The Graceling Realm series has managed to continuously break my heart, whilst mending it AT THE SAME TIME. Seasparrow was no exception, a whirlwind of emotions, with a new narrative😻
Seasparrow comes forth in a new way for us readers to digest.. from the POV of the main character Hava! (& I Love it!)😍
Through this first person narrative, as many of you have heard me say time and time again (because it’s sooo good) it truly gives us insight into the characters thoughts, actions, feelings. We connect with Have on a much deeper level than we did say with Fire or Katsa, we feel her heartbreaks, and go through them alongside her. Her traumas, her healing, they become our own, and it’s a magical experience to feel part of the world.
The Graceling series is one of my favorite series of all time, all the wonderful, strong female protagonists, unforgettable characters, and each novel you find is packed with a bigger punch than the last. Read them TODAY!

Ok so full disclosure, Seasparrow felt so different from the other books in the series BUT I think I loved it all the more for that. It really personifies ‘keeps up with the times’ and that’s just a testament to how phenomenal of a writer Cashore is. AND I also want to add, nothing- truly I mean nothing- compares to Kristin Cashore’s writing. The ease in which their metaphorical prose builds has me in beyond awe.

The characters of the Graceling series never fail to have me captivated but I loved them here even more. I loved Hava and her healing journey sooo much. This was defintiely my favorite of the series (which is a shock to me because I love the original trilogy tremendously). I will never get tired of reading about the Graceling Realm and hope to see more of these characters in the future!!

The first half of the book felt like it dragged and the second half flew by. I love the world that has been built in this series and how lush and vibrant it is, but something about this one was off. The pacing, the character growth, none of it worked.

Oh Hava…! Poor confused explosive Hava.

I love how she talks to us at the beginning and how she stops in the middle of a scene to explain things.

Weirdly enough, I found myself relating to her different reactions.

As a fan of the series, this did NOT disappoint!

While the first half of the book felt like too slow of a journey, I did appreciate getting to see the world from hava's POV, especially because she really grew on me throughout the book and I liked seeing her grow as a person and realize her own faults.

I love the world Kristin has built, especially because we've known the bigger characters for so long and seeing them through the lens of different characters provides such an interesting perspective. I like that the politics have been expanded especially in this aftermath of Leck.

My favorite part of this book were the interactions with the magical creatures (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers). While I definitely caught certain clues wayyy before Hava did, I liked the slow build. The world has gotten wider and the new characters are definitely interesting and fun. Kristin does a great job fully immersing us into this new realm even after all these years!

Wow. This was an intense book. Very very focused and driven by Hava. Sometimes how close a first person POV it is gets a bit much. But it's excellent.

I’ve been a fan of the Graceling Realm series for years, and I was so excited to hear about another book! I read someone else’s review of it a few months ago and was even more intrigued by Hava’s point-of-view. Seasparrow follows a treacherous survival journey as Hava also grapples with the changes in her life.

This review contains spoilers for book four, Winterkeep.

After the events of Winterkeep, Bitterblue, Giddon, and Hava are sailing home to Monsea with their crew, including Annet and Linny. When storms throw them farther north than anticipated, their ship wrecks on a glacier and everyone has to evacuate. From there, they have to trek through uninhabited territory to get home.

I suppose I should start by saying that I was dragging my feet a bit starting this book. I’m just not one for long books, especially fantasies, right now, and I’ll admit, I was a little hesitant about Hava’s point-of-view. However, this was quickly resolved. I flew through this book in two sittings; Hava’s voice is so compelling that I couldn’t put the book down.

The book goes into detail about both living on the ship and later the survivors’ journey across the north when their ship wrecks. I thought I’d find a lull at any of these points (and admittedly, I do think a little bit of it could have been cut), but I was so invested in Hava and the other characters. I actually think the pacing was great until they reach Monsea again, which I thought wasn’t as fleshed out at some points.

The detail of this book also points to Hava’s characterization. By nature of her childhood and her present role as Bitterblue’s spy, she’s extremely perceptive and distrustful of everyone. The narrative really feels like you’re in her head, experiencing her anger and grief as she struggles with herself and her new circumstances. Cashore has always been a strong character writer, but I feel like this is particularly evident with Hava’s first-person point-of-view.

I find it a little difficult to go into other aspects of the book because I feel like it’d have to delve into spoilers. I will say that I enjoyed the new characters, mainly the crew of the ship, and revisiting some of the old cast. Linny, one of the sailors, gradually grows close with Hava throughout the book; it’s clear that they understand each other on some level. He also does not expect anything of Hava and lets her be herself with him, prickly and all. Words don’t even describe how intricate their relationship felt. I just really liked seeing Hava gradually open up to someone after years of keeping all of her emotions bottled up.

Seasparrow was a gorgeous tale of survival in a world where you’ve always felt alone. I loved Hava’s point-of-view and the characters, as well as the writing. If you’re a fan of the Graceling Realm series, I think you’ll enjoy Seasparrow as well.

I've been a fan of the Graceling Realm series since high school, and I think that after what felt some stumbling in Winterkeep (perhaps because multiple perspectives aren't Cashore's strength), Seasparrow really feels like a return to form and excellence in this series. The series starts with a trip on the ship Monsea and the tight quarters of a ship made for tight writing as Hava explores her interest in sailing, translates journals with chemical formulas, and discovers that one of the sailors, Kera, is hiding something. I really like the ways in which Hava's trauma informs her characterization and the way other characters work to acknowledge her trauma. The Blue Foxes add a lot of fun and I loved that I could never quite see where this story was going and how it was going to end. I had a lot of emotions and was really satisfied with this continuation of the Graceling series.

Wow. I really don't know where to begin with this. I could have read this book for a thousand hours straight and not lost interest once.

I am a long time fan of the Graceling series, I read them for the first time in probably 2010 and was thrilled when Winterkeep came out last year. I actually think they're even BETTER as an adult - they read almost like adult fantasy, in the most accessible way.

I think this is my new favourite installment in the series, and I likely won't be able to remember everything I want to write down: when I read the book next time, I will be heavily annotating through my tears

Some quick notes - this book is SAD and HARD. If you, like me, were deeply and permanently affected by the pervasive sense of cold in the mountain scenes in Graceling, the far north scenes of this book will grab you by the throat.

There are themes of disability and motherhood woven into this story in the most surprising ways, and there is a light romance plot that is so delicate and sweet.

But the main thing that made this book so incredible for me was HAVA. She's been a side character before, but this is entirely from her POV, which is a different style from the other books too. It really gets you into her head, and her head is not a happy place. She is angry and mean and sharp, but her thoughts and feelings were so deeply relatable and I would die for her

if you have not read Graceling yet.....WHAT ARE YOU DOING

5th book in the Graceling Realm series is told from the point of view of Hava, Queen Bitterblue’s sister and spy, and chronicles the harrowing journey back to Monsea.but then Hava makes a starting decoders. Will she be able to figure out the mystery in time?

I hope there are more books in this series because I cannot get enough. It was wonderful to learn more about Hava and how her Grace affects her life. I also loved learning more about her relationship with Bitterblue and what happens in her life. This is such a well written book and I will recommend it to everyone!

This series is just so addicting, I’m enjoying it so much! I really love these new covers too, I can’t wait to get it when it releases! It’s been a while since i’ve read the previous books in the series but i don’t think that’s too important for this book, it gives a really good recap. I definitely recommend this series!

I’v been eagerly waiting to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint. Hava is all the rawest bits of us.

If there’s a criticism of the early Graceling realm books (and they are, mind you, some of my favorite fantasy books of all time), it’s that the protagonists’ powers make them hard to identify with. In Seasparrow, Cashore gives us a character who is lonely and honest and vulnerable, but trying desperately not to be. Reading this book is like looking in a mirror and seeing the pieces of yourself you’ve always tried to bury.

Mild personal crises aside, Seasparrow has all the ingredients that made Cashore’s previous books so good: a strong heroine, appealing love interest, and a good old, classic adventure story woven into a fantasy realm. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find a ship and become a sailor.

I think it would help heading this series in order, but as a reader who jumped into this series with this new book, the author did a good job of making this standalone. The author does a good job of summarizing the previous books while introducing the protagonist Hava.

Hava was the perfect protagonist who is perfectly flawed. She’s witty while also being blunt which made her interactions with other characters interesting. I found her unwavering determination for justice made her feel more relatable. Her journey emits hope and survival throughout the story. Though the first half of the book was slow, the last half is very fast paced. This truly is a coming of age story with a wonderful character journey that is so heartwarming. It was a nice addition to the series and I really hope that there is more to come from this author and this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for this ARC

"I want you to know why I'm angry... I want you to know why I'm mean. The anger inside me is too big. If I look at it too close, I feel too much grief to survive."

When I reviewed Winterkeep, I compared it to Bitterblue, but now the true comp titles to one another within the Graceling Realm are Bitterblue and Seasparrow. Seasparrow. much like Bitterblue, is a story of a woman finally beginning her journey to healing her childhood traumas and coming to terms with her own identity amidst political turmoil and strife.

"If you could eavesdrop without anyone knowing— if you could turn yourself into a barrel, or a coil of lines, or a clump of canvas on deck where two people are standing, whispering secrets to one another— are you sure you wouldn't?"

Hava has always been one of my favorite side characters throughout the series, and it was incredible to have her as the sole POV of this installment. She's gritty and sarcastic, blunt and curious, empathetic and angry. Hava is the epitome of my favorite type of protagonist because she's so far from perfect yet that makes her so imperfectly human. Moreover, it was interesting to watch her different interactions with people like Bitterblue, Gideon, Linny, or Annet. Hava changes her attitude within her relationships to fit her emotions, and I think it was very realistic that she had so many issues with Bitterblue because their relationship is so secretive and flawed. Sibling relationships are still to this day one of my favorite parts to books, especially because they're so rarely used, so it was great to have Bitterblue's POV in mind when reading Hava's POV. You can't start to heal those relationships with loved ones until everything is put onto the table, and with the chaos of returning home, Bitterblue and Hava take some time to attend to that.

"... languages are like a blanket you can crawl into and be warm. And words are like pebbles you can throw."

Also, because this book was in first person POV, we got a much deeper version of Hava as an individual than Winterkeep, for example, which had multiple POVs. Did I miss Bitterblue's perspective— Adventure's even? Yes! But I think they would have detracted from Hava's story because they're such fan favorites. Readers are forced to give Hava all of their attention, which is something she's lacked her entire life due to her camouflage abilities.

"When someone wraps you in a towel, you can feel your own edges. You can begin to learn who you are."

Arguably, Seasparrow is definitely a character driven story rather than plot, in my opinion. Yes, the zilfium mines and bombs coming to the Seven Kingdoms is imperative to the plot, but Seasparrow is about Hava's journey overall. We always come back to her struggles, her isolation, and her pain. She monologues frequently to the point that I forgot about the zilfium (unless she was ranting about chemistry haha). I was a bit stunned by this throughout the beginning of the book because Bitterblue and Winterkeep were an even mix of character and plot, but ultimately, character fits the story best here. I'm very excited for people to meet Hava's friend Linny in particular because he adds so much to her growth and vulnerability— something I don't think Hava has really ever done before on page or off.

"I want to live in a world where the simplest way to be safe from explosive weapons is not to build explosive weapons in the first place."

Something I've been drawn to since Winterkeep is Kristin Cashore's constant attention to environmental harm and atomic weaponry. It's a conversation that I think hardly any YA books, let alone fantasy books, choose to actively bring up. Cashore has always been ahead of the game when it comes to important, current event conversations, but Seasparrow felt so personal, especially because another year has gone by where I learn further and further information about our earth and how it suffers. The stormy seas in this book were just another example of how these bombs are affecting this realm physically, which doesn't even begin to bring up the human emotions these weapons invoke of greed, fear, and impending death. It mirrors our world, and Cashore is simply a genius.

"Because my wish to be a person you can trust is bigger than my fear of your temper."

I don't think I can say anymore without giving away spoilers. I'm hoping Cashore has another book in mind to write because I simply can't get enough of the Graceling Realm! Coming back to these books through Winterkeep and now Seasparrow was a beautiful dream. Seasparrow does not seem like the end, and I'd love to see Hava's journey more after the events at the end. I'll update this review when I can scream about spoilers.

"Love is hope for other people."

Thank you to Penguin Teen for allowing me to review an eARC of one of my anticipated releases!

TW: Rape (not of the MC but she sees it), attempted rape (not of the MC), child abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, death, death of a loved one (detailed), PTSD, violence/ physical abuse, gore, attempted murder, forced drug use/ drug impairment, hallucinations (mushrooms), amputation, extreme weather conditions (cold), emesis (constant references), drowning (near drowning of MC too), kidnapping, threat of atomic warfare, and postpartum detachment