Yuffie's Book Reviews

Sabriel - by Garth Nix

--Published Book--

Sabriel is an 18-year-old necromancer who can travel into the realm of the Dead, aptly called Death. When she's walking around in Death, her father, Abhorsen appears and gives her a sword (and some necromancer bells? I can't remember exactly. He just gives her his stuff). So she realizes he's trapped in Death. So she goes on a journey (in Life) to free him. Honestly, I was skimming during the initial chapters of the book (for reasons I'll get into next), so I might have missed exactly what she had to do to free her father and why she was running around in Life and on some ship and then in a random village... rather than going directly into Death and pulling him out. Basically, the plot was extremely confusing and a lot of it made no sense.

Also, it could be that I missed a few details at the begining, but I don't recall any explanation of the magic system. They kept throwing out the words Charter Magic and Charter Marks and Charter Stones, and I have NO IDEA WHAT "CHARTER" IS. Same with another form of magic, Free Magic. Even after finishing the book I don't get it.

At some point, Sabriel finds out that "Abhorsen" isn't actually a name, but a title, and she becomes the next Abhorsen. Again, zero explanation on what an Abhorsen is and why they're different from normal necromancers.

Now my thoughts on the writing. Oh, god. Nix does NOT know how to use a comma. And the pov was so distant that no matter how slowly I read or how hard I tried to focus, I couldn't immerse myself into the story. Every few seconds I'd blink, look out the window, and then force myself back to the words on the page. Because everything felt like some old scholar was standing in front of me dictating Sabriel's story to me. Like, every other line said Sabriel's name in it:

Sabriel noticed this. Sabriel realized that. Sabriel, Sabriel, Sabriel. It's a FANTASTIC name, one of the biggest reasons I opened this book, but every time it's said, it remind the reader that they're not Sabriel, experiencing this story as her. They're just standing faraway and watching her while someone other than her tells the story.

Because the pov was so distant, I couldn't connect with Sabriel at all. She was a one-dimensional piece of cardbored with zero personality. There was only a single scene in the entire 400-page novel where Sabriel felt like a human being and not words on a page. That scene was when she and her new buddy Touchstone (I don't understand the name either...) checked into an inn. They got separate rooms next to each other, and she was taking a bath in hers when she hears a woman giggling next door, then a man, then some sexual moans and groans and whatnot, so she gets really flustered and embarrassed and jealous that Touchstone is with some random chick just minutes after arriving at the inn. So she dunks her head under water and just listens to the quiet of the underwater-ness, crying. (but then this magic cat thing comes in and points out that Touchstone is downstairs and his room is opposite the one of the couple's. LOL)

But other than that, I felt zero love or sympathy or even fascination for Sabriel. She just sternly went on her journey. She felt pretty Mary-Sue-ish. There were no layers to her. She was just Abhorsen's daughter, and she was trying to free him. She robotically did things and she barely made mistakes. Any bad things that happened were out of her control, nothing was her fault. And if something was her fault (she brought in this ginormous flood to stall the Dead coming after her, and she mentioned how that flood likely killed a bunch of people downriver) it was just glossed over in a sentence and never thought of again. Her characterization fell extremely flat.

Touchstone was pretty adorable at times, but Sabriel was just this dark cloud of cardbord and overshadowed any quirks of his.

The book's one redeeming feature was the creativity of the world and plot. While I still have no idea WHAT Charter Magic and Free Magic is, the concept of the Dead (basically rotting zombie monster things that walk among the living and try to kill them or something) was pretty cool. There were some scenes and descriptions of the Dead that made me believe I was in a Hayao Miyazaki movie. The descriptions of the Dead were the few places the writing really shined.

There were other fascinating aspects of this story, like how necromancers use different bells to control/banish the Dead. (Though, like with everything else in this magic system, I have no idea when they work and when they don't and why Sabriel can't just stand there all day ringing all the bells and keeping the Dead at bay.) Touchstone was like a sopping wet, abandoned puppy you can't help but sympathize with and go awwww when he was first introduced, so when he whipped out these enchanted swords that glowed with Charter Marks and he went all badass swordsman on us, THAT was really cool.

Okay, I think Touchstone is my favorite character from this book. He was pretty awesome because he would stumble along and be shy and polite one minute, but then he'd take charge and pretend to be Sabriel's stern bodyguard the next. He had layers in not just personality, but also backstory (which I won't go into because it's a spoiler).

So overall... not one of my favorite books. I thought the ideas were really cool, just not executed clearly, and Sabriel's blank personality was a huge turn-off. I'm giving this 2.5 stars--it definitely gets points for the Miyazaki-like scenes and the imaginitive world.

2.5/5 stars