Reviews tagging 'Murder'

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

19 reviews

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I've been very generous with the hig  ratings lately, but I can't help it when so many books are good.

It's been a while since I read His Dark Materials, but I absolutely love this return of the universe. It's obvious how Malcolm Polstead influenced Lyra's subconsciousness.

However, I must admit that this book starts off so incredibly with so many amazing areas to explore, and it really raises your expectations on the story-to-come, but in the second half most of these things are pretty much just dropped? The League of St. Alexander, for example, was something I really really liked and wanted more explored in the book.

I have to leave off a note on how amazing the names in this book are, though. I will never seize to fall in love with Pullman's choices on character names. Malcolm, Asta, Asriel, Sophonax, Pantalaimon, Coram van Texel??? So sexy. Not to mention the beautiful image of the Trout you get in the first chapter—with the terrace over the water and the two peacocks.

I absolutely recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Sexual harassment, Murder, Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Animal death, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Child death

Minor: Cursing

moonybombadil's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Animal cruelty, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment and Gun violence

katie_345's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

I really enjoyed the characters and the storyline, however it was too dark for me I especially didn’t like the animal cruelty - it made me feel uncomfortable and a little bit sick reading it.  

P.s this book left some stuff unresolved as it’s a first of three, also this book doesn’t really talk about Dust or get into it in nearly as much detail as it does other topics ... the title could be misleading but we might find out more about dust in the follow up novel (not that I’ll read it for fear it will mentally scar me!😂 😳)


“This was all very difficult “- Malcolm   - I hear ya Malcolm, me too!

“Then there was the word Dust, with a capital D as if it wasn’t ordinary dust but something special.” - Malcolm 

“The weather office, so highly regarded by some of the drinkers at the trout and disdained by others, did what they always did and told their attendants exactly what they could have seen by looking at the sky.” 

“It’s a nice life being a baby!” - Malcolm 

“Nothing she had ever seen or heard  , had pleased her more then this crazy plunge down a waterfall in the total darkness” - Malcolm 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Hate crime, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Gore, Bullying, Cursing, Gun violence, Hate crime, Vomit, and Medical content

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, and Confinement

Minor: Child abuse, Self harm, Gun violence, and Alcohol

helen___'s review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

jackie_b's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Good book that was more similar to the feeling of the tv series, his dark materials, rather than the original golden compass books. I would say it moves past the age range of young adult and deals with more adult topics even though the characters are young.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, and Torture

marie_is_reading's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence

paintedthree's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, and Pedophilia

Minor: Sexual assault

wolfthorn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I have to say that it's not the most exciting book to start off with. It's really slow and nothing happens for about half of the book. It definitely got better once the flood appeared, there was more excitement after that point.  Just a shame that it took so long to get to it!  There were some parts towards the end that didn't make a lot of sense:

the island with the odd lady, and the garden

.  I'm not sure if they'd have made more sense if I'd read the full series.  I did like

the river god

though, that was nicely done.  

There's also some parts which I have found to be rather unsuitable for a children's/YA book. There's two mentions of paedophilia, two different characters have a known attraction to young children, one for girls and one for boys. The main character is an eleven year old boy and there's a discussion about using him as bait in order to blackmail the relevant character! There's also a vague sex scene, although it's more along the lines of 'these two characters are having sex' rather than anything graphic. That all makes for rather uncomfortable reading. However, the attempted rape was very disconcerting.  It's a kids book!  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Gun violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence