‘Lirael’ by Garth Nix

  “Lirael,” the second installment of Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy, picks up 14 years after “Sabriel” leaves off.
  This time around, Nix centers his attention on a daughter of the Clayr, a people who See into the future and played a minor role in “Sabriel.”
  Lirael never has felt like a true Clayr because she has never gained the Sight. The kind Clayr see how this has saddened her spirit and decide to give her a job to distract her from not having the Sight.
  “ ‘We have never taken on a librarian whom we haven’t already Seen as being a librarian,’ she said, tilting her head, like someone puzzling over how to hang a painting. ‘But no one has ever Seen you at all, have they?’
  Lirael felt her mouth dry up. Unable to speak, she nodded. She felt the sudden opportunity that had been granted her slipping away. The reprieve, the chance of work, of being someone —
 ‘So you are a mystery,’ continued the Librarian. ‘But there is no better place for mystery than the Great Library of the Clayr — and it is better to be a librarian than part of the collection.’ ’’
  With that, Lirael joyfully begins her duties as a librarian. To ease the loneliness she feels, she creates the Disreputable Dog, who becomes her faithful companion, much like the cat in “Sabriel,” and encourages her exploration of the hidden passages of the mysterious Great Library.
  Lirael’s exploration ends suddenly when she is sent on an unexpected journey by the Clayr to fulfill a destiny that could affect all of the Old Kingdom. Lirael faces many dangers in her travels as she braves the land of Death, necromancers and the walking dead.
  “Lirael” reveals what happens to Sabriel and her friends during the passing years, and like the previous book, “Lirael” enchants with its magic and adventure.
  I probably won’t be able to wait long to read the third in the series, “Abhorsen.”