I have always been a voracious reader. When I was younger I’d read almost anything: the boring backs of church bulletins, cracker boxes, and classified ads for car sales when I still had years to go before getting my driver’s license. Many of the books I read helped to mold me into the person I am today, so it was hard to choose what book to write about for this series. Recently, Garth Nix added a new addition to his classic YA fantasy series, and I knew that I needed to re-read the original three: Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen. I loved the series in middle school, and I remember begging my mom to buy them for me on one of our many bookstore trips.
Spurred on by the excitement of another book set in that world, I re-read the original three books. To my delight, I found that I enjoyed reading them as much as a grown up woman as I did as a middle school girl. I realized that these books were some of the first to send me down the path to feminism. The two strong, fleshed out, emotional, and compassionate lead characters—Sabriel and Lirael—taught me that I could be strong and brave, yet unsure and scared. They helped me at a time when I desperately needed friendship and courage, and they—whether I knew it or not—helped me grow into the woman I am today.
Set in an alternate early 20th century Britain where magic flows freely in the Old Kingdom north of the Wall—so basically Scotland—but not in Ancelstierre, the southern kingdom, it’s the story of evil necromancers raising people from the dead versus the valued and feared “Abhorsens.” These important figures wield seven bells, each with different powers and magic called the Charter. While evil necromancers raise the dead, force undead spirits into dead flesh, and are absolutely evil, the noble Abhorsens send the dead back down the River of Death to rest. Two of the main characters from the series, Sabriel, who is the main character of the titular first book, and Lirael who is the main character of the next two books, Lirael and Abhorsen, are two of these figures of power. It’s a great fantasy series for anyone looking for something a little darker and different.
These books were hugely influential in my eventual turn to necromancy, and now I raise the Dead all over the Eastern United States, causing trouble and mischief along the way.
I kid. These books did not turn me into a necromancer, although I admit learning Charter spells would be pretty amazing. Instead, they inspired my feminism and are still helping me to be a bit kinder to myself.
The books appeared, as often books do, at a time in my life just when I needed them. My whole fascination, apprehension, and eventual love of the series started with the cover of Sabriel.* I remember seeing it in my middle school library and being instantly drawn to it. I didn’t borrow it, at first. It had been published recently, so it was often on display, and I’d go past it, almost circling it, unsure if I really wanted to check it out.
I think it scared me a little bit. Sabriel is such a striking, almost androgynous figure on the cover, and the big baddie Kerrigor looms behind her. Not only did it look like it might actually give me nightmares, I had no point of reference for this type of book cover. I thought it might be fantasy, but there wasn’t a castle or a horse or obvious magic on the cover. There was a sword, but why bells? And was Sabriel a girl? Despite being told by my parents that I could do whatever the boys did, I was still unsure of a girl main character in a fantasy novel. I was used to Nancy Drew and, to a certain extent, Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time, but this seemed different. This was fantasy, the realm of Tolkien. My view of fantasy at the time was clouded by the idea that there were few women and that they certainly didn’t have swords. I didn’t really question that viewpoint until I found Sabriel.
I didn’t know what to do with it, so I continued to stalk it around the library, but never check it out. Then we moved to a new state in between sixth and seventh grade. If there’s a time that is the absolute worst time to start at a new school, I think seventh grade might be it. It didn’t help that in my old school sixth grade was still in the elementary school and at my new school sixth grade was middle school. So all the new people I saw in the hallways already had a year of middle school under their belts, and I still felt like an elementary schooler.
I went to the library whenever I could and made friends with the librarian. At the time, I knew this was not a cool thing, but what could I do? She had all the books! The library became a refuge for me, and I spent a lot of time over middle and high school in the small room. I remember one of my first visits there I saw an old acquaintance: Sabriel. I decided I would just do it; I’d check it out. I wanted to be brave and cool and fit in, and some how I thought reading this book that seemed to be following me across state lines would help.
And it … sort of did. I was still a girl who read a lot, and in the late 1990s, young adult fantasy was not having the renaissance that it’s had over the last few years. Yes, there were the Harry Potter books, but everyone read Harry Potter. I was the girl reading books like Sabriel, had already read The Lord of the Rings series three times, and loved C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. Needless to say, I made friends, but I did not become cool.
What I loved most about the books, once I got past the intimidating and beautiful covers, is the way that both Sabriel and Lirael are allowed to be scared, unsure, and so very much in the process of becoming. They are becoming Abhorsens, but they still have so much to learn. Sabriel and Lirael are not the wooden “strong female characters” that are total badasses and emotionally stilted. They struggle with confidence, friendship, self image, loneliness, and fear.
Sabriel feels woefully under prepared for her work as an Abhorsen. She feels that her father, the old Abhorsen, didn’t prepare her enough in the ways of the Old Kingdom. Sabriel spent most of her life in primarily magic-less Ancelstierre to be safe. In the first books, she’s called back to try and save her father and claim her birthright, but most of the time she feels like she has no idea what she is doing. She needs help along the way and is filled with doubt. Yet, she continues on.
I wanted so desperately to be like her. Sabriel was able to use a mix of bravery, skill, and fear to set her resolve. Middle school can make even the most confident quaver, and there were days when I felt like nothing would ever be right. I thought I’d always be the weird, bookish girl with few friends. But reading about Sabriel being thrown into an unknown situation and being able to come into her own power to save the day gave me hope.
Lirael is even more afraid and honestly, in danger of being a terrible drip in the books. She cries, because she wishes for friends, a purpose, and because she’s scared. She feels out of place among the Clayr, the uber powerful matriarchal seers of the Old Kingdom. She has little family and doesn’t look like the rest of the women and she doesn’t get the “sight” like everyone else. Lirael’s a late bloomer stuck among children. Taking refuge in the library, she gains a friend in the wonderfully named Disreputable Dog and learns that she may have something to contribute after all.
There was something especially revolutionary about a character crying because she was scared, because I was scared too. Heroines were supposed to be brave and yes, both Lirael and Sabriel are brave, but they are also so human. They were so much like me at the time. I was scared of a new school and new friends. I knew that I was smart and talented, but I didn’t always feel it. As a reader I felt so much more charitable toward their mistakes and weakness than I did toward my own little mistakes. I felt like Sabriel and Lirael, my two fictional sisters, were trying to point that out to me. Be kind, they seemed to say, we make mistakes and are scared, too.
The characters of Sabriel and Lirael also helped me on my journey into feminism. I loved that they were women having these grand and important adventures, but it was also important to me that women being powerful, respected, and brave were normalized in the world of the Old Kingdom. Both Sabriel and Lirael become Abhorsens, and Nix makes it clear that it’s acceptable for men and women to be Abhorsens. I love a good story of a woman outperforming men in a man’s role as much as any girl, but there is something to be said for a world where that isn’t necessary.
In fact, so much of the series has amazing feminist touchstones, like a matriarchal society within the kingdom made of powerful and dark skinned seers who often take lovers at whim and without shame. They play a huge role in the second and third books where Lirael lives and works in their amazing library. Lirael is asked about whether she likes men or women, and both are acceptable. There’s also the lovely sexual awakening of Sabriel when she sees young prince Touchstone frozen naked into a statue. It’s strangely hot, in a middle school sort of way.
That seventh grade year I devoured the books one after another, and I revisited them in high school, too. They made me feel like I was among my peers: young women who were just trying to become who they were supposed to be, with some road bumps along the way. In a lot of ways, high fantasy YA novels present a great analogy to the middle school experience: the stakes are high, some people seem gifted with the magic of fitting in, and evil can lurks around every corner—or bank of lockers. Re-reading them this year made me remember all of those terrible times in middle school, but it also made me appreciate who I am now. I’ve weathered a lot of those trials, and most of the time I feel confident, accomplished, and prepared for what the world has to throw at me. Other times, I still feel scared and unsure. But I remember that many women have struggled with these insecurities before, and I often remember my fictional friends Sabriel and Lirael. If they can become confident and self assured all while saving the world from zombies, evil spirits, and more, then surely I can too. Hopefully, though, minus the walking dead.
*As a side note, I just want to say that the brief Wikipedia entry about the books cover illustrators, Leo and Diane Dillon, is fascinating. An interracial couple who married in the 1950s, they worked together, won multiple Caldecott awards, and were noted for drawing characters of color. They also produced the dreamy, almost trippy illustrations that I absolutely adore. Many of you may recognize their cover illustrations and childrens’ books.
