Lirael has not been able to find her rightful place in her kingdom. Even her parents and family members are not well connected to her. Her mother left her when she was just a child and since then she hasn’t heard anything about her. The other close family member that she has is her father who has no concern about her perhaps he does not keep her with him.
When Lirael becomes an adult she tries to resemble herself with different members of her family but she does not find any kind of resemblance with anybody. She thinks that she is in the wrong place. Being a Clayr she must have the power to see the future but she has not been blessed with it either. It seems that someone has blocked her powers intentionally.
Still, the girl is told that she possesses the power to change the fate of the kingdom. It is up to her to complete her training and then ultimately face the evil which is slowly climbing up to the empire. Garth Nix has written about destiny very seriously in this story as this is something we cannot save ourselves from.
We have to do the thing for which we are created or the thing which is written in our fate. Sabriel and Abhorsen had fine characters of their own which dominated the scenes quite a lot. Such characters always remain in the mind and are seldom forgotten. The courage which Lirael possesses shows that she happens to be a strong lady. Surely the character deserved the strong voice of Tim Curry in the narration.