Sabriel by Garth Nix #20BOS26-6

There is nothing like an intrepid and self-aware heroine to take us lands away. Sabriel has attended Wyverley College, a boarding school for young ladies in Ancelstierre, since she was five and is now a graduating Sixth Form prefect, having excelled in all the expected coursework along with the less expected subject of magic. Her father is known as the Abhorsen, a powerful necromancer, and unusually has just failed to appear for a visit to his daughter. 

Somehow he manages to send her a Dead servant bearing his sword and a belt with seven bells, which contain the magic of the Charter. Sabriel realizes this means he must be dead or captured, so sets off from Ancelstierre to find him, crossing the Wall to the dangerous Old Kingdom which seems mostly inhabited by frightened people and corpses that won’t stay dead.

Her quest begins with a difficult journey to her father’s house in the depths of winter, over difficult terrain, intermittent dead soldiers, and various assailants along the way. When she finally reaches her father’s house, she is greeted by a mysterious white cat:

The cat was no cat, but a Free Creature of ancient power.

“Abhorsen,” mewed the cat, its little pink tongue darting. “About time you got here.”

Sabriel stared at it for a moment, gave a little sort of moan and fell forward in a faint of exhaustion and dismay.

The cat is Mogget, wearing an enchanted collar which keeps him a servant of the Abhorsen. He tells Sabriel her father is deceased and she has inherited his role as the Abhorsen with the responsibility of putting the dead to rest so she can save the country (a little warning would have been nice). Sabriel fears her father is in some in-between stage between life and dead, and has to rely on Mogget as her guide in this desperate situation. Along the way, Sabriel rescues Touchstone, who had been transformed into a ship’s figurehead, and he joins the expedition.

The worldbuilding in this book is complicated and hard to follow because Sabriel knows little and Mogget and Touchstone are under constraints that do not allow them to answer many of her questions. The Charter magic she has studied with her father has rules and she can use her father’s sword and his bells against the threats she encounters but there is also Free magic which is unpredictable. Her relationships with Mogget (who is sarcastic) and Touchstone (who is annoyingly subservient) are unusual and form a good counterpoint to the isolation of the traditional hero (or heroine’s) quest. I wondered what my college professor, Hugh Flick, would think about this series and saw he is now affiliated with Coastal Carolina (best known for its baseball team - I am guessing he retired to the area and someone persuaded him to teach an occasional course in return for library privileges).

Originally, I acquired a copy of this book because it was well reviewed and I had thought it was set at a boarding school, but Sabriel leaves school almost immediately. There is a funny comment – the headmistress says something to the effect of, “You must miss your father between his infrequent visits,” and Sabriel’s reply indicates that she sees him often. Clearly, he had been appearing secretly to teach her necromancy that the school knows nothing about!

I read that Garth Nix is a big fan of Nicholas Stuart Gray and that Mogget was likely inspired by Grimbold’s Other World, so I decided to include both in my 20 Books of Summer (I've now read seven of my 20). Sabriel can be read as a standalone fantasy focusing on assuming responsibility, while frightened and coping with grief, but it is also the beginning of six-book-plus series.  This was a very worthy cat story for my friend Mallika's Reading the Meow Challenge, and I am looking forward to the second book.

Title: Sabriel
Author: Garth Nix
Publication: HarperCollins, paperback, 1995
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: Personal copy

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 20 Books of Summer 2026

• Reading the Meow 2026