My Books

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't

been written yet, then you must write it."

-Toni Morrison

Graceling, my debut novel, is the story of Katsa, who has been able to kill people with her bare hands since she was eight. Katsa lives in the seven kingdoms, where very occasionally, a person is born with an extreme skill called a Grace. Gracelings are feared and exploited in the seven kingdoms, and none moreso than Katsa, who's expected to do the dirty work of torture and punishment for her uncle, King Randa. But then she meets a mysterious stranger named Po, who is also a Graced fighter and the first person ever to challenge her in a fight. The two form a bond, and each discovers truths they never imagined about themselves, each other, and a terrible danger that is spreading slowly through the seven kingdoms.

Graceling is published by Harcourt Children's Books in the U.S. and Canada, by Gollancz in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, and has been sold to twenty-four foreign markets so far. A New York Times bestseller, it's gotten a whole bunch of great reviews and even some awards; check out my Praise for Graceling page if you're interested in the gory details.

You can buy Graceling (and Fire) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Even better, please support your local independent bookstore by going to Indie Bound, or order online at Powells! If you'd like a signed copy, please see the instructions on my Contacts, Info, and Credits page.

*************

Fire, Graceling's stand-alone prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

Fire came out in October 2009 from Dial Books for Young Readers (in the U.S. and Canada) and Gollancz (in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand), and its list of foreign publishers is growing. It premiered at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. I've started up a Praise for Fire page if you'd like to read the starred reviews! :o)

*************

Book 3, tentatively titled Bitterblue and currently in progress, is a companion book to both Graceling and Fire and takes place in the seven kingdoms six years after Graceling. As you may have gathered, the protagonist is Bitterblue. Yes, Katsa, Po, and others from Graceling whom I'm not yet willing to name do appear in the book. I don't know yet when it'll be coming out, and heartily invite you not to ask ^_^. That's all I can say about it at this point.

EDIT 3/9/09: If you notice on Amazon that Bitterblue is cancelled, don't worry! The Harcourt edition is cancelled, but only because the book has moved to Penguin. Once Bitterblue is written, it'll be published by the Penguin imprint Dial Books for Young Readers.