I've lost track of how many times this series has been recommended to me. I put it off for a while, because I'm really picky about my epic fantasies. It's not a genre that I love, and you really have to win me for me to care about them. 
 But give me a kick-ass lady doing kick-ass things, like battling Dead things and trying to understand her own destiny? Heck yeah. 
 Sabriel is cool. She's no-nonsense, she's loyal, she's talented. But she's not perfect--actually, she has no idea what she's doing. Her father is the Abhorsen, not her, and she's received minimal training on what the job entails. She's fabulous with magic, but when it comes to the Greater Dead and anything having to do with the Old Kingdom? She's about ready to get out of there and save her own hide. 
 That's what makes this better than your average fantasy. She's still learning her world, which is a world that's kind of weird and creepy and she's not afraid to admit that. But it's also her job to combat that and keep the weird and creepy in death's realm, where they belong. 
 Seems I have a few more books to read in this series, yeah.