So many years ago, my dear friend Kyle told me that there was a young adult series I should read. After all, I studied children’s literature and young adult literature, and I loved all things spooky and macabre. The series was right up my alley. So I said I’d read it, and I even purchased an omnibus edition of the first three novels. And then, like we do with so many books, I put it on my nightstand and didn’t read it for years.

Kyle always brought up, mostly as a joke, that I was such a bad friend I couldn’t even read a YA book he suggested. Every time I recommended a movie or TV show to him, he’d sigh and say, “Why should I watch this when you can’t even read the Abhorsen chronicles?” 

In “these times,” Kyle and I have had the wonderful opportunity to bond through both our profession (when I taught last fall) and Dungeons & Dragons, which we play online every week. We also share an unhealthy love of the Gideon’s Bakehouse Instagram account and TikTok videos.

All that being said, as soon as Kyle was eligible for the Covid vaccine, I urged him to get it. We struck a deal. If he got the Covid vaccine, I would finally read the Abhorsen Chronicles, which has sat on my nightstand for years. I’d finally read it and we’d talk about it.

He scheduled an appointment, I blew the dust off the massive paperback. Now that Kyle has received his first dose, it’s time for me to pony up and actually read that book. The spirit is willing but the time management skills are weak. Even though I read the first couple of chapters, other books for the podcast have delayed progress. First I had to read When No One’s Watching by Alyssa Cole, then I needed to read Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger for YA Book Club. We have The Project coming up, and…

But I have to read this book. I made a promise to a friend and I need to keep it. This blog post is a declaration to begin reading the series, to post updates from time to time to keep myself accountable. I’m inviting all of our blog readers to join me on this journey through a 25 year old YA series. I don’t have a specific timetable yet, but we’re going to do it. Let me tell you what we’re getting into, now that you’re all coming with me. 

The Abhorsen Chronicles (or the Old Kingdom everywhere but North America) is a fantasy series by Australian author Garth Nix. There are two types of magic in the world, Free Magic and Charter Magic. Free Magic, as the name implies, is natural to the world and a little more unwieldy. Charter Magic involves complex runes and order. There are also necromancers, who deal with the dead and even travel into the realm of Death itself in order to push and pull people to the brink of the afterlife. Necromancers use tiny bells to aid in their work. 

The magic system seems intriguing, and the series is beloved (otherwise, how would it have stayed in print so long and landed Nix the surely lucrative Keys to the Kingdom job with Disney). The first book follows Sabriel, the daughter of a powerful necromancer, as she attempts to figure out what’s happened to her missing father. 

I’ll be posting about Sabriel in late April, so read along with me if you’d like! The Abhorsen Chronicles is important in terms of YA fantasy, which I’ve read a lot of, so I’m excited to be looking at the books from both an academic and personal standpoint. Some along with me, won’t you?