I picked this book up from the library and noticed stickers on the book declaring that it was part of a reading challenge here in NSW for grades 7-8."This book is acceptable to read for 12-13 year olds? Fuck me, can we turn around and go back to the library?" I asked my husband.He shook his head and smiled at me. "Just try it. You never know.""It's for twelve-to-thirteen year olds! No sex! No swearing! Minimum violence! I don't fucking think so!"In the end, we brought it home and I sulked the wh...

3.5 stars Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was. Sabriel and her father have a very unique brand of magic. They can communicate with the dead and the damned from the Old Kingdom.Only they can confront such creatures and send them back to the gates of death.Then, during the first semester of Sabriel's school, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing and Sabriel is unwittingly promoted to the Abhorson. Does the walker choose the path, or the path...

Sabriel (The Old Kingdom #1), Garth NixFirst published in 1995. It is the first in his Abhorsen (Old Kingdom) series, followed by Lirael, Abhorsen, and Goldenhand. The novel is set in two neighboring fictional countries: To the South lies Ancelstierre, which has a technology level and society similar to that of early-20th century Australia, and to the North lies the Old Kingdom, where both Free magic and Charter Magic exist — a fact officially denied by the government of Ancelstierre and disbeli...

i read this entire story about sabriels journey and i honestly couldnt tell you one thing about her, other than shes a necromancer of a sort (which is a fact thats given in the synopsis).this book does do a lot of things right - theres a fast moving plot with imaginative magic and has really accessible writing. so im shocked at how lacking the characters are. they are so flat, so devoid of any development that it made me really hard to care about them, connect to them. which in turn lead to me n...

Very good YA fantasy! The adventures of Sabriel, an innocent young woman, and her run-ins with various types of dead, undead, once dead, sorta dead and should-be-dead people and creatures. Luckily for almost everyone concerned (except the forces of evil and the dead ones they control), Sabriel is by heritage and training a necromancer, with a fair amount of power over death. Unluckily, some of these once-dead and should-be-dead creatures have apparently killed Sabriel's father, the necromancer-i...

Sabriel was probably the oldest (numbering wise) fantasy sitting on my Goodreads shelf. When I first came across it, I was in one of those weird periods where I only liked to read about female protagonists... yeah, don’t ask. And from the cover, I’ve assumed that Sabriel is a boy.. And then it just wasn’t the right time and it sat there until I mentioned to my friend that I want to read it this year. We ended up buddy reading it last week and we shared the same opinion basically. Both of us have...

Possibly one of the greatest fantasy adventures of our times, Garth Nix's first novel is a lush, magical, dark-witty adventure about a young woman's battle with the hideous Dead.The story starts with a flashback in which a special necromancer named Abhorsen saves his baby daughter Sabriel from a creature called Kerrigor, in the spiritual river of death. Many years later, at an English-esque boarding school, Sabriel must take up her father's magical sword and bells and try to find out what has ha...

Where was this book when I needed it?5 stars!Seriously, this book was GLORIOUS. If you want fast-paced, will-keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, action-packed book, this one is for you.Mogget is hands down my favourite character in this book. He's so sassy and sarcastic and morbid and fluffy and I just love him! “It sounds like a terribly brilliant plan to me,” muttered Mogget. “The genius of simplicity…” The character development of Sabriel and Touchstone was brilliant especially Sabriel's. Sh...

UPDATE: $1.99 Kindle US 8/22/19 Tim Curry rocks the narration 😊💕 "Yes," said Abhorsen. "I am a necromancer, but not of the common kind. where others of the art raise the dead, I lay them back to rest. And those that will not rest, I bind-or try to. I am Abhorsen . . ."He looked at the baby again, and added, almost with a note of surprise, "Father of Sabriel." Oh, what a wonderful little book. I loved Sabriel so much. She was so tough and just got things done. She received a message from her fa...

This book really should have been exciting but I actually would have had a much better time had I just blared Monster Mash from my stereo and danced around like a zombie with chicken skin pasted to my face. Jedi knight of the living dead! I feel like this was probably really cool in the 90's and if I had read it then, as my pre-Harry Potter 10 year old self. I probably would have loved it. But now, my brain has descended into different forms of oblivion and I laugh voraciously at danger.

Reread completed on September 17th via Audiobook. I just wanted to post a quick review of my thoughts on the reread.This book definitely stands up to my memory. What I am so glad about is that I forgot many of the plot twists, so it was like reading it again for the first time. I love when horror/scary elements are thrown in with fantasy. There are some very chilling moments in the book and the villain is really really bad. I love the story of a young woman coming into her own and realizing wha...

“Then Sabriel hears it - the massed grinding of Dead joints, no longer joined by gristle; the padding of Dead feet, bones like hobtails clicking through necrotic flesh.” Now, I’ll admit a book involving the dead (or zombies if you will) wouldn’t be a normal pick for me. Despite this, Sabriel kept my attention and there was plenty of magic and world building to hook me in!Sabriel’s father is the Abhorsen - a necromancer with a difference! He returns the dead to their resting place, sends creature...

3.5 stars

Years before I was aware of the online bookish community, the YA genre was one I was never exposed to. I read primarily classics, fantasies, and thrillers for lighter relief. One day my auntie deposited a stack of books next to me and ordered to read them all. Some of the titles included were The Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, and the first two or three books in the Abhorsen series. There were others, that I have now forgotten, but these three series are ones I can vividly recall rea...

Sabriel is a captivating and original tale of destiny.Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?I picked up this book because Brandon Sanderson recommended it in his review for Goldenhand, the 5th book in the Abhorsen series. He termed this as "one of the fundamental experiences that helped me shape my philosophy on magic systems and worldbuilding." With such an endorsement from my favourite author of all time, I cannot possibly pass over this book. And I am glad that I didn't. As

“Let this be my final lesson. Everyone and everything has a time to die.” I really wish I had liked Sabriel more than I actually did. It had a decent idea, however, as I kept reading I continuously kept thinking about events in my life or my plans for the next day. My mind kept drifting off because I was purely so bored. I believe merely saying a book is boring isn’t a convincing or a valid reason to conclude that the book wasn’t good. Have you ever read a book where endless things are happen

4.5 stars

"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"I’ve had a long-term project going for about five years now, where I try to hunt down and read all the YA adventure series that I was supposed to read when I was in middle school (instead, I spent those years re-reading the Prydain series, and also every single one of those Royal Diaries books – no regrets!). Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix, checks off another box on that list, although I’m pretty sure t...

#1 Sabriel ★★★☆☆#2 Lirael ???#3 Abhorsen ???#4 Clariel ???#5 Goldenhand ??? Five Great Charters knit the landTogether linked, hand in handOne in the people who wear the crownTwo in the folk who keep the Dead downThree and Five became stone and mortarFour sees all in frozen water. I first read Sabriel as a preteen, and while I know I loved it – I must have, as I asked my parents to buy me the second book in the series, too – I never continued the series, nor did I remember any of the details wh...

This left me very unmoved throughout. I was initially somewhat intrigued by the original depiction of the realm of the Dead, and I’m always interested in an exploration of magic interacting with dead (and undead) creatures and beings. But I would hope that a story that has so much death in it would also have some sense of the impact of death on life, and on the living, and it barely scratched that surface for me.The writing is competent, the dialogue mostly flows, but the plot just feels like on...