Can I just say amen to your entire gorgeous rant? I was ranting about the very same thing the other night and am still flummoxed by the whole brouhaha. Makes me want to gouge my eyes out. But you said it all beautifully. And I do have to say that I just finished an ARC of FIRE and it was unbelievably awesome. So good I’m having trouble moving on. I’ll try to get a coherent, spoiler-free review up shortly.

Thanks for the link, btw!

@Angie Sometimes I wonder if I got carried away with my rant, and then I get comments like yours that make me go “Ha! I wasn’t the only one!” We could form a club, you and I! A club of personal harm, as we injure ourselves on the behalf of logic. Gouging eyes, face punching: this novel inspires it all!

Let me take this moment to flail wildly over your reading of Fire. I am so jealous! I feel like I am looking askance at other bloggers getting the chance to read it early and wondering if they take bribes, realizing that would be wrong, but still tempted. Oh, so tempted.

You’re welcome for the link! All a part of the Renay-compiles-the-internet services offered here at YA Fabulous!

You were most definitely not the only one. And I am so down with the Club of Personal Harm on Behalf of Logic, as well. There aren’t enough Logic Fighters out there, IMO.

I wish I’d been able to snag more than one copy of FIRE so I could do a giveaway, but alas, just the one copy. Review went up this morning, though. Hopefully it’ll help spread the awesomness that is Kristin Cashore.

Yeah, true. Great review. However, knowing Po, he’s probably going to want more. If he doesn’t then it means Cashore decided to bastardize his character just to give Katsa what she wants: freedom.

You said it yourself – why should Katsa give in to a system that pretty much turned its back on her. Well, that same system treated Po pretty well. How’s he going to completely turn his back on that same system? Oh, yeah, he’s in love. But that’s even going to make harder for him to do so.

So, 30 years from the last page in Graceling, I see two outcomes: (a) Po and Katsa go their separate ways and Po marries someone else, or (b) Katsa gives changes her mind and marries him.

@Glen Actually, Po seems perfectly content with the situation. Please provide evidence in text of something that may make Po change his mind and marry someone else. I am curious; what more are you speaking about? Katsa’s love and affection? He has it. Katsa’s respect? He has that, too. The title of husband? Frankly, I don’t think he cares; look how he treats rank (the men in his family, his own) in the text and I really don’t seem him suddenly needing societal trappings. His family doesn’t seem bothered by his comings and goings, either. He does quite well on his own.

The system did treat Po well, but I have two claims against it! Number one, he had to lie for it do so, and number two, of course it did, he’s male. He’s operating from a position of privilege, and the benefit of it is that he sees that privilege. My second pull quote at the end of my review highlights and is the exact reason I quoted it.

Bitterblue, when it is published, will settle things either way. I am hoping that Po remains the person Cashore introduced us to: beautiful and compassionate and in love with a girl, a man who doesn’t need special ceremonies to know he is loved and respected, a family that will love and embrace Katsa and not be caught up in forcing her into a mold. I hope that instead of shunning Katsa because she won’t marry he continues to grow and change with her, instead of in opposition to her. I am hoping that Katsa is not pressured to marry, and remains her own person, instead of falling in line. I am quite tired of the “oh, Katsa is young and she’ll change her mind.” meme with the responses to this book. Sure, she might, but there is no evidence in the text to support that prediction, and it alarms me, because it feels like the only way readers can justify enjoying the book is if they justifying Katsa’s choice by speaking the equivalent of, “she’s young and doesn’t know her own mind yet!” THE FACTS: I will not be subscribing to that newsletter and I am quite sure the why of it is clear to anyone who understands the cultural sexism aimed at teen girls.

Where can I sign up for the Club of Personal Harm on Behalf of Logic? I’m fairly good at kicking trees, and, for that matter, other people.
This reaction to the marriage seems completely ridiculous. Why are people taking it into their power to determine what will be in Katsa’s head thirty years from now? Sure, fanfiction, but not theories that Katsa’s just going to change her mind one day. A proposal hasn’t been made, and, knowing Po, it won’t be unless she changes her mind, which will only have a miniscule chance of happening if she’s pressured in the first place, which brings us full circle. She’s teaching girls to fight, for crying out loud! No one would dare pressure her into marrying. If I were her, I’d knock’em flat and then (maybe) castrate them. By the way, Po would completely support her, laughing on a rather tired horse as Kat nods her head in satisfaction.
Is it not possible just to have a partner and not a husband? I know many people in this day and age that do, and all of them are fully grown. ):

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I haven’t encountered the mindless fan girls who can’t see past the romance yet, having just finished the book this afternoon, but I do agree with everything that you’ve said.
Yes, I was disappointed when they didn’t get married officially at the end of the book- but they did get their happily ever after. They just got it their own way. I am curious though to see if after training young girls to fight, and being a teacher in general, Katsa will ever change her mind about wanting children.
I prefer the ending the way it is now, with Katsa remaining her own person, and with Po respecting that, but I’m still going mad waiting to read more, lol.
Beautiful rant too. Sorry for babbling.

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THANK YOU for saying so perfectly in your rant what I thought in my head! I was so glad that the story went in the direction it did. I was a little iritated about the part where Katsa finally has sex but somehow that is painful, but she can get the crap kicked out of her and not flinch. It seemed a little too much like “gotta suffer fer fun girls” to me.