#she's the only clayr who sees the dog

[clonerightsagenda]

Of the seven charters, we know Ranna went into the royal line, Mosrael to the Clayr, Saraneth to the Abhorsens, and Belgaer and Dyrim to the Wall and the Great Stones. Astarael and Kibeth held part of themselves back to watch what happened, but they also put part of their power into the bloodlines, and we can assume those were the Abhorsens and the Clayr respectively, since Astarael's Well is at Abhorsen's House and Kibeth's statue was at the glacier. So Lirael has four heritages within her, but before the Dog speaks up, she plans to stand for Kibeth and Astarael in the binding ritual. It feels right that her instinctive gravitation to the peripheral connects to how she felt throughout her childhood. She stands for the people who never feel entirely part of things, because part of them are always on the outside looking in.

[caointeag]

Lirael stepped in and looked up, up into darkness, till her neck ached, and her eyes slowly grew accustomed to the gloom. Strange luminescence, not from Charter Magic lights, shone in patches here and there, rising up so high that the farthest glow was like a distant swathe of stars in the night. Still looking up, Lirael realized that she stood at the bottom of a deep rift that stretched up almost to the very pinnacle of Starmount itself. She looked across and saw that she stood on a broad ledge, and the rift continued past it, down into still deeper darkness, perhaps even to the root of the world itself. With that sight came recognition, for she knew only one chasm so narrow and so deep. Much higher up, it was spanned by closed bridges. Lirael had crossed it almost unknowingly many times, but had never seen its terrifying depth.“I know this place,” said Lirael, her voice small and echoing. “We’re in the bottom of the Rift, aren’t we?” She hesitated, then added, “The burial place of the Clayr.” The Disreputable Dog nodded but didn’t say anything. “You knew, didn’t you?” continued Lirael, still looking up. She couldn’t see them, but she knew the higher reaches of the Rift were pockmarked with small caves, each one holding the mortal remains of a past Clayr. Generations of dead, carefully tucked away in this vertical cemetery. In a weird way, she could feel the presence of the graves, or the dead inside them . . . or something. Her mother was not there, for she had died alone in some foreign land, far from the Clayr, too far for the body to be returned. But Filris rested here, as did others whom Lirael had known. “It is a crypt,” she said, looking sternly at the Dog. “I knew it.”

— Lirael, by Garth Nix, book 2 in the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom series

EDDARD I

It was always cold down here. Their footsteps rang off the stones and echoed in the vault overhead as they walked among the dead of House Stark. The Lords of Winterfell watched them pass. Their likenesses were carved into the stones that sealed the tombs. In long rows they sat, blind eyes staring out into eternal darkness, while great stone direwolves curled round their feet. The shifting shadows made the stone figures seem to stir as the living passed by. By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled. In the centuries before the Dragonlords came over the sea, they had sworn allegiance to no man, styling themselves the Kings in the North. Ned stopped at last and lifted the oil lantern. The crypt continued on into darkness ahead of them, but beyond this point the tombs were empty and unsealed; black holes waiting for their dead, waiting for him and his children. Ned did not like to think on that.

asoiaf / old kingdom lore / web weaving 1 of ???

[tallowes]

OLD KINGOM MUSES: ASOIAF AU

just doing this all in one go bc it’s easier and they’re all interlinked anyway

First off: A Wee Bit of Primer

so in the old kingdom series there’s also convienantly a Big Huge Fuck You Wall. It separates Ancelstierre ( think 1910-20s England ) from the Old Kingdom  ( Think  well...Westeros ) , and can stop most Dead and Free Magic elementals. Magic in the OKS being basically in 2 forms, raw unfiltered energy ( free magic ) and Charter Magic ( that energy in an organized system that describes all things ). On the Ancelstierre side, it is guarded constantly by the perimeter garrison, who are armed both with guns and swords. The Wall's effects also extend out to sea to some extent.  The Old Kingdom is basically a scrap of another world stapled onto another one by the cosmic beings that built the Wall and the other Great Charters which are the royal line, the Abhorsen ( a necromancer who defends the living against the dead, other wizards and free magic creatures ), the Clayr ( seers ), and The builders + their creations ( the Wall, Abhorsen’s house etc. ) . 

So ASOIAF

Thankfully since we’ve already got the Dead and a Big Huge Fuck You Wall in common The Old Kingdom itself just gets translated into Beyond the Wall. the perimeter garrison becomes the Night’s Watch etc. etc. Sabriel is the last living member of the Abhorsen line and was sent to be fostered by her father at Last Hearth because of a Vision the Clayr had. The name Abhorsen is well known and taken seriously in the North as something as old as the Wall. The Abhorsen is seen as a helpful if dark figure who wanders above and below the Wall fighting off magic curses and evil things. While they’re technically Free Folk, with Abhorsen’s House being on an island the Milkwater, they dress and act more in line with northmen and align themselves just as strongly with the Watch and Starks as they do the Free Folk.  With her Father’s Death Sabriel is the new Abhorsen, which means that she uses bell/music based magic to control and repel the dead and a valyrian steel sword to destroy them. With the Dead so many and the new Long Night on the way Sabriel is furiously trying to live up to the family name and help stand up against the Others. Lirael is from the Clayr’s Glacier, a vast settlement inside a mountain ( and yes, the Glacier too ) at the heart of the River in the Thenn region. The Clayr are largely isolationist and only communicate with others for trade and to take lovers, spending the vast majority of their time focused on their gifts for seeing possible futures using ice as a focusing element. Lirael herself is a second assistant librarian ( a more dangerous profession than it sounds ) lacks this ability because, as she later comes to realize, her father is Sabriel’s father and the Abhorsen side is stronger than the Clayr for her, though she can see into the past in the right circumstances. She is sent out of the Glacier when it’s clear from visions she must go as she is seen far south doing things of import. She too is working to try and find a way to combat the Others. Touchstone is the last surviving member of what’s likely an long dead northern royal family though he does not speak too much of it. He was magically held in stasis as a figurehead on a burial ship until Sabriel stumbled upon him and revived him. He named himself Touchstone for the half-remembered mistake that had him made a figurehead in the first place. Is he a thousand year old Stark? Possibly! But he claims his past life is gone forever even if his memories of it have returned and has forsaken his original name. He travels with Sabriel as her sworn sword. Mogget is an ancient creature of pure magic and flame held in check and servitude to the Abhorsen by powerful magics. He most commonly takes the form of a white cat. Do not remove his collar, it’s bad. He’ll try to kill you. The Disreputable Dog is of dubious origin but undeniably magical and powerful. She however a very good dog and very loyal to her mistress, Lirael.  

[kbrown78]

Monthly Wrap Up: January

Wow, for starting a new reading year, things are going really well for me. First I read 13 books this month, which I am so surprised by, especially since 6 of this books were 500 pages or over. I attribute that to not tagging as many books, in fact I only did that for 7 of them. Aside from my high book count, I'm also on my way to achieving some personal reading goal's of mine. One is to complete 5 series, and I completed 3 this month. I also want to read more diverse books, and while I didn't read any authors of color, 3 of the books that I read featured diverse protagonists. Of the total books that I read 5 were new (one was a non fiction book, What Color Is Your Parachute, which is a great book for job hunting), and 7 were rereads. I also participated in 2 reading challenge's this month, one is the year long PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge, which I did last year, and the other was a Pick My TBR challenge from the Reading Frenzy group on Goodreads, which will also be a year long challenge. I was able to read the book that was selected for the Pick My TBR challenge and I completed 8 of the prompts for the PopSugar challenge, which is a strong start. Something I also accomplished this month was reading books from several different genres, which is a long term reading goal of mine. There was paranormal romance, climate fiction, classics, contemporary, and even a few fantasies. In terms of my opinion of the books I read, I was all over the board. Now 5 star books, but there was everything from a 4 star to a 1 star. Still I would say January was a good reading month and hopefully the rest of the year continues on a similar note.  

Abhorsen by Garth Nix: I really disliked Lirael but I knew I was going to read this one since I just had one more book and I already had the entire trilogy. I didn't bother tabbing the book because I gave up on that during Lirael and I didn't expect this book to get much better, so this review is going to contain all my spoilery thoughts on this book. First the things I liked about this book. I liked the animal companions. I liked Mogget in the first book but his appearance in the second book felt a bit awkward because of events at the end of Sabriel. I didn't like the Disreputable Dog at first because she just felt like a bit of a replacement for Mogget. In this book I really enjoyed both of them because I felt like they had distinct but likable personalities, while being these grounded companions but also ancient cosmic creatures. I also liked the magic system. The Charter magic/ Free magic and the Clayer library were the best aspects of the previous books. I think the Abhorsen bells are really cool, how each one has a different role, and all the history behind them that gets revealed. I also think Lirael improved in this one. She was fairly whiny and mopey when we're first introduced to her, but in this book I felt like she matured and did a fairly good job at dealing with her position as the Aborsen-in-Training. It was also nice to have Lirael and Sabriel finally meet since they are both Abhorsen and half sisters. The last thing I liked was that there was no romance. I did not like the forced romance between Sabriel and Touchstone, so having to read another unnecessary romance would have made this book that much worse for me. Now onto what I disliked about Abhorsen. I still really disliked Sam. He wasn't as irritating as he was in the previous book, but he still felt pretty useless and unnecessary. The title of worst character shifted from Sam to his friend Nick. He was as irritating as Sam was in the second book, but he purposefully did things that were reckless and destructive. Dislike of the male characters, and frankly the majority of the characters, aside, I also had issues with the plot and general story. I read this book at the very beginning of the month, and I honestly forget everything that happened, probably because there was a lot of filler. All I remember is being disappointed by the ending because of how underwhelming and predictable it was. I do think it's better than the previous book, but that might be because my expectations were so low. It's one of those endings, where everything is just fixed and everyone survives despite the world ending stakes. As a whole the Abhorsen trilogy has a few interesting elements, like the magic system, animal companions, and Clayr's library. Unfortunately I think this series is just mediocre and not as dark and scary as it could have been. Abhorsen received 2 out 5 stars.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: I first read this in sophomore year of college and it was at the same time I got The Virgin Suicides. I really liked it the first time I read it because there was a lot that I could identify with and I thought it was very well written, however I recently reread The Virgin Suicides and hated it. I thought I was going to end up hating The Bell Jar too, but I wanted to give it a try before unhauling it, and I'm glad I did. There is something very thought provoking and familiar about story. The protagonist, Esther, struggling with her identity which leads her into a depressing downward spiral, is something I can personally relate to, but I like how Plath tells the story as well. She has a sort of dry, precise writing style which I normally don't like but Plath also seems to be sure to have that raw, emotional element to it. The story also had a realistic feel to it, not just in the subjects that it deals with but also in the ending. There are some books I've read where things just seem to get suddenly better at the end so that everyone gets a happy ending, but it doesn't feel realistic because it just suddenly happens with no build up or long term effort to fix the initial problem. In The Bell Jar the ending is rather ambiguous, with the audience being unsure of where thing actually stand for Esther and if she'll actually be released from the pysch ward. I will say that this book is pretty depressing and is full of trigger warnings. Esther's story was sad enough before she went to a mental hospital, but then things take a grim turn when she is constantly subjected to electro shock therapy. Again it's a depressing story but I do think is worth it if you can handle it. It's a modern classic for a reason, and while there are some dated aspects of the story, the overall theme and feel of the book is timeless. The Bell Jar received 4 out 5 stars.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: This is a classic that I had never read. I grew up on the movie version of this book, but my sister read it when she was young and loved it, and as the years passed I felt this pressure to read it. I finally decided to pick this one up since I want to read more classics this year and there were several PoPSugar 2019 Reading Challenge prompts that this fit. I had a hard time with it at first for a few reasons. The language was a bit off putting, the March sisters felt immature and annoying at the beginning, and I had the movie version playing in my head the whole time. I really liked the movie and while the book is similar there are a few differences and some things are gone into more detail. It took awhile to get into the book, like I was so tempted to quit it, but I pushed through and by the second half things improved. In the second half they start feel more like mature women who are leaving their childhood's behind to manage their own lives. Each still having a distinct personality, but they come across as more complicated than they did at the beginning of the book. Meg dealing with a married life, and while not being as wealthy as other girls, she's happy and never far from home. Amy, who went to Europe, still enjoys luxuries but seems to understand there's more to life than that. Jo becomes a responsible woman, understanding herself a bit better but never losing her fire. It's a story that you have to get the full thing in order to appreciate it. It has themes of wealth and poverty, family, growing, and love, all being well done but again the payoff doesn't really come until later. The sisterly bonds I really liked seeing because I don't often read a book that does a good job of portraying sisters in a realistic yet positive and loving light. I will admit I had mixed feelings about all the romances. Meg and John's is cute and while it isn't my favorite I do like that we see them struggling in their marriage at times, yet always overcoming it. Amy and Laurie's romance was always my least favorite one in the movie because Amy is my least favorite character. In the book I can appreciate it a bit better because they both clearly try to better themselves to be worthy of the other (still don't love it though). Jo and Professor Bhaer are my favorite relationship in movie, like I tear up at the final scene when she asks him to stay. I think that they are so well suited for each other, and he really represents how much she has grown as a character. In the book though, I didn't really get emotional over them. There was still the same scene at the end that I loved, but most of the differences between the book and the movies involved their relationship and the timing of when certain events happened, and I just prefer how it's done in the movie. As more time passes I appreciate the book more and more, I think because the whole story was well written, despite the long and difficult beginning. It's a coming of age classic that I would recommend to anyone, but to young women in particular. Little Women received 4 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompts “book becoming a movie,” “book with 2 word title,” “book that includes a wedding,” and “book about family.”        

An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock: I went into this book expecting it to be a great story because I heard a lot of key things that made me think I would love it. A deformed princess whose best feature is her brain, I always love intelligent heroines. The prominent relationship would be the friendship between the princess Isabelle and her loyal body guard, Jean-Claude, and while awesome female friendships are my favorite relationships to read about, I always love a platonic male/ female friendship. Isabelle being shipped off for a political marriage, and last year I realized that arranged marriages that turns into real love and partnership is something I really like. A mystery with political intrigue, and I love stories with political intrigue. There's also sorcery next to steamships. Basically everything I heard about it made it sound like it would be something I loved. Once I read the book, though, it wasn't exactly what I expected. All of the stuff that I had hoped for was there, but it wasn't utilized in the way I wanted them to be. Isabelle is smart, she writes mathematical papers and speaks a language that is forbidden to women, and this is shown and made useful a few times in this book, but there other things about the people around her that she didn't pick up on that should have been obvious. That can be blamed on her harsh and isolated background both because of her deformity and the shear cruelty of her family, which is something I see a lot of in fantasy. Having the main character come from an abusive or neglectful family is a stable of fiction that I would like to stop seeing so much of. I do like that their was the father/ daughter dynamic between Isabelle and Jean-Claude, but it was just kind of there and I don't feel like I got enough development of it. I was also a bit underwhelmed by Jean-Claude as a character, because he pretends to be drunkard (which he only keeps up for less than half the book) but is actually a highly skilled musketeer with a strong sense of nobility. I didn't think there was anything fun or interesting about him. I thought that he was a pretty flat and shallow character, and he was so slow to figure out who was behind everything that it really makes him seem almost incompetent. I like the relationship for what it is, but I don't get a sense of history or devotion between either of these characters. Onto the potential romance, I liked that Isabella's worried about both her political standing and what her would be husband will think of her, since everyone but Jean-Claude sees her as an inconvenience at best. The fact that she keeps wanting to communicate with him before seeing him, but he takes no initiative to do that, does help build up the tension. Upon their first meeting at a masked ball though, I wasn't feeling any chemistry between the two. I won't reveal the twist at the end, but I will say Isabelle and her fiance are suddenly very close by the end of the book and it makes no sense. Like they knew each other for a short time, not even a full week, there was hardly any dialogue between them, and yet they are acting all lovey dovey and it just doesn't make any sense and I feel zero chemistry between them. Like the I shipped them more before they met, which means I liked the potential of the relationship much better than the actual relationship. The sorcery and steamships are two distinct pieces of world building and while I liked both overall, I had separate issues with them. The steamships are central part of the world because the kingdoms are all on floating land masses, so while it's important and fun to see something like that in a fantasy, I was a little thrown off by it at first, and it took about a quarter of the book for me to fully understand that piece. The sorcery bit of the world I really, really liked. There's the Sanguine's, which is a type of blood magic seen Isabelle's native court, and is indicated via red shadows. Then there's the sorcery in her fiance's court, which I believe was called Glasswalking, where one can walk through mirrors, and it's indicated via silver eyes. There are other abilities out there, and they are all tied to the history of royal bloodline and great deal of effort is put into preserving these bloodlines. Each ability was distinct and I loved the detail and technicality put into each one. Sometimes these abilities felt like plot devices and were used in a way I didn't like, and I also wished I could have seen more of them rather than just the 2. Lastly, and probably my major issue with the story, was the narrative itself. As I stated at the beginning I went into this expecting it to be a mix of political intrigue and mystery, with the mystery aspect being more of a side thing. Any political aspect of the story was sacrificed for the sake of furthering the mystery narrative, which might have been okay if the mystery was good, but it wasn't. I guessed who was behind the whole thing before either of the characters did. I thought for a mystery it relied on several overused tropes, which again made it feel so obvious, and I thought the villains whole motivation and plan wasn't good because 1) it was insane and was never going to work and 2) the first book of a series is not the place to be putting stakes that were as high as they were. There were several enjoyable aspects of this story, but ultimately I thought it was underwhelming and disappointed me in almost every way. An Alchemy of Masques and Mirror received 3 out 5 stars from me.        

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed:  I had this one on my TBR shelf on Goodreads for awhile, and while I was intrigued by the premise, I kept not picking it up. This month I had to read it since it was chosen by someone else to be the book I read, as part of a monthly reading challenge group. The book met my expectations of it, I'm glad that I read it. The premise is that new girl Grace sees messages written into the walls of her bedroom, and when she asks about it she learns that the girl that previously lived in that room was gang raped. Instead of having the boys face consequences, the whole town pretends it didn't happen and label her as a slut, including those that believed her. Grace and her new friends create The Nowhere Girls in the hopes that this will change things for the better for the women of the community, then things take off from there. The story follows mainly 4 POVs. There's Grace, a chubby girl with a religiously liberal mother, and Rosina, a queer punk Latina, and Erin, a girl with Asperger's Syndrome who enjoys Star Trek. I was a little surprised by the diversity in this book because all 3 of these girls are ones that I don't really see as protagonists, especially in YA contemporary, and I while I was glad to see that kind of diversity, I loved that these girls were more than just their labels. The 4th POV is titled Us, and in those chapters we actually get snippets of multiple perspectives of unnamed people (though some you can guess) just going about life, and what I loved about these sections was how it highlighted not only the flaws in our society, but also how simultaneously simple and complicated life is. The girls friendship is nice, but I just don't feel like there was enough depth and development for me to be fully attached to it, which was a bit disappointing. The romances were all really cute, each one having their own ups and downs, but I liked that they were kept a minor part of the story. All the girls struggle with their relationships with their parents in various ways, and that's something that I didn't like about the ending. For 2 of the girls, their relationships just seemed to get fixed with very little discussion, which felt too clean and unrealistic, and the other one's parents are completely absent from the second half of the narrative. The only two complaints I have about this book is that I wish the friendships could have had more depth and development instead of just being there, and I also didn't like the ending. I'm glad it ended on a positive note, that's what I need with these kind of narratives, but everything to just suddenly get fixed and the readers are rushed into a clean ending of a messy, underdog narrative. That being said I still liked this book and think it's a good book that discusses rape culture (that being said there are trigger warnings for sexual assault). I don't know if it will be one of favorite YA contemporaries, but it was a highlight of this month and is definitely more along the lines of the kind of contemporary I want to read. The Nowhere Girls received 4.5 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a book with multiple POV's.”

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: Based on my reading preferences, Twilight is not something that I would have any interest in picking up, in fact it's the exact opposite of that. So why would I read it? I've held onto the entire Twilight series for so long and as I'm trying to tackle my rereads it's just standing out to me. I know I'll probably get rid of it but I haven't read them since middle school (and I graduated from college so it's been about 10 years since I've read it) and I wanted to read it and form my own cohesive opinion. Upon rereading it I can clearly see that Edward and Bella's romance is pretty toxic. I was also surprised by how terrible Bella, like I had heard multiple times how flat she was, so I was excepting a really bland, passive character. While she was definitely that, she was also a whiny, bratty character that I really hated. She's supposed to be very plain, but all the boys are instantly attracted to her. Of course she looks down on all of them until she sees Edward who she immediately becomes obsessed with. She also looks down on the other human girls, and the series does a poor job of portraying any female that doesn't like Bella as either bitchy or slutty. Bella is a character that we are being forced to like, not due to her on merits and traits (with her only trait being clumsy), but by having everyone fawn over her and seem beneath her. The writing was also bad. The sentences were choppy, for lack of a better word, and it didn't feel natural. While reading it I thought that this was something I would expect myself to produce in a high school writing class. It read as very amateur and unedited. This entire series is about a romance between a high schooler and a vampire, and there is so much wrong with. It almost symbolizes being in relationship with a bad boy with a nice streak. He works hard to be good, but there's always the threat of him doing serious damage. For whatever reason this isn't a deal breaker for Bella. Neither is the fact that he's several years older than her, stalks her, watches her sleep, and is rather possessive of her. At one point he even calls her heroin, which is not something I would want to be compared to because it's a toxic drug that kills people. I don't really understand Edward's obsession with Bella either because other than his inability to read her thoughts, there wasn't anything compelling about her. Despite the abysmal romance, protagonist, and writing, this book managed to have a few surprises to it. First I liked learning about the Cullen's different backgrounds, and that remained true through the series. Alice being a mental patient who had visions when she was human, and being the only victim that escaped James, was an interesting part of her back story that wasn't included in the movie. I forget if it was in this book, or one of the later ones, but Edward tells Bella that a vampire's abilities are reflective of their human personalities, which is kind of cool. What drives them together and makes them so close is that they strive to be better and not hurt humans. The Cullen's had a really nice familial relationship, which is more than I can say for Bella and her father Charlie. Second is once the action did pick up, with James hunting Bella, I did like that. It made it easier to fly through the novel, and other than the romance, was the overarching conflict for the first 3 books (though it really could have been 2) but I liked that there were long reaching consequences based on this event. I still don't really get why Bella wasn't made into a vampire at the end of this book, since the venom was in her. It's hard to predict what the rest of the series would have been like had that happened, but I like to think it would have been better, a more equal power dynamic between Edward and Bella. It's easy to see how iconic it is an the influence it has had, but I also think it's very much a product of it's time. Twilight received 2 out 5 stars from me and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a book with 1 million ratings on Goodreads.”  

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer: After finishing Twilight I was so on the fence of if I should read the rest of the series, but I ultimately decided to continue on with the rest of the series because I know I'll fly through them, and I did. I finished New Moon in one day. Going into this one I knew it was going to be my least favorite, and it definitely was. I had only 8 tabs in this book that's over 500 pages, and 5 of those tabs were for stuff I disliked. First there's Bella being depressed about her birthday because that means being older than Edward. It could make for an interesting discussion about mortal/ immortal relationships but in this case Bella is just being over dramatic. Her desperation to become a vampire so she won't be older than Edward makes no sense. She's turning 18, not 30, and she's still in high school so she's still fairly young. Also it's okay for a woman to be the older in the relationship. The toxicity of Bella and Edward's relationship continues, in this one it's emphasized how neither can live without the other. Edward says he'll kill himself if he can't live without Bella, breaks up with her, than due to a misunderstanding he really does try to put himself in a situation where he will get killed. It's even worse on Bella's side because for the 3-4 months that Edward is gone, she's basically a zombie. She's completely become a passive blank slate that ignores all her “friends” yet refuses to move on, even when her dad tries to help. It's either that or she's doing reckless things because that causes her to have visions of Edward, which she considers a good thing. The only thing that partially brings her out of it is her friendship with Jacob, which I'll get back to in a minute, but in the end Edward and Bella are reunited, and Bella completely forgives him and starts functioning like a normal human being. This makes it seem like Bella's entire existence revolves around her 100 year old vampire boyfriend, which is not only unhealthy but also makes for a lousy character. Back to the Jacob thing, I liked Jacob before his werewolf transformation because he seemed like a chill guy that really tried to help Bella, without any romantic hintings. Then once he became a werewolf, things went downhill. Despite knowing that Bella knew about the vampires, and how much she needed him at that time, he went for weeks not talking to her, or coming clean about the werewolf thing. Based on stuff in the later books I really think he went downhill as a character once he entered the paranormal, but I also disliked the werewolf thing in general. It felt like it was put there just to have something to oppose the vampires, even though there never is an actual conflict between the two, and create the love triangle between Jacob, Bella, and Edward. We do get introduced to the Volturi, who are basically royalty of the vampire world, and that is as close this series gets to world building. This entire book focused on a toxic romance, and didn't really have any action to it, so it had fewer positive attributes than the previous book, which made it difficult to get through but the length and bland story and writing made it possible to finish this in one day. That and I was determined to get this book done as quickly as possible. New Moon received 1 out 5 stars from me.      

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer: The biggest complaint I have about this one was the absolute lack of action and how Bella is such a martyr. Both have already been clearly shown throughout the series but I want to talk about it in this one because I think it was the worst in this book. First is the lack of action, which is a stable of this series. Like you usually don't get to the action bits until the last 20% of the book, because the first 80% focuses on the romance. The second book really didn't have any action at all, but I didn't expect it to because I remembered the movie. As I was reading this one, I know it's building up to the big fight between the Cullen's/ werewolves and the new born vampires. We see that in the movie and get to witness some of this battle. That doesn't happen at all, there's just the brief scene with Victoria than we fast forward to after the battle. That was disappointing, because I was waiting for the action bits, and they never happened. This series focuses so much on the romance, which I'm not crazy about in the first place, but when it involves bland characters and toxic elements, that makes the entire plot insufferable and feel like filler material. Onto Bella being a martyr, that's been shown again and again. This series spend so much time emphasizing how special and pretty she is, but the majority of the time she comes off as a bitch. She tends to disregard her human friends and even her own father in favor of Edward but as soon as someone wants to kill Bella, she insists that efforts be put into protecting everyone but her. I think this is done just to portray Bella as a selfless and pure individual but instead it makes her seem stupid and have no survival instinct. I also hated the whole concept of imprinting because it's the sort of love at first sight, soul mates trope that I despise seeing in any narrative. There's something about the imprinting that takes it to a new, gross level but I'll discuss that more in my Break Dawn review. There was also a scene where Jacob kiss Bella without her consent, which made my already dwindling opinion of him plummet, but Bella punched him in response, which was good. Highlights of this book is Bella's sort of friendship with Angela, it's nice to see her around someone that is a regular human, wish there had been more of that. Also learning more about Rosalie and Jacobs back story added to their character and portrayed them in a new light, both tragic in different ways. Putting a background to these side characters is the only way they seem to get any sort of development, yet that little bit makes them more interesting than Bella, who's the main character. It's also interesting how many literary nods and parallels there are throughout the series, with the most prominent ones being famous tragic love stories, like Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights (the latter of which I hated). Eclipse received 1 out 5 stars from me.    

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer: I first read this back in high school, and actually reread it a few times. I was a bit worried before reading it again that I wouldn't like it because of the main character being a teenager, but that was something I ended up appreciating. The characters all feel very human, flawed but trying to do what they think is right. This also comes across in their relationships, as we see the ups and downs, particularly Miranda's relationship with her mother. Miranda is a fairly typical teenager, she has a few friends, she likes boys, has some hobbies, and can be petty, but she's ultimately a good person that wants to see her family survive. I liked the diary written format of the narrative because it had a more personal feel to it, but I think was the appropriate format for a quieter apocalypse story. Something happening to the moon isn't a new concept for science fiction stories, but this usually creates some sort of epic plot. That wasn't this case in this book. Instead we get a year long story of 1 family trying to survive as the Earth becomes a more hostile environment, and there's progressively stronger feeling of isolation (due to both the amount of people dying or leaving but also the open, rural environment and Miranda's family being crammed in their house when the winter comes). That almost makes the story feel more realistic because everything that happens in this book is something you can easily picture actually occurring if this were to happen. I do wish that there had been a little more character growth, and I'm not sure if soft apocalypse is the kind of apocalypse narrative I like reading about, but it is still a quick enjoyable read. Life As We Knew It received 4 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a climate fiction book.”  

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer: By the time I got to this one I was so wiped out by the rest of the series and just ready for it to be done. There isn't much to say about this one that I haven't already said about the previous ones, but there are some things I definitely need to talk about that were present just in this book. The first I'm going to talk about is something I alluded to in the Eclipse review, and that is the fact that imprinting seems to excuse pedophilia. There was already Edward, who's about a hundred years old, but is interested in a 17 year old high schooler, but in Eclipse Jacob tells Bella that one of his friends imprinted on a 2 year old girl. Gross! Then in Breaking Dawn, Jacob imprints on Renesme, Bella's half vampire daughter within minutes of her being born. I never liked this because 1) It's just yuck 2) It made Renesme feel like a prize since Jacob couldn't get Bella. I actually skipped over most of Jacob's POV chapters because I was really bored by them and there were only 2 major thins that happen in them. Him splitting from the pack and forming his own, which didn't happen in the movies, and Bella giving birth to Renesme, which is in the movies. The other thing I really disliked through the whole series (besides the romance) was Bella. I already discussed how she's such a martyr and the entire narrative takes the time to make her this plain but special person. I think it's most obvious in this book because of 2 things. The first is her ability to shield, which someone points out is a rare ability among vampires, so rare that it didn't have a name until the 4th book. I will that her ability is reflective of her personality, being unable to read her thoughts because she's basically a blank slate. The other special snowflake scene was when Bella first goes hunting as a new born and she smells human blood but is able to resist the urge to drink. Afterwards everyone is just amazed and proud of Bella for being able to do this, and I might have actually rolled my eyes at this scene because I was sick of the entire series beating you over the head with how amazing Bella is at the expense of other characters. Another minor thing I want to talk about briefly that bugged me, and that is when Bella is first comes to the conclusion that she is pregnant it's because she's 5 days late. I get that a late period is a likely sign that you're pregnant if you've had sex recently, but it's not a guarantee, especially if it's only a few days late. Menstrual periods are not something I see often in books, but there are even fewer instances where I think they are well done within the narrative, and this isn't one of those cases. I'm walking away from this series glad that I read it, but I can't say I enjoyed it or recommend it. There was a lot of wasted potential, with characters, relationships and morality, but all of that was pushed aside for a crappy romance, and that was the biggest tragedy of this series. Breaking Dawn received 1 out 5 stars and works for the PopSugar prompt “a book with a wedding,” since the big event in the first half of this book was the wedding.

The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer: This is the follow up to Life As We Knew It, and is set in New York City, revolving around Alex Morales and his two younger sisters as they struggle to survive when the moon is pushed closer to the planet. It manages to distinguish itself from the first book, but I didn't like it when compared to the first book. There's the characters, Alex and his sisters, Briana and Julie. I'll admit Alex is under quite a bit of pressure having to suddenly being in charge of his sisters during the apocalypse because his older brother is on the other side of the country and his parents are most likely dead. That being said, I can't think of anything that he did right or handled well. He seems to keep himself as unaware as possible, waits until the last minute to take any action to further their survival, doesn't help his sisters with any of the house work, and constantly yells at or talks down to his youngest sister. It's hard to be sympathetic toward him because he doesn't mature or change despite how detrimental his actions are, and he pretty much relies on entirely on other people in order to survive. I didn't even really enjoy any of the other characters because I either didn't know enough about them or I didn't like what I saw of them, which mainly applies to Alex's sisters. The older of the two, Briana, is very much a Beth from Little Women, where she's sickly but just “too pure for this world” and her sheer goodness mixed with denial of the harsh realities is what made her irritating for me and what ultimately lead to her demise. The youngest sister, Julie, has a lot of spunk but due to her young age (12) and Alex's bad attitude toward her, she comes off as a brat more often than not. To her credit, I think she improved the most over the book, but she still didn't reach the level that I hoped she would. The characters from Life As We Knew It just felt more complex and changed as the book progressed, where the characters in this book were either flat or unlikable. I will say I liked Alex's friendship with Kevin because that was something I wanted more of in the previous book and it was a nice surprise, that gets taken away about ¾ into the book. My biggest issue with this book was that I wanted more from it and it just wasn't delivering. The previous book was quieter because it was set in a more rural area, but it still had this harrowing feel to it. This one is set in New York City, and because it's a big city that's close to the ocean (the complete opposite of the previous book), I though the story would be more grim and the setting would be much grittier. In part due to the narrative and in part due to Alex's sheer ignorance, I didn't get any sense of identity from the city nor did I really get a sense of how desperate people could get to survive. Another thing I also think had potential but didn't take it far enough was Alex's morality. His family is devoutly Catholic, again quite different from the first book, so he goes to a Catholic school and mass every Sunday. I thought this would be a great way to bring up the topic of “Bad things happen in the world, how do I hold onto my faith,” or “I've done something bad, now I'm struggling with my morality.” There's only one small scene that addresses those kind of issues. Anything else is just people telling Alex to let go of his pride, and then him brooding about but not doing anything. Essentially this book took annoying characters and made them do the same thing until the end of the book, and normally I would get frustrated with that but I wasn't invested enough in the character to do that. I still think this book was decent but I don't think it was as grim or complex as it could have been, and I just didn't care about any of the characters. The Dead and The Gone received 3 out 5 stars from me.

Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan: The final book in the Memoirs of Lady Trent series, I was admittedly a little worried about this one because it's a series finale and I was a little disappointed by the previous 2 books. I do think it improved but I still think it's a disappointment. It's a book that crammed literally years worth of plot into a 450 page story, and the plot isn't the only thing that is glossed over. Isabella's a great character and I loved her passion, her ingenuity, and her growth over the entire series. In this book, I don't think her character underwent any kind of growth, and even her other core aspects aren't really displayed in the story. Yes, her passion for dragons is what drives her to go on the expedition in the first place, but that's it. And while she does have to use her intelligence to communicate with her rescuers, we're honestly told more than shown. There's also her relationships, which are just kind of there but don't do anything. She is very open with and supportive of her husband Suhail, and he supports her in the expedition because he wants her to get the academic credit that she thinks she deserves, but that's all there really is to their relationship. There was a lot more effort put into them becoming a couple rather than them being a couple, which I'm not a huge fan of. I don't mean to bash this book, I did still give it a good rating, but coming away from this book it just felt a rushed and there a couple of convenient plot points that I don't think were well done. As a series finale I have mixed opinions on it. I was spoiled for the big reveal half way through the book, so it didn't have the impact that I would have liked, but it was good series climax. I think I'm so used to epic series, with epic finale's, that it's an adjustment reading a quiet series finale. That being said I don't think the finale did the series justice because there wasn't any further developments to previous established parts of the series, I still don't like the lack of female characters, and the pacing made it come off as a series that just wanted to be finished. I do think the Memoirs of Lady Trent is a good, quiet fantasy that I would recommend, but I don't think this book lived up to what the previous books had set up and I ultimately come away from it wanting a little more. Within the Sanctuary of Wings received 4 out 5 stars from me and was my pick for the PopSugar prompt “a book that features extinct or imaginary creatures” since it's all about dragons.    

Thank You Everyone

Keep Calm and Keep Reading

[lit102]

Lirael | Garth Nix | 2001

This was my least favorite of the trilogy when I read it as a teen, but I’m not sure why... I think I thought it was too long and boring? But it’s so much better than I remembered. (Also, I forgot that Sameth was even in it!)

What strikes me on rereading is the clarity of characterization. Both Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr, and Prince Sameth (Sabriel and Touchstone’s son), are misfits. Lirael wants nothing more than to gain the Sight, the birthright of her bloodline, with which she will see the future. The book begins on her fourteenth birthday; most Clayr (most of whom are women) gain the Sight as preteens (making it kind of analogous to getting your period, now that I think about it), and yet she’s Sight-less, forced to wear the humiliating blue tunic of a child instead of the white tunic and moonstone circlet of a “proper Clayr.” Even her body betrays her: most Clayr have brown skin and blonde hair (???), but Lirael is pale and black-haired, the product of her eccentric, long-dead mother’s mysterious affair with an unknown man. The Sight marks you as an adult, and a fully participating member of the Clayr’s society; without it, Lirael feels like an outcast. Noticing this, the Clayr elite assign her to the library, a job she chooses so she won’t have to talk to people (conversing with other Clayr, whose lives revolve around the Sight, only reminds her that she’s not truly one of them). Lirael is quiet and shy, writing notes instead of speaking when she can and hiding behind her curtain of black hair. Becoming a librarian distracts her from her woes and gives her a place in the world: a place that she soon begins exploring and even expanding for herself. Lirael is a skilled Charter mage, and the books she discovers help hone her skills. Soon enough, she’s exploring the deepest (and most dangerous) reaches of the library, accompanied by her dearest and only friend the Disreputable Dog, a powerful being she created — or summoned? — as a companion. Lirael doesn’t want the Sight for its own sake; in fact, she shows no interest in seeing the future. What she wants is to belong. What she finds out is that she never will — not in the way she’s longed for all her life. Lirael’s father was the Abhorsen Terciel, Sabriel’s father — instead of a seer, she’s a Remembrancer, one who can enter Death to look into the past. She’s also the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Sabriel’s half-sister and heir. 

Everyone thinks the Abhorsen-in-Waiting is Sameth, Sabriel’s son, an earnest and amiable young man who begins the book as a secondary school student in Ancelstierre, the faux-Britain beneath the Old Kingdom. There is no magic in Ancelstierre — except near the Wall, or when the wind is blowing from the north and Ancelstierran technology, like guns, stops working (as best I can tell, the country is... WWI-era?). After traveling north, near the Wall, for a cricket match, Sam’s team is ambushed by the Dead, and he enters Death to fight Hedge, the necromancer controlling them. It’s a terrifying, traumatic experience, one that almost kills Sam and leaves him with a paralyzing fear of Death and the role it must play in his future. The attack on Sam and his schoolmates is part of a broader pattern. Trouble is brewing on both sides of the Wall: refugees from points south are, well, seeking refuge in Ancelstierre, and the xenophobic Our Country party is forcing them northward, into the dangerous lands just beyond the wall. Dead and Free Magic creatures are appearing in the Old Kingdom with disturbing frequency. And there’s an area to the West that resists both Sabriel and Touchstone’s rule and the Clayr’s sight.. Sam returns to Ancelstierre, where Sabriel gives him The Book of the Dead and a set of Abhorsen’s bells, the instruments with which he, as Abhorsen-in-Waiting, will defend the living against the Dead. The mere sight of these objects makes him break out in a cold sweat. When he finds out that his friend Nicholas is in danger, headed to that Western area that the Clayr can’t see, he sets off to rescue him and — he hopes — to avoid his greatest fears (the bells, the book, and Death) for just a little longer. Of course, he’s riding right toward them.

Lirael wants to be something she isn’t; Sam doesn’t want to be what he thinks he is. When they finally meet, they mirror each other, and each sees the other more clearly than they see themselves. Sam asks Lirael a long-overdue question: Does she really want the Sight? Or does she think she does because she’s been taught she should? Lirael, in turn, encourages Sam to face his fears rather than running from them. Each is extremely talented (both as Charter Mages; Sam as an inventor; Lirael as an Abhorsen), but only once they embrace their true nature can they come into their own. I’m not always a fan of destiny in fantasy, but I like what Nix does with it: you can say that Lirael and Sam have destinies, but they must in a sense consent to them or choose them, consciously and effortfully. I guess you might say that they have, not destinies, but rightful places in the world: and that taking their places is only the beginning. Only once they’ve done this can they set things to rights. 

Side note: I like that there’s no romance in this book; Lirael rejects men out of shame and shyness, but her friendship with the Dog is much more fulfilling than any fling with a man would be. Sam is fleetingly attracted to her — before finding out she’s his aunt. 

I really appreciate how the lightness of Nix’s touch and tone complement the seriousness of the subject matter. These books are about death, and Death, the realm to which we all must go (one way or another) and in which some of us are not content to stay... the land is beset by danger on all sides; refugees are slaughtered by the thousands; Free Magic creatures and constructs are everywhere... the threat is very real, but Lirael is never self-serious. It’s frequently funny: the Dog, Mogget, and Lirael and Sam’s own foibles 

[laughinglistener]

Girl Power & Talking Animals: The Sequel We Didn't Know We Needed

Again, not the American cover on the audiobook I listened to, but LOOK HOW AWESOME THIS IS.

Lirael

(Old Kingdom, Book Two) By Garth Nix

Format: Audio Book Narrator: The infamous Tim Curry again Length: 14 hours & 45 minutes Genres: Fiction, Young-adult, Fantasy, Adventure, Magic Take a Peek:  Audible  |  Overdrive  |  Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Goodreads

Rating: 4 Stars

The saga continues! I had some serious doubts going into this sequel since the beginning of Sabriel was such a freaking bore. But once again, the promise of Mogget and Tim Curry made me take the dive and I’m happy I did. So far this Old Kingdom series hasn’t been pulse-racingly thrilling, but it’s a fun adventure with talking animals. That’s all I really need.

THE REHASH

*For some reason, this summary is super long. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Feel free to skip my rantings and head straight to the review on the bottom. I promise not to be offended.*

The prologue opens with a mysterious man named Hedge carrying the bells of an Abhorsen, instantly making the reader question where in the Old Kingdom timeline this is taking place. Last we heard, Sabriel—the new Abhorsen—was definitely female. Is this far in the future, or far in the past? He begins speaking with another powerful sorceress named Chlorr and it becomes obvious that they are followers of Kerrigor, the evil-being Sabriel defeated in the first novel. Hedge makes Chlorr his new servant and apparently these two goons are the new evil dream team.

This book is broken up into four parts, the first taking place 14 years after the ending of Sabriel. We see a girl named Lirael, who’s turning 14 and hates birthdays. They’re just a reminder of everything she doesn’t have. She’s a member of the Clayr, a group of mostly women infamous for their ability to see into the future, and Lirael has waited her whole life to get the Sight without success. Plus, her whole aesthetic is the complete opposite of a normal Clayr who are tan skinned with blonde hair, while Lirael is pale and dark featured. Now she is alone, her father’s identity a mystery and her mother long gone, with only an abrasive aunt as family. She is an outcast in every way—no easy thing for a 14 year-old—and goes to great lengths to push people away so she can’t get hurt.

After an abysmal birthday morning, Lirael spends most of chapter two listing all the benefits of suicide and plotting how to do it. In the end she settles for jumping off a cliff. You know, casual. The Clayr’s home is already set in the mountains and they have a paper plane hanger that would be perfect to throw one’s self from, so Lirael sets off. She arrives after a long hike and immediately hides, waiting for the guards to get lost to make her final move. As she waits, a paper plane comes gliding in and we finally see Sabriel and King Touchstone. They’ve come to visit the Clayr hoping for a vision that could help their current quest. Hedge is purposely causing problems as a distraction, though they don’t know this yet—only see the effects of his actions. The older Clayr deny having any related visions, and the now married couple set off again, but not before Sabriel spots Lirael hiding in the snow. Once the two are gone, the older Clayr demand to know what Lirael is doing and she breaks down. Without giving away her plan for suicide, she admits how miserable she’s been and how worried she is about not gaining the Sight yet. For some reason, the Clayr women are shocked and ask if it would help to have a job to take her mind off things. Um, duh. Lirael is overjoyed and accepts a position in the library, making you wonder why no one offered this to the poor thing earlier.

Contrastingly, fast forward four years and Prince Sameth is busy being a wholesome, trouble-free teen playing cricket with his cricket team. On the way home from a game, they belatedly realize that the driver has been going the wrong way and leading them straight into a trap. There’s a whole lot of zombies coming and Sam demonstrates his prowess as a leader, which is important because you’ll want to slap him in the coming chapters. Recognizing that the undead are being controlled by another necromancer, Sam decides to go into death to find them. On the other side, he sees Hedge who immediately tries to cast a control spell. It’s obvious that this entire plot was a grand scheme to get to Sam specifically and he just manages to thwart Hedge with some pretty kick ass moves. Sam goes back to reality barely making it out alive, with Hedge following close behind, determined to get control of the prince. For an awful moment it appears that Hedge succeeds, embedding something evil in his opponent’s heart, but we learn that he mistakenly hit Sam’s friend Nicholas instead. Nick is now unknowingly the host of an awful spirit that the creepy Hedge is trying to please. It’s all very Harry Potter, Professor Quirrell-esque.

via GIPHY

The cricket team narrowly escapes and they all go home, unaware that the danger has just begun.

While Sam recovers from the attack physically, he still suffers from post-traumatic stress and has become paralyzingly afraid of death (the place, not death death)—not too convenient for the Abhorsen-in-waiting. For a long while we follow Sam while he mopes about the castle, wondering how to tell his mother he doesn’t wish to be the next Abhorsen. We also see him get bossed around by his insensitive older sister Ellimere, which is apparently suppose to show us that she’ll be a great Queen someday. Just as the two royal siblings get word from their parents that things in the kingdom have gone from bad to worse, Sam receives a letter from Nick saying he’s coming to visit. This would be good news, but Nick didn’t want to bother Sam to come pick him up, so he decided to hire a random guide instead. It’s so obvious this “guide” is Hedge that even Sam sees how sketchy the situation is and decides to sneak out of the castle to go save his friend.

The now 18 year-old Lirael, on the other hand, is having a grand time working at the library by day and exploring it’s hidden rooms at night. She’s very gifted with charter magic and uses it to sneak around after hours. During one of these excursions she accidentally unleashes a freaky praying mantis monster and in the chaos, finds a little dog figurine. Once she manages to get away safely, she casts a spell to bring the dog figurine to life and OH MY GOD THERE’S A TALKING DOG NOW. Sassy Tim Curry dog is just as amazing as sassy Tim Curry cat and ALL MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE. Together they team up to defeat the scary praying mantis and explore the library in more depth, eventually finding the secrets of Lirael’s past hidden in one of the old rooms. The elder women of the Clayr help her find some answers and confess they’ve seen Lirael in a vision helping a sick young man.

They send her on a quest to find him, where she sails—quite literally—into Prince Sameth and they discover they’re looking for the same person. Both Lirael and Sam join forces to save Nick and *crosses fingers* defeat Hedge. In the end, we’re left on a cliffy and have to read book three to find out what happens.

THE GOOD

My main gurl Lirael is awesome and I really loved the parts told from her perspective. Even when she was having a major pity-party at the beginning, on the verge of throwing herself off a cliff, she was still relatable. What person hasn’t felt like an outcast at some point during their life? Plus, the Clayr seemed so oblivious to her plight that it really made me feel for Lirael. Once she gets the job in the library, though, she becomes a magical bad ass and it was amazing to watch her grow as a character.

Plus, let’s not forget Lirael’s bff, the TALKING DOG. Mogget the cat really saved me during the first novel and the Disreputable Dog (I’m calling her DD for short—that name is way too long.) saved me during this one. It’s kind of poetic. I’m really hoping this is a theme that runs throughout the series and we’ll just get more and more talking animals. Talking dragon. Talking horse. Talking bird. Talking fish. The possibilities are endless. When Mogget and DD finally met and bantered together towards the end it made the whole book for me.

I also think Garth Nix did a good job in the way he arranged the plot, and it really made everything more exciting. The way he switches perspectives between the two characters is great, and it helped build a lot of excitement for when Sam and Lirael finally meet. At the end of Sabriel, there was a time crunch and a sense of urgency that this book was lacking since it cuts off before the main confrontation. Breaking it up into different parts and characters was a good way to compensate for that.

And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Tim Curry makes this audiobook worth listening to. He has the best voice and does an amazing job acting out the story. I have already mentally added “animal voices” to the list of reason why I love Tim Curry so much.

THE UGLY

By the end, Sam is not my favorite person. It’s odd because I started off really loving him after that whole cricket team battle, but my opinion just got progressively worse and worse as the story went on. When he goes into death to hunt for Hedge, some horrible things happen and it’s completely understandable that this would freak him out. I never blamed him for the post-traumatic stress, and even felt for the guy when he went back home and had to deal with his awful sister without any help from his parents. After a while though, his whining starts to get old and by the end I wanted to kick him. My new literary best friend Lirael is making plans to go save Nick, and Sam says he wants to stay back and let her go without him. What?!? Are you kidding me right now? After everything you’ve been through and the countless times she’s saved your sorry butt, you’re just going to let Lirael rescue Nicholas (who’s your friend to begin with, by the way) alone? UGH. GTFO. I think part of the problem is that the book cuts off and we only see half of Sam’s character transformation, but that doesn’t make it any less infuriating.

Plus, I can’t lie, parts of this book were a little boring for me. Particularly Sam’s sections that depict him depressingly roaming about the castle and dancing terribly as a bird. I loved Lirael so much that I found myself anxiously awaiting her parts and not paying too much attention to his. It was nowhere near as dull as the first one, but still a little on the subdued side nonetheless.

FINAL WORD

This was really fun to listen to and definitely a better overall book than the first one. How often does that happen? If you liked the ending of Sabriel and loved the characters, this is definitely worth reading. All of the good ones come back and I really enjoyed seeing the story continue. On to the third!

And again, do yourself a solid and LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK.

Girl Power & Talking Animals: The Sequel We Didn’t Know We Needed was originally published on Laughing Listener