Sabriel

Turns out this book is geared to young adults, which I wasn't expecting. The story contains some interesting ideas, such as bell magic, Charter magic, Old and New Kingdoms, that were not explored as deeply as I would've liked (perhaps they will be in subsequent books). The depiction of the realm of Death was very nicely done. The ending was, I thought, actually quite clever and mostly gratifying. The writing in Sabriel was decent, but in too many places I stumbled over a clunky, distracting simile (sometimes things described can be just those things, without having to be like something else). I can imagine my younger self absolutely loving this book. But for an older, more experienced reader, it was just an OK and quick diversion.