Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Secret Commonwealth

and then go about her quest almost like nothing had happened? Do you hate her and us that much?
What a disappointment after the beautiful book that was La Belle Sauvage.

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annir's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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rakkaussipsi's review against another edition

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This book broke my heart. I wish I never started it. Moving forward I will probably pretend that Lyra’s story ended with Serpentine.

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solvoid's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I did not hate it but there are certain moments that almost took me out of the story entirely for the worse.

I will probably read the sequel cause I need to know how it ends but we're still waiting on that.

But yeah it is a bit orientalist and writing a romantic subplot for malcom and lyra in this day and age is quite a choice. He held lyra as a baby ffs.
But luckily there wasn't that much of that so I was able to just ignore that was a thing happening on the side.
So I really hope it isn't actually pursued into an actual relationship, I mean lyra hasn't expressed those sort of feelings at all.

I loved the whole thing with the daemons and separation and exploring lyra and her conflicting feelings and pantalaimon. And the pursuit of truth and imagination. That's why I kept going.
But yeah this is quite dark and I expected so and really makes you think.
It's just a shame, malcolm was such a lovable character in the first volume and the author chose to turn him into a creep.

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msmith892's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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elenaluisa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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carcinokattastic's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Another fantastic book by Phillip Pulman in a world I truly love. My only gripe is about half way through some the chapters focus on the politics of the world (which is normally very good world building) and it feels like it drags a bit sadly.
But all in all I’m excited for the next one :)

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saturdayslaughter's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

Eh. Im not deeply slighted at this turn for Lyra, I just think the whole thing was pretty messy. It just made me wonder what Mr. Pullman was thinking a lot. But there was plenty of compelling things going on I guess.

The thesis it is that people need more wonder at the world and less cold detachment, and sure that works, it just felt weirdly aggressive sometimes. It was so interesting watching that thread. He also made some really weird tonal choices I think, like (vague minor spoilers)

there’s a random horrific naval tragedy and later an unnecessary attempted rape.

What compelled him to write this? It’s just so meandering, I feel like he loves this world and didn’t streamline the story enough in favor of exploring everything he can.

I want to know if the coming romance between

Malcom and Lyra

is popular with fans, I think it adds basically nothing and is kind of uncomfortable.

I want to go read an essay dissecting this novel, there’s so much disconnected stuff going on. Was interested in the development of some of the plot and characters, for the most part I was just kind of along for the ride, feeling out how I felt about a story that largely hit me with mixed feelings— especially in the second half.

Also, the whole treatment of the the niqab Lyra briefly wears was just really uncomfortable. Plenty of imagery throughout had a lot of orientalism vibes, I think he probably fumbled plenty of other stuff that was less obvious to me. I’d also like to read dissections of that.

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