I was inspired to write this review by this tweet. YA is an interesting genre. Nix’s previous books (which I adore) have given us a very typical YA heroines. They are morally clear, they have self doubt which they work through, and they are generally good. In Clariel – which a lot of Nix fans didn’t like – we don’t get that. Clariel is a prequel to Sabriel – Nix’s first “Old Kingdom” book. It’s set a couple of hundred years in the past. Clariel […]
Hey, Not Every Review I Write is Negative!
After reading a string of unsatisfying fantasy, I danced with joy when Clariel was released because I knew Garth Nix would not disappoint. If you have not read his Abhorsen trilogy yet, you should get on that immediately, especially if you are a fan of young adult fantasy with strong women characters. You could start with this book, because it’s a prequel to the trilogy and covers lot of the basics of the world building, I think it makes a better companion piece to the trilogy […]
Slightly disappointing prequel to a series I love.
This is a prequel, and prequels can be dicey, so let me just start by saying: this could have been much, much, much worse. Clariel is the story–not of how young Clariel becomes Chlorr of the Mask from the original series like I was expecting it to be–but of how the foundations for that eventual change are laid. Seventeen year old Clariel moves with her family to the city of Belisaere. Clariel’s a girl of the forest, so right away this makes her unhappy, but the city […]