I am not going to lie, this is the first of Garth Nix's books that I've read. With no preconceived notion of the world I have to give it to Garth, he did something that most authors fail to do in prequels to already established world. He made the important things that where important to the plot and world clear to those who had never read Sabriel or the other books in his series and I LOVE that. I love the secondary characters and wish that Garth would make stories about them as well and what their lives turned out like after Clariel left. 
 Now for the things that I didn't like: 
 Clariel: I understand the want to be free, but when you repeat how you want to be "free" and run in the wild with EVERYONE you talk to it gets old. I can't stand repetition when it comes to "wants"in the protagonists. It made me feel like she didn't care about anyone around her or their feelings and only considered her own feelings especially when (view spoiler)[she figures out Bel has feelings for her (hide spoiler)]. I'm all for tough heroines, but this almost seemed like Garth was trying to FORCE Clariel's toughness and it really brought the story down. 
 Wanting more: I put this in a category because I don't feel like Clariel's story was finished and I REALLY want to like her. I feel though, to do that I would need a few more books and I don't think that Garth is going to do that. 
 Slowness of Plot:I have a short attention span and for some of this story I will admit I had to skip over some of the slower parts. I could do that and still get the jist of what is going on. I my opinion, if I can do that there is too much filler in a story!