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adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-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
Set up
Clariel by Garth Nix is the fourth novel of the Old Kingdom series of stories.
Clariel is the only daughter of a wealthy and successful goldsmith. As the story opens, her family has moved from the backwater town of Estwale to the capital city of Belisare to further her mother's career. Clariel's mother is distant and absorbed by her work. Her father is ineffectual and totally dominated by him wife. Clariel herself is short on people skills, and is at her happiest when alone or with select others in the wilds.
Clariel immediately feels trapped and smothered by the teeming capital city. Her chief desire is to return to the country, to live with her aunt Lemon or to be alone in the Great Forest. Unfortunately for her, Clariel's parents begin inserting her into Belisare society. She is sent to the Acadamy, a school for the children of the wealthy and politically connected.
Clariel's family is connected both to the royal family, and to the Abhorsens - two of the three pillars of the old guard. The Goldsmith's guild is preeminent among the city's trade guilds, and at the head of a new, nontraditional order that has gained much power in the Old Kingdom.
It isn't long before Clariel and her family are being pulled between these two forces. To top it off, Clariel finds she has inherited the Rage, a berserker fury known to affect some descendants of the Abhorsens. Overwhelmed, under-supported and confused, Clariel decides to do whatever she can to escape the city and live the life of a forester - with her parents' consent or without it.
Review
I liked this story, but it's definitely the weakest entry into the series. Clariel's attitudes and actions, while believable for a thwarted teenager, become grating after a while. The narrative itself feels too long in places, and rushed in others. I believe this is because Nix is telling three interconnected stories, and at least two of them could carry a book on their own.
The story of Clariel is a tragedy in the classic sense. This is implied by the subtitle (The Lost Abhorsen) but it still feels out of place in the series. Furthermore, Clariel herself is very different from the other protagonists of the series, and those differences mean that a lot of the basic aspects of the other Old Kingdom series books are absent.
All in all, I enjoyed listening to this book, but it wasn't the sort of book I had hoped for when I learned that a fourth Old Kingdom novel was forthcoming.
Clariel by Garth Nix is the fourth novel of the Old Kingdom series of stories.
Clariel is the only daughter of a wealthy and successful goldsmith. As the story opens, her family has moved from the backwater town of Estwale to the capital city of Belisare to further her mother's career. Clariel's mother is distant and absorbed by her work. Her father is ineffectual and totally dominated by him wife. Clariel herself is short on people skills, and is at her happiest when alone or with select others in the wilds.
Clariel immediately feels trapped and smothered by the teeming capital city. Her chief desire is to return to the country, to live with her aunt Lemon or to be alone in the Great Forest. Unfortunately for her, Clariel's parents begin inserting her into Belisare society. She is sent to the Acadamy, a school for the children of the wealthy and politically connected.
Clariel's family is connected both to the royal family, and to the Abhorsens - two of the three pillars of the old guard. The Goldsmith's guild is preeminent among the city's trade guilds, and at the head of a new, nontraditional order that has gained much power in the Old Kingdom.
It isn't long before Clariel and her family are being pulled between these two forces. To top it off, Clariel finds she has inherited the Rage, a berserker fury known to affect some descendants of the Abhorsens. Overwhelmed, under-supported and confused, Clariel decides to do whatever she can to escape the city and live the life of a forester - with her parents' consent or without it.
Review
I liked this story, but it's definitely the weakest entry into the series. Clariel's attitudes and actions, while believable for a thwarted teenager, become grating after a while. The narrative itself feels too long in places, and rushed in others. I believe this is because Nix is telling three interconnected stories, and at least two of them could carry a book on their own.
The story of Clariel is a tragedy in the classic sense. This is implied by the subtitle (The Lost Abhorsen) but it still feels out of place in the series. Furthermore, Clariel herself is very different from the other protagonists of the series, and those differences mean that a lot of the basic aspects of the other Old Kingdom series books are absent.
All in all, I enjoyed listening to this book, but it wasn't the sort of book I had hoped for when I learned that a fourth Old Kingdom novel was forthcoming.
Not my favorite of the Old Kingdom books, but I liked it nonetheless.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this was an attempt to humanize a villain character but I didn't enjoy her to start or through her development
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
sad
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:
Yes
I can see why this would be the least liked book in the Abhorsen series. The lead Clariel is much more self centered and susceptible to free magic than her descendant Abhorsens, and her berserk power. Her need for the forest life is the sole purpose of her life, but the machinations of the people around her, leads her to eventual ruination. I enjoyed learning about the descent into "evil" with the help of my favorite mischievous Moggett at the heart of this scheming. I definitely enjoyed the two previous books more than this one, but was quite interested in how necromancy could lure an Abhorsen, and this book does just that. Garth Nix writing as always is just fantastic.
adventurous
tense
fast-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:
Complicated
Loved getting more worldbuilding and seeing how the different families of the Charter functioned 600 years before Sabriel. I did find the ending too quick and not as satisfying.
Finished this one on my second attempt. My husband is reading the Abhorsen series for the first time and said he thought I should go back and read this one, saying that it gets good once you are "100-150 pages in". Eye roll. But he's not wrong-it does get better and it is still a well-told story, it's just has a very different to me from the others.