While Sabriel feels like a standalone book, I consider Lirael and Abhorsen as two parts of the same book, as such I'm writing this review about both of them.

Many of my annoyances from Sabriel carry over into these books. The magic is still kind of hand-wavy and Nix still introduces new rules of the world in that "Oh by the way" manner. Free magic does not like water, oh, but by the way, this is only true for beings that are under the control of free magic, not free magic beings themselves. But the same things I liked about Sabriel are present here as well. The fact that Nix does not chain himself to the lore that he supposedly creates beforehand, gives the books a carefree vibe that is quite refreshing.

The main difference between Sabriel and Lirael/Abhorsen was that Sabriel didn't feel very exciting, while Lirael/Abhorsen very much did. Abhorsen in particular I read in little over a single day because I was absolutely hooked on the story. ( )

Audio book read by Tim Curry.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did Sabriel. But I like where it's going and am really looking forward to Abhorsen. ( )

The thing I don't like about this book is how little Sabriel is featured in it. She's so cool and kickass in the first book, and since this one is set much later (about 20 years after the first book) she is grown up and honestly way too good to be a protagonist. It's interesting to hear about her from the other character's POV, but still.

Instead of Sabriel we get two extremely whiny main characters, who are very unhappy with their lots in life, despite being surrounded by (and able to use) magic and other cool shit. What's interesting, though, is that they are both very whiny and ungrateful and yet - AND YET - I do not hate them, I totally sympathize with them. They are called out by other characters or the narrative when their self-pitying grows too large, and they are still interesting characters with agency. It's quite impressive.

Also, that library!!! Fuck, I could read an entire book just set in that library. The settings are just ... *chef's kiss* ( )

After how much everyone loved Sabriel for bedtime story, it was a good thing that I already had this book on the shelves and ready to go. The whole family really liked this one as well.

Structured a bit similarly to Sabriel in that there is a lot of world-building and setup and then just when it almost feels a bit draggy it explodes into action, and then everything after that takes place in a startlingly small stretch of time. The Clayr and the library are so fascinating, the Disreputable Dog so enjoyable, Lirael herself so relatable. She's such a great character who feels so overlooked and unimportant, and then, of course, grows to be immensely powerful.

So glad my friend introduced this series to me! ( )

Im very happy to find this somewhat older series full of twists and turns and every enjoyable. Also I love the dog.

Edit: wanted to add a warning for a suicide attempt near start of book, and then talk of it later on. ( )