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adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3/5 stars - Returning to this book and listening to the audio version 9 years later, I'm changing my rating from 2 to 3 stars. I still find it a bit disappointing, just from the aspect of what the Old Kingdom series could have offered in this one, however, the book had a LOT happening. I think mostly I found it just really frustrating and sad. We must slog along with Clariel in this version of time where ineptitude is the name of the game - Kings are tired of ruling, Abhorsens are afraid of death and done doing anything, and politics a la "Game of Thrones" stuff is pretty rampant. It felt a bit like we flipped into another fantasy kingdom novel entirely unrelated to the Old Kingdom series, until we finally meet Mogget again and there's some hint of familiarity to bring us back. He's as tricky as ever, but poor Clariel just wants freedom, space, and to be alone, and no one will give her any of it. She suffers tricks and harm and trauma and still remains imprisoned. It was just a real bummer of a book. Poor Chlorr :-(
2/5 stars - (9/11/2015) Not at all as good as the others. Disappointing, in fact :-(
2/5 stars - (9/11/2015) Not at all as good as the others. Disappointing, in fact :-(
I love this series' world. Nix weaves all the world's details seamlessly throughout; I never felt as though he was explaining anything for the reader's benefit. All his descriptions were organic and although I caught a few words out of lexicon, the voice and word choice were all coherent.
The narrative voice of this novel was a welcome departure from what I'd been reading in YA. It's third person omniscient, although it follows Clariel for 90% of the book. I liked the distant, more judgmental tone of it, but of course, this "adult tone" had its drawbacks. The narrative voice was not on Clariel's side, and therefore I was more aware of Clariel's mistakes. I doubt, however, that closer narrative voice would have remedied that; she made some pretty bad mistakes.
On that note, I think those mistakes could have been easily avoided, but I understand that she's supposed to be selfish and foolhardy. I would have liked a few more "second thought" moments, however; Clariel seemed not to realize that what she was doing might be a bad idea until after doing it, and then it was a paragraph's worth of thought and no more. A bit more internal struggle would have been nice.
The narrative voice of this novel was a welcome departure from what I'd been reading in YA. It's third person omniscient, although it follows Clariel for 90% of the book. I liked the distant, more judgmental tone of it, but of course, this "adult tone" had its drawbacks. The narrative voice was not on Clariel's side, and therefore I was more aware of Clariel's mistakes. I doubt, however, that closer narrative voice would have remedied that; she made some pretty bad mistakes.
On that note, I think those mistakes could have been easily avoided, but I understand that she's supposed to be selfish and foolhardy. I would have liked a few more "second thought" moments, however; Clariel seemed not to realize that what she was doing might be a bad idea until after doing it, and then it was a paragraph's worth of thought and no more. A bit more internal struggle would have been nice.
I went into reading this one already knowing who exactly Clariel was, but towards the end I still found myself tensing up when she first put on the mask. When the king misheard her name. In the end, I liked it quite a bit more than I thought I would, and though I told myself that it was time to finally move on to Goldenhand, I find myself wishing that I could go back and reread Lirael.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was really excited to hear of a new instalment in this series...
I managed to get my hands on it quite quickly (this review is being written some time later...). Sabriel remains my favourite in the series but there's some fantastic stuff going on here. I loved that Clariel is many things that you don't often see in a protagonist (if that is the right word) and allowed to be believably flawed, stubborn and disinterested in relationships and that there is no sudden change in this which results in happily-ever-afters. She certainly develops as a character but in entirely different ways.
Seeing Mogget at a different point in time was also very interesting.
I managed to get my hands on it quite quickly (this review is being written some time later...). Sabriel remains my favourite in the series but there's some fantastic stuff going on here. I loved that Clariel is many things that you don't often see in a protagonist (if that is the right word) and allowed to be believably flawed, stubborn and disinterested in relationships and that there is no sudden change in this which results in happily-ever-afters. She certainly develops as a character but in entirely different ways.
Seeing Mogget at a different point in time was also very interesting.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
I really wanted to love this book since I <3 the rest of this series, but it took too long for the action to get started.
Read about the issues I had with Clariel on Forever Young Adult.
Read about the issues I had with Clariel on Forever Young Adult.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
now that I know the chronological order that this series goes in i had to backtrack to come back to this book. I liked Clariel's story, but I feel that it is was more to setup for what comes later in the series, still good but wasn't as action fueled as I thought.