Another fantastic duo, I would recommend these just as highly as the Kristin Cashore books, but note that they are very, very different.

The dystopian universe here is almost Dickensian in its shadings (although with fewer of the finer details) and it definitely makes you, the reader, long for escape for these characters, for survival, for even just the littlest bit of hope.

Unexpectedly cruel with odd kindnesses. And, as in much YA, some growing up and self discovery along the way.

An adventure of endurance… You’ll want to block off a day for these as you will find yourself unable to do anything else.

And if you’ve read the story “Wealth” in Margo Langan’s “White Time” collection, it almost seems like they come from the same world. In fact, I drove myself insane for an entire afternoon trying to figure out where that story was from as they felt so much of a piece.

I absolutely loved these books; they sucked me right into their world and I didn’t really ever want to leave. (A third book is being written…. Wahoo.)

A world where people have “talents” or “graces.”

Graceling: a novel of growing up, of standing one’s ground, of discovering the hidden layers, of coming to know oneself.

Fire: a different sort of animal, a story of someone already grown but not always allowed to grow, already knowing oneself, but coming to better know others.

Lyrically written, they both made me cry at points. They both made me yearn.

Note: Fire is a prequel but I’d say DEFINITELY read it second as it gives away something that you want to figure out more slowly as you read Graceling.