Sabriel, a review

My mum suggested that I read these books as a kid, and for some reason I said no. And when it popped up when I was around 19 I gave in to buying the first book but for SOME REASON I didn’t buy the rest despite them being RIGHT THERE. I am forever mad at myself cause this is my perfect type of book! A fantasy based around death, with magic, and cats. Perfection.

We follow Sabriel who starts off in a boarding school her father sent her to. She’s right at the end of her time there and is preparing for her father to collect her. But misfortune strikes, her father has gone missing. He’s trapped by a malicious force and only she can save him. She has to move from the “mortal” side of this world, where she grew up, to the “magical” side to find some way to free him.

Every character in this book is well developed and I adore seeing them change as we traverse through the world and learn more about the people, the magic, and of course about Mogget the cat.

Despite this being written by a male author, 18 year old Sabriel is a fantastically written female character. And yes, despite this being a YA and being aimed at 12-13 year olds in school, Sabriel is indeed 18 and she *acts* like an 18 year old. This book is one of the best and most age ascending YA books I’ve had the pleasure to read.

On CAWPILE I gave this book: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 10, Writing: 10, Plot: 9, Intrigue: 10, Logic: 9, Enjoyment: 10, which gives a score of 9.57 and is of course a five star read!

I absolutely adored this book, it’s a new favourite, and I 100% need to get my mitts on the rest of the books!! I’m obsessed!!

September Reading Wrap Up

This has been a helluva month!!

Not only have I been moving things down in dribs and drabs to my new home 100 miles away with my partner (thank you dad for all the driving), but I also did 10+ interviews for various jobs, and I’m moving job as well! And on top of all of that? I prepared for possibly the most ridiculous BookTube thing I’ve ever done (announcement tomorrow) and read a load!

But you’re here for the books, so let’s dive in!

First up is Cathy’s Book by Stewart, Weissman, and Brigg which has arguably been on my tbr for around a decade at this point. I’ve finally read it!!

The Maleficent Seven by Derek Landy was my next read, chronologically, a short story following one of the side characters within the Skulduggery world. I loved the backstory that we got for them!

Sticking with the Skulduggery Pleasant theme I finished up the Armageddon Outta Here anthology by Derek Landy, I’ve been slowly reading this as the stories slot in with the main books so this has taken a few months. Glad to be able to tick this one off!

Going for a rare bit of Sci-Fi here, next I picked up Paradox Lost by George Mann which is a Doctor Who book, the last of 3 that I own. This was probably my least favourite of the three, but I did still enjoy it!

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold was absolutely amazing. This is a non-fiction read about the women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper. It looks into their history, their lives, their families, and their situations. It’s a very well written book and I recommend it to anyone.

The Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy was the “actual” Dead Famous Readalong book for this month, and it was a damn good one! Possibly one of my favourite rereads so far? (not including the first book #obvs)

I can’t believe that it took me this long to pick up Sabriel by Garth Nix but I absolutely fell in love and I need more in this series right away!! This is a book about death, a theme I love, which also has fantastic character development and a really interesting magical system! Someone should’ve made me pick this up sooner!!

Finishing up a book I’ve been reading for a few months now, I finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse finally on the 18th September. This was a really interesting historical fantasy, I like how the two time periods were woven together and I’m looking forward to reading more books in the Languedoc series.

The big one. It’s finally done!! War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is finally finished!! Me an Olivia did a big final push to get through this before the end of the month. I have to say that the end chapters were… uninspiring to say the least. Tolstoy was just talking at the reader as though his points are 100% factual and correct, even though they’re opinion, and having a privileged white man whine on at you for however long isn’t enjoyable. I did, however, really enjoy the fictional parts of the story and fell in love with Natasha, Pierre, Mary and Andrew! I just wish we had a bit more of a conclusion to the story!

And my final read of the month was The Cauldron of Life by Caroline Logan, the second book in The Four Treasures series. I adored this book so so much, the found family dynamic is beautiful and I love the character development. The plot pacing is fantastic and I am so ridiculously excited to read more in this series! I could live on books like these!

And there you have it, my September reads! Just a few 😂 I managed over 3000 pages this month (only including the parts of W&P etc that I read within September) which is pretty decent, and hopefully I can continue that in October! Although… somehow I’m doubting it #busy

What’s your favourite book you read in September? I can’t choose between The Five, Sabriel, and The Cauldron of Life!!

Sticking on the theme of finishing big books, I finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy! 😱 The momentus day itself being the 28th September 2021. I’ve been reading at least one chapter of this every single day since the 1st January this year!!

Then I had a DNF. After trying to read Double Cross by Malorie Blackman for 10 days and instead sinking myself into a massive slump, I decided to put it on hold. This was a reread for me, and to be honest I just couldn’t bring myself to read about teens /f.wmng

Onto more positive notes,

My stupidly large August TBR! Aaand, my last catch up post!

I have definitely set the bar a little toooo high this month! So I’m likely to not manage all of these, but at least I’m aiming high… right? This should also be my last “catch up” post after the hecticness of the readathons and my Gran coming to visit. Fingers crossed I can stay up to date from now on! Also, I’m not going to be including the remainder of my BookTubeAThon tbr (which continued into the beginning of August), if you’d like to see that tbr then click here, and my wrap up for that is here!

Finally, into the tbr!

Of Blood Exhausted by Jemahl Evans

This one doesn’t have any cover art as yet, as I am reading it as a beta reader. I keep putting it off as it feels like a bit of a daunting challenge (and it’s on my laptop which is just awkward). But hopefully, placing it within my tbr will encourage me to actually get to it! It is the 3rd book in the Blandford Candy series (link to book #1 here) which I adore and go on about frequently! I really am so excited to get to it! Just a little daunted!

King of the Seven Lakes by A. B. Endacott (Legends of the Godskissed Continent #2)

I absolutely fell in love with Queendom of the Seven Lakes, book one in the series (link here!), and am so pleased that the series is continuing on (book 3 is already out! I need to read, read, read!). This is an amazing fantasy series, with great character and world development and this should be such a good read!

Aaru by David Meredith (The Aaru Cycle #1)

I was sent a copy of this self-published book by the author, and the dystopian synopsis really intrigues me. I’m hoping that I really enjoy this, as there is already a sequel out and I can jump into it!

The Mystery of the Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #3)

I got this book to review from NetGalley, and although I haven’t read much from her, I really love Agatha Christie’s writing so I’m hoping that Sophie Hannah can match it! Many of Christie’s books could be read individually so I’m hoping that I won’t be at too much of a disadvantage having not read the first two books.

Shattered by Teri Terry (Slated #3)

I’m finally getting round to finishing this series!! I started it so many years ago and am so ready to see the conclusion, although I’m 100% not ready for it to end! I’ve loved the first two books in this series so this should be a good one!

The Universe Between Us by Jane C. Esther

A book I acquired through NetGalley that I should’ve read a long time ago. I don’t remember what it’s about, I’m assuming it’s a Sci-Fi. I hope I enjoy it but only time will tell.

 

The Orchard by Anne Frasier/Theresa Weir

Another book I got through NetGalley that looked interesting. This is an autobiography of fighting for love and changing her life dramatically. I don’t actually know of the author but she has written fiction so I am expecting it to flow well and be interesting!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #1)

Does this need an explanation? No, I’ve not read it yet. Yes, this is my first time through it. I really hope that I enjoy this! The hype is intense for this book so fingers crossed!

 

Sabriel by Garth Nix (Abhorsen #1)

Another well known YA book that many have read, although this one is a little older! I only bought this relatively recently, so it’s not toooo bad… right? Again, hoping I enjoy this one!

 

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking #1)

There seems to be a bit of a theme going on here… another older YA book that so many people have read. I intend to join their numbers!

 

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

Booksandlala (in her older videos) goes on about Gillian Flynn so much that I had to pick up a couple of her books! This is the one that has the most intriguing synopsis to me so it’s up first!

 

The Empathy Problem by Gavin Extence

Look at how pretty this cover is! This was a total cover buy, along with The Universe Versus Alex Woods, but I absolutely loved that book and the synopsis sounds really interesting so I’m expecting to really enjoy this one!

Truth Sister by Phil Gilvin

I got this book as an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy – pre-publishing with a few minor tweaks to be made to the finished book) at NYALitFest (see my haul here!) and at the time it wasn’t on Goodreads and there was no date on my copy so I didn’t know when it came out. Fast forward months later and it turns out it was released on the 1st July so I need to get reading! This is a novel that, as far as I can tell from the synopsis, revolves around a matriarchy with a severe class system, knowledge, and corruption. Should be a good one!

The Time Travel Handbook by Wyllie, Acton and Goldblatt

I already started reading this during the 7in7readathon (vlog here) and I’m really enjoying it. It’s essentially a travel guide to 18 historical events, both very recent history (the fall of the Berlin wall) and ancient history (such as the eruption of Vesuvius) and is written in a really engaging and interesting way. Excited to finish it!

And that’s it! Fourteen books! Like I said I probably won’t get around to all of them but I can try! I’ll be going off to a different University next month to start a Masters so I probably won’t have too much free time, hence the massive reading goal for my last month of freedom for another year! Let’s see how much I manage!