Reviews with content warning for Death - Sabriel

This book is so good. I was captivated immediately by the prologue, I wanted to learn more about this world and how it worked. The writing is very atmospheric and immersive without being overly descriptive. I connected with and rooted for Sabriel throughout the story, she's a very competent protagonist so it's believable when she succeeds, but she's also young and inexperienced so there's constant tension as she has to understand and overcome obstacles. The supporting cast is small and doesn't have a lot of focus compared to how much introspection we get from Sabriel, but they are still likable and engaging (or horrible and terrifying in the case of the villains) and leave you wanting more. I wish I had read this as a young adult, I can see how goth teen me would have adored it, but apart from the age of the protagonist it doesn't have a lot of the negative tropes associated with YA and I enjoyed it very much as an adult reader.

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jupitermond's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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I just can't take any books with dark themes right now. I will probably return to this one at a later date.

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vhispas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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jjohnson265's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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soph22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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twistykris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I have a vague recollection of reading this as a teenager, so I thought it would be fun to revisit. As it turned out, the only thing I remembered were the bells, so it ended up being more of a "new" read.

I appreciate the world-building, in that it builds gradually throughout the course of the book, instead of info-dumping. And the descriptions Nix uses are just SO incredible. Pages of descriptions that actually felt like a sheet being dragged off of a scene- rooms and areas being revealed slowly, letting your mind focus in. I liked the characters, but I didn't really feel much of a connection to them. Their personalities didn't feel very developed and the romance between Sabriel and Touchstone felt very unestablished. Mogget was honestly my favorite character, if only for his snarkiness.

I went back and forth between reading a physical copy of the book and listening to the audiobook narrated by Tim Curry and I found myself more drawn towards the audiobook. I just can't help it with his voice- even if a couple character voices were very Nigel Thornberry-esque... SMASHING xD

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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