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4.76k reviews for:

Sabrielė

Garth Nix

4.13 AVERAGE

kaitherabbit's profile picture

kaitherabbit's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 6%

Just not in an audiobook mood. Also, this feels like the kind of book I can read faster than I can listen. 

In all honesty: I would not have picked this book up if it weren't for the r/Fantasy Book Bingo. One of the prompts is 'Published in the 90's' and Sabriel was a recommended book. The third time I saw a copy of it in a charity shop I decided to give it a try, though doubted I would like it because I expected a dated narrative structure. I could not have been more wrong, I actually did enjoy Garth Nix's writing style. This story about a necromancer that expels the dead instead of rising them was unlike any I've read before, so I was pleasantly surprised. The one thing I didn't like was the romantic subplot, it was underdeveloped and quite sudden, but I would read other books from this author.
adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I love this book, I love Tim Curry's narration, Mogget is the character of all time

Who will guard the living when the dead arise? Sabriel, the wise female protagonist. I was captivated by the world's Nix took its audience through. Mogget was the best. This is a perfect fantasy book for young readers and being older I still rather enjoyed it. Wouldn't give it a top shelf word though, it was good, no further comments.

Omg the last one third of the book was so epic it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and I couldn't put it down! I really liked this book because it was full of action, yet at the same time wasn't too much for me since I can be pretty sensitive when it comes to violence. I thought the beginning was a bit slow but I'm very glad I read the book.

Trigger warnings:
For those looking at fantasy books with action that aren't too scary I would recommend this one. To give an example of my taste: The His Dark Materials trilogy was too much for me. The Inheritance Cycle was about the top of what I can handle. I'd say this was less than the Inheritance cycle in terms of violence but it wasn't without either. There is death, creepy undead characters, and some gross body mutilation (not a lot, just mostly at the end).

Does it have a happy or sad ending?
Spoiler I don't like books with sad endings. It has a mostly happy ending, but the loss of a few cool characters so it is also sad as well. The two main characters survive. It was happy enough for me. :)
adventurous dark tense
Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Fun reread. Remember reading this in 8th grade. 
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous dark sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I am not sure how old I was when I first read this book - probably sometimes in middle school. So it's been a couple decades. What I had remembered about this book was the bells and cool magic system and the kind of dark tone.
Now that I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, this book again, those are still my take aways. It's a cool magic system and works building and the darker/creepy tone works well with it. I am looking forward to reading the following books (all re-reads but like new bevause it's been so long) and exploring more of the magic and world.