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A review by toggle_fow
Sabriel by Garth Nix
5.0
This book has haunted me for... well, I just checked the publishing date and apparently it's been pretty nearly my entire life. Ever since I can remember, I've been going to bookstores, picking this book up, and then putting it back down. It looks so good... people say it's so good... but necromancy? Really? Why would I want to touch that? Trepidation, necromancy, and the not-really-very-informative summary blurb continually held me back.
If I could time travel, I would appear in a calming vision to my younger self and deliver this message: "Don't worry, it's good necromancy."
Sabriel's inherited job is to keep the dead things dead. As soon as I figured that out, I was flying high through the rest of this book. So good! The worldbuilding is so interesting? That alone had me hooked from the second chapter. And, despite being complex and viewed through the eyes of an inexperienced and ignorant protagonist, the lore never becomes the all-too-common what-the-hell-is-going-on-here hot mess.
I love Sabriel and that incredibly scary cat. I love this book a lot - I would have loved it MORE if there had been an actual father-daughter epic necromantic team-up. But I still want the sequel(s), and I'm sadly disappointed in my past self's cowardice.
I still have two questions, though. Is it pronounced sah-bree-EL or SAY-bree-ul? Also - why are Sabriel's hands so giant and creepy-looking in the cover illustration?
If I could time travel, I would appear in a calming vision to my younger self and deliver this message: "Don't worry, it's good necromancy."
Sabriel's inherited job is to keep the dead things dead. As soon as I figured that out, I was flying high through the rest of this book. So good! The worldbuilding is so interesting? That alone had me hooked from the second chapter. And, despite being complex and viewed through the eyes of an inexperienced and ignorant protagonist, the lore never becomes the all-too-common what-the-hell-is-going-on-here hot mess.
I love Sabriel and that incredibly scary cat. I love this book a lot - I would have loved it MORE if there had been an actual father-daughter epic necromantic team-up. But I still want the sequel(s), and I'm sadly disappointed in my past self's cowardice.
I still have two questions, though. Is it pronounced sah-bree-EL or SAY-bree-ul? Also - why are Sabriel's hands so giant and creepy-looking in the cover illustration?