Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen

This book was great but also so sad. Nix does such a great job at reminding you of how his world works without being annoying about it, which is very helpful when it’s been awhile since you’ve read the others. I was so angry about how Clariel’s parents seemed to not care about her at all, though they did eventually make up for it.

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inameitlater's review against another edition

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adventurous sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

When I read the summary of the book before I started it, I realised I had been horribly spoilered when the book came out. So it was a weird experience reading this book, knowing something that would in the end only be revealed in the authors afterword.

But I'm glad I read it. It was great to get an asexual main character and I yearned with her for the woods.

The story itself felt a bit rushed, there was no time for Clariel or the reader to reflect a lot. But a lot of shit happened and during such times, people mostly react and don't think a lot. This is something the book showed really well.

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laylagrace's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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addie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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gothnailcare's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Without saying too much, this book had a frustrating arc: one where the general gist of what will happen is easily guessed early on (by design, I must assume, especially given

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the cover art and tagline of the edition I had

, but learning the nature of how those events came to be was frustrating and sluggish rather than interesting. I had read the older books more than a decade ago, and did not remember

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the character Chlorr in any particular detail, yet I knew I was reading the origin story of a villain or something like one from nearly the start.

While I am open to reading books that challenge traditional narratives of agency and self-sufficiency,

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spending the back half of the book waiting for Clariel to do whatever awful and misguided thing she was going to do with the free magic creatures so that Bel could come and save her

was an absolute slog. I didn't dislike Clariel's character at all, which only made it more frustrating that

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towards the end of the book, her internal reasoning seemed to crumble under the weight of narrative necessity: Chekov's gun was provided hideously early, and for hundreds more pages we were forced to watch Clariel stumble around in the dark trying to find it.

With that said, the prose is as beautiful and successful as always, and I look forward to re-reading the rest of the series.

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totallyshelfaware's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jmcampbell57's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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