4.76k reviews for:

Sabrielė

Garth Nix

4.13 AVERAGE


I appreciated this story as a sort of fantasy without the "pretty" elements. It focuses on keeping dead spirits at bay and has an interesting historical backstory. Hoping that book 2 gets into that backstory some more.
adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I enjoyed this first book of the Old Kingdoms series. Sabriel is a fantastic main character - she is strong and intelligent but also unsure and inexperienced. She is relatable and believable throughout. The other characters were also well defined and purposeful. 

The pace was rather slow in the beginning but picks up quite a bit after Sabriel is in the Old Kingdom, and especially after she meets Touchstone, which was somewhere around halfway. The last 25% was a riot of action and suspense, leaving me wanting to know how it ends. The end I felt was a little abrupt and almost feels like a weird cop-out, but overall it ended the story fine. The author does not shy away from death, grief, and pain. All are found throughout the book but nothing felt disingenuous. 

I am a little worried that the next installments in the series are concerning wholly different characters, but I still may look into the next books in the series as I did enjoy the concept of this book and I do think Nix writes characters well.
mysterious medium-paced
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was a fun read, reminds me of fantasy books I read when I was younger. 
adventurous slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I'm sorry. I just couldn't get into this book. I threw in the towel.
adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No