Sabriel

I was positively surprised. I didn't expect anything of this.

This is a story of a school girl, the daughter of the Abhorsen. What is an Abhorsen? Hard to say... They sort of control the dead... kind of like Death, except they aren't Death. Uh, just read the book, OK? :-D
She was sent to a school in the “outworld”, because of reasons - they are explained in the book - and her father visits her every now and then, but then one day, her father doesn't come, he sends a ghost to deliver his regalia, and Sabriel goes back to the Old Kingdom to find her dad. She finds out that he's missing, and she is now the Abhorsen. Her schooling becomes a bit of an obstacle, as there is so much she doesn't know. She insists on looking for her dad, and - well... things happen. In the end of the book she has accepted the role of the Abhorsen, and has grown to carry it.
There is also a cat who isn't a cat. I love him, even though... well... again, you have to read the book to know ;-)

I would say this is a YA fantasy, and not what I have thought all these years it would be.