3 Stars
Pros: Again, Mogget, he's just sarcasm incarnate and I love him/I feel like the big twist made sense but it was revealed in such an ordinary way but it flowed well.
Cons: This book was really dark at times, like, suicidal ideation, panic attacks, all sorts of depressing struggles. I guess I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy at times/Sameth and Lirael can be incredibly whiney but they're still young.
Full Review
It's been about 19 years since the events of Sabriel. Touchstone, who is now the King and Sabriel, who is the Abhorsen, have worked hard to rebuild what was left of the Old Kingdom. There are always struggles and demands but they've also found time to be together and are now married with two children. Princess Ellimere who is the Regent and will someday be Queen and Prince Sameth, who is the Abhorsen in Waiting. But he's secretly terrified of death and the power that the bells of the Abhorsen contain. After an unfortunate run in with a Necromaner in Death, Sam can't even think about entering death without having severe anxiety.
Lirael is an orphan who was raised by her aunt, who is one of the Clayr, the fair hared, dark skinned clairvoyants who live beneath a glacier in the far reaches of the Old Kingdom. She doesn't look like the other Clayr, she's dark haired with pale skin and she doesn't have the Sight. She doesn't know who her parents were and she feels like an outsider. She can't see the future and that's what the Clayr do and so she feels like a failure and an outsider.
The Clayr allow her to continue living in the glacier, working as an Assistant Librarian and there, she learns of Charter spells, otherworldly creatures that are trapped in the catacombs of the Library and she also befriends a creature that just kind of appeared one day, which calls itself the Disreputable Dog. After years of quiet servitude in the library and long nights of teaching herself magic and befriending the Disreputable Dog, the Clayr finally see Lirael in a vision.
They see her in a boat, with a boy, on the Red Lake. This is the only vision they've had that isn't of death, destruction and total annihilation. And thus, they know they must send her away in hopes that she'll meet the boy and their vision will come to pass.
While Lirael is sent on her journey, at the same time, Sameth has run away from home in hopes of finding his friend Nicholas who's crossed the Wall into the Old Kingdom. Nicholas was there the night the Necromancer attacked and Sameth was so badly injured in death. Sam has a bad feeling that his friend is in trouble and so he sets out on a mission to find him and rescue him. But, as these things usually turn out, it's more Sam that needs rescuing and that comes in the form of Lirael.
There are questions answered, mysteries upon mysteries, big reveals and the threads of fate are tightly interwoven as Sameth and Lirael reach Abhorsen's house and decide that it's time to start making a plan as to what to do next. And all the while, Nicholas is across the wall, working with a man named Hedge to uncover something dark and powerful called The Lightning Trap.
This book ended with the reader well primed for the conclusion in Abhorsen and this particular reader is hoping that everything will be settled and smoothed out with a neat and tidy bow at the end. Time to start reading and find out.
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