Sabriel by Garth Nix- review

If you have recently witnessed the release of Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen, Garth Nix's latest addition to his Old Kingdom series and wanted to read it, but found yourself wondering whether to read his other novels first, I highly recommend you do.

Sabriel was published before I was even born, in 1995. This might be the same for you, dear fellow YA reader. But the absolutely wonderful thing about Nix's books and just about every fantasy novel is that the story, the themes and the morals just don't become irrelevant or out of style, which can be common with contemporary novels. As times change, along with people's interests and way of speech, contemporary novels can begin to feel old, fast. But as you can see from examples like The Lord of the Rings, fantasy remains. Sabriel is just as good a read as any other YA fantasy book released today.


Many Young Adult authors today have grown up with Sabriel as their very own heroine. Lirael, the second book in the series features the name of the sword Nehima, sounding very familiar to Sarah J Maas's character Nehemia in her Throne of Glass series published in 2012, showing her teenage love and respect for Nix's books.

Nix's writing is a mix of things, he paints such great images of his world and has some hard hitting lines, but he also manages to capture the teenage spirit and add humour despite its dangerous storyline. Sabriel is the perfect heroine, she is a fabulous role model- she's strong, intelligent, determined…I can't sing her praises enough.

The world of the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre are so well linked and described. Everything is explained and has a reason, for example phones, which if left unexplained could've become an easy hole in the plot for readers to pick at. Having both settings in the book allows the best of both worlds for the reader, and makes them want to live there. You still have a modern world with handy appliances like phones and yet still have a wonderful land of magic and adventure right next door!

The use of talking animals can often seem silly in books. But Mogget the cat is an unforgettable character, with a cheeky personality and layers to his character. You constantly have to question your liking for the cat, but Nix still makes you love him. Mogget goes beyond the usual talking animal in literature. Nix manages to weave him in so well that it becomes natural for a cat to be talking as he still keeps the animalistic sense of being a cat in everything he does, often talking animals can act too human.

The little hint of a love story in Sabriel is wonderful, it doesn't take away any of the spotlight on the story being about Sabriel, as can often happen if the author gets too invested in the building of a romance. It was great to have the girl save the boy (strong women-yay!).

Finally, the storyline is so wonderfully unique! I've never experienced any others like it. I'll always remember Sabriel.
I would give Sabriel 4 out of 5 stars! sourch

Source: Guardian Bookshop.

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