Violetta’s Reviews > Sabriel > Status Update

“Those with natural caution, or a touch of Sight, went home and locked their doors and shutters, not merely with steel and iron, but also with sprigs of broom and rowan.” Great example of show don’t tell. They need physical and supernatural powers at play.

Everything from this part forward was such beautiful imagery but also so spooky. Amazing writing and scene building.

'It was a beautiful building, Touchstone reminisced.
'You could see out over the Saere. It had high ceilings, and a clever system of vents and shafts to catch the light and the sea breeze. There was always music and dancing somewhere in the Palace, and Midsummer dinner on the garden roof, with a thousand scented candles burning..”

“'Somewhere along the path of his studies, he'd swapped real Life for power and, like all the Dead, he needed to take Life all the time to stay out of Death. But the Charter made it very difficult for him to do that, anywhere in the Kingdom. So he decided to break the Charter. He could have confined himself to breaking a few of the lesser stones, somewhere far away, but that would only give him a tiny area…”

“Sabriel felt sure her father would free the man. That’s what he did, that was what he lived for. The duty of an Abhorsen was to remedy unnatural necromancy and Free Magic sorcery.”