I thought, after about the first third of this book by Garth Nix, that this was one of those books that was uncomprehensible, weird and just going nowhere. But I kept with it anyway. Call it stubborness on my part; a book has to be really bad before I’ll stop (unfortunately, that means there have been times when I wish I could have my time spent reading back). However, this was not one of them. It’s a pretty weird story — the world in which Sabriel inhabits is half “modern” half, well, fantasy. Sabriel is an “Abhorsen” in training — someone who “binds” the dead, that is, makes the dead stay that way. The first third is pretty creepy and confusing: dead things are chasing her, she needs to rescue her father, there’s this weird thing called Mogget, and by the way what is Charter Magic? Stick with it, though, and it becomes a straight-up fantasy/adventure, most of the questions you have during the first third are answered (or at least it makes more sense as you go on) and the creepiness gets less, well, creepy.

And Sabriel is a good girl-hero too. Strong-willed, yet she makes several mistakes that could be costly that she has to figure out solutions for. There’s romance, but she’s no damsel in distress, or silly head-over-heels in love maiden. By the end, you really like her and all the characters surrounding her. A good book.