a direct connection to the antagonist and the capacity to engage with him on a deeper level than Katsa.

Graceling while not a perfect book was a solid reread. I adored David Baker's narration for the audiobook and genuinely respect a lot of what Kristin Cashore was doing with this novel especially given when it was released.