Abhorsen - this is the final book in the inital trilogy, it continues Lirael, Sam, and Nick's story - Lirael is now the assumed Abhorsen in waiting - her and Sam need to rescue Nick, and than defeat the Destroyer, unleashed by the free magic.

The world of the Abhorsen is well written and different - something that can be hard to accomplish. The ending is well done, with a few surprises. Of course, the good win, the bad are defeated, and learning is done. ( )

Reread 10/10/2016, because Sam got [b:Goldenhand|23302838|Goldenhand (Abhorsen, #5)|Garth Nix|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459203199s/23302838.jpg|42858213] last week. On her rec I'm skipping [b:Clariel|20662728|Clariel (Abhorsen, #4)|Garth Nix|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393877442s/20662728.jpg|6125574] for now.

I think I initially (many years ago) didn't make it through this book because I was so upset about what happened right at the beginning. It turns out 75% of the way through the book that Sabriel and Touchstone didn't die, of course.

The Disreputable Dog is my favorite character, no contest. I hope she shows up again.

Fantasy

While Sabriel feels like a standalone book, I consider Lirael and Abhorsen as two parts of the same book, as such I'm writing this review about both of them.

Many of my annoyances from Sabriel carry over into these books. The magic is still kind of hand-wavy and Nix still introduces new rules of the world in that "Oh by the way" manner. Free magic does not like water, oh, but by the way, this is only true for beings that are under the control of free magic, not free magic beings themselves. But the same things I liked about Sabriel are present here as well. The fact that Nix does not chain himself to the lore that he supposedly creates beforehand, gives the books a carefree vibe that is quite refreshing.

The main difference between Sabriel and Lirael/Abhorsen was that Sabriel didn't feel very exciting, while Lirael/Abhorsen very much did. Abhorsen in particular I read in little over a single day because I was absolutely hooked on the story. ( )

For a book about shambling zombies and their gory slaughter of the innocent, it's all surprisingly heart-warming. And I cried at the ending. Zombies and pathos? What more can you ask for? ( )