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A review by 5aru
Sabriel by Garth Nix
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I remember reading this book when I was younger and having a rather difficult time following it. Now that I’ve revisited it, I hardly feel like I’ve read the same book twice; I truly did not remember a thing, and the things I remembered seemed to be all wrong. Overall, though, I found it a very intriguing fantasy. The magic system is complex, but not overly so; the interplay of Charter and Free Magic in particular I found fascinating, and I wish the author weren’t quite so mysterious about the magical workings, but the gradual reveal of the worldbuilding does keep you interested, so I won’t complain.
I do feel the writing was a little poor, but the style was kind of charming — and I also suppose I’m not quite the intended audience, so that’s mostly fine. I do have a major gripe with it, though, and that’s how little depth there is to the characters, to the relationships between them; I wish they were a bit more fleshed-out, or at least a little less archetypal, predictable. I do like Sabriel a lot, but because her feelings are hardly given consideration in depth (despite her being the focalizing character), she falls too flat sometimes — it ends up feeling like the plot drives the action entirely, and characters having feelings and interaction is more of an afterthought than anything else.
Other than that, I did enjoy reading it and ran through it fairly quickly. I will probably be checking out the rest of the series as well, see how that goes.
I do feel the writing was a little poor, but the style was kind of charming — and I also suppose I’m not quite the intended audience, so that’s mostly fine. I do have a major gripe with it, though, and that’s how little depth there is to the characters, to the relationships between them; I wish they were a bit more fleshed-out, or at least a little less archetypal, predictable. I do like Sabriel a lot, but because her feelings are hardly given consideration in depth (despite her being the focalizing character), she falls too flat sometimes — it ends up feeling like the plot drives the action entirely, and characters having feelings and interaction is more of an afterthought than anything else.
Other than that, I did enjoy reading it and ran through it fairly quickly. I will probably be checking out the rest of the series as well, see how that goes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore