THE GOOD 
 The characters 
 I loved the characters in this book. Katsa is strong, yet she does not shy away from showing her emotions. Po is just a cute and perfect little puppy that I want to hug. Even the side characters (Raffin, King Leck, etc.) were interesting to read about. 
 The relationship between Katsa and Po 
 Their relationship took its time to develop and I felt the equality between the two. Also, they were really adorable together. 
 The second half of the book 
 Once through the painfully slow and angsty first half of the book (more about that later in this review), it got really fun and compelling. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I loved every second of it. 
 The way the author approached sex 
 There's some sexy scenes in this book. They are not explicit, but they are not overly romanticized and sugar coated like the majority of YA books (I'm looking at you Cassandra Clare). The author tells us the truth about sex: it can be painful at first, but it can be fun. 
 THE BAD 
 The first half of the book 
 I easily went through the first half, but it was still painful to read. Not a lot of things happened and sometimes, I wanted to shake some common sense into Katsa. 
 Katsa needs to chill 
 I'm the type of person who is always relaxed and when someone is overreacting for nothing, I'll tell them. At one point in this book, Katsa was becoming a real pain in the ass (I still love her tho). 
 An underwhelming climax 
 I was disappointed by the "confrontation" scene. When it happened, I thought to myself "That's it? That's all?!" 
 THE END 
 Graceling is a really good YA fantasy book, but for me it was never more than a four stars book. There's some flaws in it but it didn't stop me from liking this book.