Clariel
Garth Nix
Clariel is miserable in her new city life. She doesn’t understand why she should have to go to finishing school – really she just wants to run away to the forests somewhere. When she isn’t being used to reach the King by her ambitious GoldSmith mother, she is identifying Free Magic. Little does she know that the magic might take hold of her instead.
This novel lets its main character develop the way I would want, but could have left a bit more time for other characters to put their own 2 cents in. I would have liked to have more of everything, the world as it was many years before the rest of the series, and the state of society.
Isn’t it the story of life that if people just spoke to each other and stopped trying to keep secrets, everything would work out far better? I could see so many spots that if people had just stopped, not touched and then talked some deaths could have been averted!
Am I too old for this novel? Never! Certainly, the themes here seem quite trivial in comparison to those in Sabriel for example. Gracious! I just tried to link to my review, and it turns out I have never written one! Take my word for it, you need to own these. I think Clariel offers a good entry point into the series, but take it with a grain of salt as only so much can happen in such a comparatively short novel.
I received this for my birthday this year. I had, in fact, requested it from Alland & Unwin a long, long time ago when I first started reaching out for review copies from publishers. Since then, it had sort of sat at the back of my mind with wanting! I received Nix’s newest Abhorson novel, Goldenhand, and knew I had to read Clariel first.
I love the Abhorson series, of which Lirael is my favourite. It’s easy to tell why when she’s a librarian with spunk! In fact, I’ve got a baby name based on their names. Needless to say, I’ll be giving this 5 stars. Why are you still here reading my review? Go and buy it already!
I spent a lot of the novel being confused by who was who and which sides people were on. I seriously needed a character list to keep things straight, and I kept flicking back to the Prologue in the hopes I would be able to work out who the ‘bad guys’ were.
I don’t know what drew me to this novel, or what kept me reading. In any other case, I think I would have gotten frustrated with the glacial pacing, with very little action. However this novel had the right protagonist for me to keep reading. How could I not love Billi? Talk about the underdog (pun intended). I really enjoyed the unassuming and thoughtful dialogue inside Billi’s brain.
What I liked about this novel was that there was plenty of Grim time. I love Grim as a character because he is so real and flawed and fantastic! Don’t get me wrong, I also like Blackthorn, but it’s nice to have a counterpoint to the somewhat traditional role of ‘Grumpy Healer’.
I feel like I didn’t get a really good grip on Snow’s character. But then you consider that she has been locked up and completely drugged for the last 10+ years and you can’t be surprised. She felt quite cold to me, and never seemed to warm up. I’ll be looking for more character development in the second novel of this.
Who doesn’t love an underdog? Nessa is going to fight for what she has, and pretend she doesn’t care about everything else. Her legs aren’t going to stop her, when her mind is sharp. Her mind ends up being the thing that can save her. Other reviewers have picked on her being a character trope, but I didn’t have an issue with that. I appreciated that Nessa couldn’t see her own faults until it was to late – she couldn’t be too self-sacrificing after all.
Why is there no next book? I need one. Why was this so short? I need it to be longer! I didn’t want to step away from the characters.
Lily is very… cold. I found it difficult to empathise with her because she seemed unchanged by deaths she had caused. Is it simply a side effect of being a witch? Or is it something else about her character that makes her too much like Lillian. They are the same person after all. I don’t think it was all about Lillian manipulating Lily, much as Rowan wanted to blame her.
To an extent I felt like I didn’t know Lily, despite having things from her perspective the whole time. She is a crucible I suppose, so being empty is part of it. I did feel like her character progressed though. Rowan on the other hand felt very static, although his attitude to Lily changed. Not that there is anything wrong with that.