Read This Book . . .

A year ago, Sabriel by Garth Nix celebrated its 25th birthday. When I first read the novel as a teenager, I was swept away to another world where the dead didn’t always stay dead. Wild magical creatures roamed the dark places of the world. And only one young woman had the power to save the land.

Fantasy novels have always been my first love. I poured over library catalogs looking for more stories set in other worlds full of things like dragons, elves, fairies, talking cats, or whatever other fantastical creatures the author imagined. But most of the fantasy novels that I read featured stories of young men finding the hidden power within themselves. They always reluctantly accepted that power, eventually slaying the bad guy and saving the world.

But Sabriel’s story was different. She grew up knowing she would one day take up her father’s mantle and become the Abhorsen, the one who kept the dead down. There were no secret powers to discover or reluctant acceptance of her own ability. Sabriel studied. She ground out her training day after day, knowing that she must be ready when the time came. She was a woman who knew that there would be no magical power to save her if she had no idea how to use it in the first place.

Eventually, her father goes missing, and Sabriel must venture across the wall into the Old Kingdom and search for her father in a land she hasn’t been in since her childhood. Even with all of her preparedness, she still has so much to learn about fighting necromancers and slaying the undead.

I loved all of the Old Kingdom series, which now has expanded to six books and a couple short stories. But Sabriel will always be my favorite. There’s just something about her practical approach to her career as an Abhorsen that I deeply connect with, and now that I’m older, I have begun viewing her in new ways. Sometimes rereading a favorite from your childhood can be disappointing. But other times, you find something new that is just as profound and meaningful as when you first read it.