A review by thedisquietedpen
Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen by Garth Nix

4.0

I love the Old Kingdom series. There's the right amount of explained lore and things that are left up to the reader's imagination, creating an immersive verisimilitude. I like Clariel, and I loved the idea that it would have a bittersweet or even tragic ending the entire time that I was reading it. However, I felt like the plot device of "forgetting/ignorance" was perhaps a bit overused. Throughout the novel, the King, the Abhorsen, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Clariel herself, and several others are "in the dark" for various reasons. While it is one thing to have a protagonist slowly discover details about the world around them, it's another thing for experts to not know or refuse to share their knowledge when the reader already knows or half-knows that same knowledge. I found myself repeatedly frustrated by the King's, the Abhorsen's, the Abhorsen's-in-Waiting, and even by Jaciel's and Harven's refusal to share more information with Clariel.

Perhaps this is how I'm supposed to feel; after all, if they had shared more with her, she would have likely made different choices.