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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was all over the place, literally. They traversed almost the entire world during the course of this story. It left so much room for character development and develop these characters did. It was wonderful.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really loved this. I liked the first two thirds the most, but the whole thing was great. The only negative is that the main character was in her early twenties, but read much younger. Like pre-teen almost.
Hava is mean and cranky and turns into a statue (literally, its her Grace to hide in plain sight as something inanimate) if you touch her.
She's also lived her whole life hiding or more recently, as a spy for her sister Queen Bitterblue. They are now on the ship, Monsea, headed back home after an adventure from the last book, along with faithful Giddon, her advisors, and a motley assortment of crew.
Hava can't hide well on a ship, and so begins the process of undoing who she was so she can become something else. There are storms, and a long section in the middle that wore me down emotionally as they trek through unending snow, but Cashore does this thing with her characters, alot like T. Kingfisher, where as a reader you get to watch grumpy Hava react cluelessly to overtures of friendship anyone else would have recognized and slowly, slowly begin to stop lashing out in anger or turn into a statue.
And then there's the foxes. There is a scene in the midst of the snowy trek of despair, where Hava gives over a fox to one of Bitterblue's most useless, whining, spoiled advisors, and it almost brought tears to my eyes because of what it meant about Hava's growth in compassion towards herself and others.
There's also a subplot about politics revolving around some notes about a secret weapon Hava has to translate...and Cashore gave us just enough hints for me to guess who the mysterious person named in those notes were, but it still was a beautiful moment for Hava.
And don't even get me started on the lovely, sweet, and yet hinting-at-darkness Linny. A sailor who becomes important to Hava, I almost feel like Cashore wrote him as if he had a Grace himself because he knew t00 much and forgave too much, but no, it was just plain decency.
Cashore always writes books about broken people finding each other, and I'm so glad Hava found the sailors. Do not recommend reading this one as a stand alone. You'll miss out on knowledge of the darkness behind Bitterblue and Hava.
She's also lived her whole life hiding or more recently, as a spy for her sister Queen Bitterblue. They are now on the ship, Monsea, headed back home after an adventure from the last book, along with faithful Giddon, her advisors, and a motley assortment of crew.
Hava can't hide well on a ship, and so begins the process of undoing who she was so she can become something else. There are storms, and a long section in the middle that wore me down emotionally as they trek through unending snow, but Cashore does this thing with her characters, alot like T. Kingfisher, where as a reader you get to watch grumpy Hava react cluelessly to overtures of friendship anyone else would have recognized and slowly, slowly begin to stop lashing out in anger or turn into a statue.
And then there's the foxes. There is a scene in the midst of the snowy trek of despair, where Hava gives over a fox to one of Bitterblue's most useless, whining, spoiled advisors, and it almost brought tears to my eyes because of what it meant about Hava's growth in compassion towards herself and others.
There's also a subplot about politics revolving around some notes about a secret weapon Hava has to translate...and Cashore gave us just enough hints for me to guess who the mysterious person named in those notes were, but it still was a beautiful moment for Hava.
And don't even get me started on the lovely, sweet, and yet hinting-at-darkness Linny. A sailor who becomes important to Hava, I almost feel like Cashore wrote him as if he had a Grace himself because he knew t00 much and forgave too much, but no, it was just plain decency.
Cashore always writes books about broken people finding each other, and I'm so glad Hava found the sailors. Do not recommend reading this one as a stand alone. You'll miss out on knowledge of the darkness behind Bitterblue and Hava.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love the Graceling series and was happy to be able to explore that world more in Seasparrow, but this story should probably have been broken into 2 books. I kept thinking I was getting to the end and then the action kept going!
Seasparrow definitely makes up for the lack of a physical journey that bothered me about Bitterblue. The sailing and survivalist part of this story actual drew on a little too long for me. However, so much happens in this book that even that downside didn't hinder my enjoyment of it.
I really enjoy how Cashore builds flawed secondary characters who make an appearance in one book and then return to be the protagonist for another book without first losing any of their flaws. The author is great at creating self-reflective, intelligent, dynamic characters.
I really enjoy how Cashore builds flawed secondary characters who make an appearance in one book and then return to be the protagonist for another book without first losing any of their flaws. The author is great at creating self-reflective, intelligent, dynamic characters.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes