** spoiler alert ** 
 *Update* Somehow I suffered through to the end of this book and sadly it never got any better. 
 Only 25% through this book so far, but it is so frustrating. My thoughts so far. 
 I was really hoping I would like this book, but there are just so many things wrong with it. You know it's bad when you are questioning why the characters are acting the way they are in almost every scene. I'll get to the terrible false feminism shortly. 
 Katsa as a main character is really hard to relate to and sympathize with. Her character motivations make no sense. 
 CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS 
 Katsa hates her grace and just wants to be normal... Except does she really? She rejects all semblance of "normal" life. She has and wants no friends, wants no part in court life, but she doesn't want to leave either. 
 And for all her protestations against killing and her inner monologues of how much she hates hurting people, she doesn't seem to mind hurting people when she's actually hurting people. She's... well she's really violent. She shows a surprising penchant for violence and using violence to solve her problems, and is remarkably good at bullying. She shows no remorse when bullying the lord over the tree money in the beginning. Reading that scene I could only think, "Is this really the main character we're supposed to be rooting for?" Which brings me to... 
 Katsa hates being Randa's weapon and hates Randa but she has no choice but to act as his weapon... She does his bidding and doesn't leave court because... wait, why? They make it quite clear that she hates court and no one else under Randa's control, not even a squad of well-trained soldiers, stands even a small chance against Katsa. He also holds no sway over her emotionally. There is no familial affection between them and he cannot even hurt anyone she cares about, because she cares about no one. She seems to be friends with Raffin, but she even says she'd feel little grief if he died... yeah... not that Randa is going to hurt his heir. He doesn't even seem aware they are friends, or he doesn't care. 
 She keeps saying "if I don't do this or that, Randa will get angry!" And? So what? What can he do to you Katsa? This is eventually addressed by Po, and Katsa's explanation is that she is afraid of her own anger, which bubbles up whenever Randa gets angry at her and she's afraid she'll kill him. This explanation doesn't make sense, however. She gets angry whenever she's around Randa whether or not he's angry at her. So who cares if he is angry? Wouldn't resisting Randa give her any satisfaction to prevent her getting angry? Doesn't killing and bullying all these people make her angry? Why does Randa even make her angry? He can do nothing to her. So what if she kills him anyway? He's supposedly a terrible king and can't have that many allies among the people, and his soldiers cannot harm her or contain her. Why doesn't she just run away and never see him again and continue her council work in secret? She goes on and on about how much she hates being his weapon, and yet just keeps doing it anyway. 
 Randa wants to marry Katsa off... I didn't get this either. She is his prized weapon, so why on earth would he want to do anything to take her time away from being his weapon? Surely marriage and children would keep her a little busy and make her less useful to him, and may even make her less willing to fight. She would presumably live with her husband away from court some of the time as well. It's definitely NOT familial love and wanting her to be happy motivating him. What does he gain from marrying her off? 
 WORLD BUILDING 
 I'm not sure what Cashore's strength is, but it is not world building. Putting aside the insultingly stupid country names, can anyone tell me anything about these 5 countries? What do they look like? What is the climate? What is the culture? Cashore does little to spark the reader's imaginative vision besides "generic medieval countries with some hills and forests and castles." Coming directly from reading Tamora Pierce's books, who does an excellent job at creating interesting, diverse, and beautifully detailed worlds inside my head (occasional awkward racial and cultural portrayals notwithstanding), this is a severe disappointment. 
 Lienid is the only country with a tiny bit of uniqueness, but all I can tell you is that they appreciate beauty and wear lots of jewelry. 
 OVERPOWERED MAIN CHARACTER 
 It's very hard to suspend disbelief in this story. The graces are so ridiculously overpowered, especially in Katsa. I just cannot see how a child of 8 years old can have enough force in her fist to push someone's nose into their brain. Why can she ignore the physical limitations of her muscles? I know the story says "...because magic", but somehow that just doesn't cut it for me. It just sounds so ridiculous to read about her kneeing, kicking, and punching grown warriors twice her size. 
 The story also keeps pointing out that there are other people stronger than her. She struggles to carry the Lienid grandfather and claims that Po is stronger than her. But she can generate enough force to snap peoples' arms off... I know the story says that's the way graces work, but it's just hard to reconcile her only having super strength sometimes. What are her physical limitations then? Can that graceling graced with swimming just swim forever since muscle limitations mean nothing? 
 It's also really frustrating that essentially no one can stop her or even touch her. It means she has no challenge and has nothing to fear. Why should the readers care about her if no one can hurt her and if she's so powerful she can do whatever she wants with no struggle whatsoever? 
 THE PLOT 
 The beginning of the book really struggles from a lack of focus. A quarter of the way through the book, the main conflict still has not been revealed and it leaves the reader wondering why the story is even still going. Katsa has no direction or motivation other than to eventually figure out who kidnapped Po's grandfather and continue to bully people in Randa's name for no reason. 
 FEMINISIM 
 As many other reviews on here have pointed out, the author has a very warped view of feminism. And apparently doesn't believe in subtlety. This is another issue with Katsa's character. Having a girl that's tough and a good fighter is fine and all, but her attitudes toward traditionally "feminine" things is overly harsh. Liking dresses and jewelry and looking pretty, getting married and having children... these things are not anti-feminist.