Sabriel by Garth Nix was published in 1995 by HarperTrophey. With genres adventure, romance, sci-fi, and fantasy, this book is for young adults and children.

The book begins with Sabriel, a daughter of the Abhorsen. The Abhorsen are necromancers that have the responsibility of putting the dead to rest. She was born in the Old Kingdom but raised in Ancelstierre, the neighboring country. The two countries couldn’t be more different. In the Old Kingdom the dead don’t stay dead and is constantly trying to find ways to revive themselves into the material world. In Ancelstierre magic is frowned upon and is not even considered a topic to be talked about. Sabriel lived at her school in Ancelstierre where she was taught magic and necromancy. Sabriel is forced into the Old Kingdom after receiving a warning from her father in the land of the dead and receiving his sword and bells. She then sets out to save her father from death and to quench an evil that threatens to emerge. Through her travels she meets a strange talking cat and a young man named Touchstone. Each have mysterious pasts and are shrouded in mystery along with the Great Stones of the Old Kingdom.

Sabriel is a book with creativity, twists, and intelligence. The book wastes little time getting to the start of the adventure and is constantly making you think. Strangely enough, most of the book is placed in the setting of ‘death’ which I found to be an interesting concept compared to that of other books with fantasy. Personally, I found the setting of ‘death’ that the main character entered to be quite interesting. I found myself joking in my head saying things like, “Wow, the main character just died, again!” The themes of this book weren’t hard to identify, in fact, they were basically written in the book. “Everyone and everything has a time to die.” The two major themes are pretty much destiny and sacrifice. That is one of the main themes of the book and it is directly written in it. Another theme comes with the question, “Does the Walker choose the Path, or the Path the Walker?” The book mostly stayed with the same three, four, characters and didn’t have too too many side-characters. That helped me easily remember all the characters that were in the book. Suspense and action is slowly built up in the book and didn’t go down even at the end. Yet even with the little suspense and action I was immediately into the book and couldn’t put it down for hours at a time. The book itself was a pretty easy read. I would say the reading level would be for 7, 8th graders. I remember when I saw the reading level, I was surprised but when I read the book I discovered some themes that aren't just for seventh, eighth graders. Lastly, I loved the book because of the main character female. There are some female characters that I can’t help but hate. They can be incredibly stupid, naïve, or they can just get on my nerves. This character isn't any of the listed traits. Even if her father wasn't even around her, she did what was right and tried to save him. She was intelligent, strong, and interesting.

Sabriel is one of the better fantasy, sci-fi, romance, adventure story I have read. The book creates an imaginative world with unique characters and setting. Despite it being an easy read and the simple themes, Sabriel has a darker undertone with mysterious highlights. I would highly recommend this book to people of all ages with a love of fantasy. This book is part of the trilogy Old Kingdom so if you enjoy the first book there other books you can read.