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elena_adventuring 's review for:
Sabriel
by Garth Nix
5/5. Would read again. Here's why.
Characters
I loved Sabriel, the titular hero, so much. Her everyday struggles as a teenage girl are all too relatable; struggles like dealing with moody teenage boys and finding out that the things you were good at in school have no real world applications and having to fight off the hoards of the living dead and working out how to keep your talking cat under control. (Mogget really stole my heart as a character though, but I won't say more because of spoilers).
World-building and magic system
This book has something surprisingly rare for the fantasy genre: a watertight magic system. It bothers me for weeks afterwards if a magic system is sloppy (see my rantings on Ruin and Rising and my never ending frustration with Marvel's Asgard) because I evidently don't have enough other things to think about; so it was ever so satisfying to find, as I had been promised, a sound and original magic system. Magic takes the form of symbols of the Charter. Sabriel and her line are reverse necromancers, which, let me reassure you, doesn't mean they are murderers - or not exactly, as they only murder people who are already dead so it's quite alright.
Language
The language was quite simplistic but suitable for the YA genre, and never simplistic at the expense of good writing. It made for reading that was easy to pick up.
Plot and structure
The book is well paced with an excellent pace of exposition, avoiding both the infodumping that is far too common in YA fantasy, and the plot twist that can be seen a mile off. The story follows the traditional quest arc, morphing organically from Sabriel's personal quest into the quest to Save the World. The story always keeps moving forward, drawing you deeper and deeper with Sabriel into the Old Kingdom, steadily upping the stakes as more information is revealed. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that the story allows its characters realistic amounts of time to recover from injuries and do basic things like eating and sleeping? That's just one of the many tiny things that truly brings the story to life.
General awesomeness
The stakes are huge. It really hits home at the ending just how much the heroes have to lose in order to win. This book thoroughly stole my heart.
Characters
I loved Sabriel, the titular hero, so much. Her everyday struggles as a teenage girl are all too relatable; struggles like dealing with moody teenage boys and finding out that the things you were good at in school have no real world applications and having to fight off the hoards of the living dead and working out how to keep your talking cat under control. (Mogget really stole my heart as a character though, but I won't say more because of spoilers).
World-building and magic system
This book has something surprisingly rare for the fantasy genre: a watertight magic system. It bothers me for weeks afterwards if a magic system is sloppy (see my rantings on Ruin and Rising and my never ending frustration with Marvel's Asgard) because I evidently don't have enough other things to think about; so it was ever so satisfying to find, as I had been promised, a sound and original magic system. Magic takes the form of symbols of the Charter. Sabriel and her line are reverse necromancers, which, let me reassure you, doesn't mean they are murderers - or not exactly, as they only murder people who are already dead so it's quite alright.
Language
The language was quite simplistic but suitable for the YA genre, and never simplistic at the expense of good writing. It made for reading that was easy to pick up.
Plot and structure
The book is well paced with an excellent pace of exposition, avoiding both the infodumping that is far too common in YA fantasy, and the plot twist that can be seen a mile off. The story follows the traditional quest arc, morphing organically from Sabriel's personal quest into the quest to Save the World. The story always keeps moving forward, drawing you deeper and deeper with Sabriel into the Old Kingdom, steadily upping the stakes as more information is revealed. And can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that the story allows its characters realistic amounts of time to recover from injuries and do basic things like eating and sleeping? That's just one of the many tiny things that truly brings the story to life.
General awesomeness
The stakes are huge. It really hits home at the ending just how much the heroes have to lose in order to win. This book thoroughly stole my heart.