Carl

This is a book I previously read when I was much younger (can't recall exactly how young). I picked it up again because I remembered that I had enjoyed the series immensely, but that was literally all I could remember about it. That, and that it had ‘something to do with death'.

My younger self would probably have rated this 5/5. I have rated it only 4. The quality of the book has obviously not changed, but it was originally intended for those in their very early teens. Which I no longer am, by at least a decade.

This story is based around Sabriel, whose father is (the) Abhorsen. He is essentially a necromancer, except he puts dead things back ‘into death' rather than raising them from the dead. (No wonder I remembered this book had something to do with death, it's all based on death!)

When Sabriel was very young her father sent her to live at a boarding school in Ancelstierre, outside the Old Kingdom. Ancelstierre remained relatively unaffected by what was happening in the Old Kingdom while she was growing up, namely that the dead weren't staying dead. However in her last year of school Abhorsen goes missing, and she has to venture back into the Old Kingdom to locate him, and as she undergoes her journey she discovers more about herself, her heritage, and just how bad things are in the Old Kingdom.

Overall it is a wonderful, and highly imaginative story. The world that Garth Nix wrote about is intriguing and I loved reading about it. The creatures and the characters he created are unique, particularly Mogget and Touchstone.

However, there are certain points that I didn't enjoy as much.

1. Sabriel has very little knowledge of how to deal with the dead or about the roles of the Abhorsen and yet she defeats everything she comes up against, including essentially the ultimate bad dead guy of the bad dead guys in the Old Kingdom. But this is something you see often in YA/Fantasy novels so I'm not that bothered.

2. A lot of how the magic works in the world of the Old Kingdom is a little vague in my opinion, particularly the ‘free magic'.

3. At times the plot felt like it just draaaaaaaagged along.

In conclusion: I enjoyed it (mostly), I'll probably at least consider re-reading the rest of the series, but it's just not quite as great as I remembered it being.

I would recommend it for fans of young adult and fantasy novels. If you like things like His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman you'll probably like this (he was even a reviewer for it – look at the bottom of the cover).

I think I'm one of few people who prefer the book to the film (re: this particular book/film). I still loved the film, but I preferred some parts of the book. For example I preferred the ending to the book, than the ending to the film. Even though I watched the film first and read the book second (and third...).

Just over half way through this book I abandoned it for about 2 weeks. Finally got around to finishing it today, and I'm glad I did. The ending was pretty interesting and had a plot twist that I hadn't anticipated.

Basic summary of the plot:

Sara was adopted at a very early age and never knew her birth parents or anything about them. Some things happen and she decides to start the search for her birth mother and father. She manages to locate her birth mother, but when she goes to meet her she discovers something terrible about her conception. Her mother was the only surviving victim of the Campside Killer who, as it turns out, is Sara's biological father. If you want an idea of what happens in the book just look at the words on the back cover of the book: “Sara soon realises that the only thing worse than finding out your real father is a killer is him finding out about you...”

Overall it was a good book, the only reason I had to stop reading it is because I was getting seriously annoyed at the stupidity of some characters. So much so that I actually almost threw the book at a wall in frustration. I swear the serial killer was the only decent character in the bloody thing. For those who don't like spoilers I won't go into any more detail about why they're all so f-ing stupid.

In conclusion: Liked it, however don't think I'm going to be reading any more books by this author.