Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Suspenseful and a Little Ominous with a Dash of Humor
In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind. One that had so far proven correct, as Oll's maps tended to do. Katsa ran her hand along the cold walls and counted doors and passageways as she went. (1.1)
That's how Graceling starts, and from these very first sentences, we find ourselves wondering what's going on and what will happen next—two questions that pretty much define suspenseful writing.
And with the mention of dungeons and darkness here, things also feel a little dangerous and menacing right away, a feeling that doesn't go away after the first scene. As the Council tries to determine the motivation behind Prince Tealiff's kidnapping, we get a definite sense that something strange and treacherous is going on in the seven kingdoms, and the closer we get to Leck, the stronger that feeling of peril becomes. But that doesn't stop the book from being funny, too.
The exchanges between Katsa and Raffin ("I've been told to make myself pretty for dinner" "Well in that case you'll be ages") and Katsa and Po ("I'll train with you […] but don't expect me to take more care of your face than I did today") make us smile throughout the novel.
And then of course there are the extremely dry comments from Oll, the teasing of Katsa by Raffin and Bann, and numerous other character interactions and descriptions—such as, "The Queen of Monsea, in trousers and short hair, looking for all the world like a miniature pirate" (35.76)—that had us making smiley faces in the margins of the book. (Which we own. Because we would never write in a school or library copy. And neither would you.)
So the suspensefulness and the sense of something-wicked-this-way-coming keep us turning the pages, while the humor keeps us from getting too depressed by all of the abuse experienced by characters we know (Katsa under Randa's thumb, Bitterblue and Ashen harassed by Leck) and characters we just hear about (all those poor animals and girls in Monsea as well as the citizens throughout the seven kingdoms oppressed by their kings). All in all, it's a pretty good balance.