Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

55 reviews

f18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexism, Drug use, Racism, Gore, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Child death, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol and Slavery

fiveredhens's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

this book: the aurora gave humans

the knowledge of good and evil via elementary particles

, adults who seem nice can be horrifically abusive, scandinavian witch communism, girls can be excitable and headstrong and even a little annoying while still being intelligent and worthy of love
10-yr-old me: wow cool ferret

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Ableism, Dementia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Vomit

orientalism, africa as a wild monolith, romani stereotypes

violaceae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Racism

rachel_here's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death

tbose22's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse and Animal death

Minor: Racism

katiefronk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Torture, and Animal death

kirdyk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

Probably my favorite book of all time. From the first page you are no longer a reader, but a spectator of the vast world held within these pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Kidnapping and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Violence, War, Torture, and Animal cruelty

It's been a while since I've read book one, so trigger warnings are not exact; I'd suggest you refer to someone who's read it recently, or google.

sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

The first in the His Dark Materials Series, this story introduces you to a new world that is relatively similar to our own. The biggest difference is that in this world, every human also has a daemon, and animal embodiment of their soul. Their daemon can switch between shapes in childhood, but eventually settles on a single shape (which often reflects an truth about a person's personality) in adulthood. In this world, we come to know Lyra Belacqua, an headstrong, stubborn, and brave young orphan who lives among the scholars at Jordan College. When her friend is stolen from Jordan College, and her uncle, Lord Asriel, is imprisoned among the armored bears, she sets her sights on traveling northward to rescue them both. This story chronicles her journey to the North, her investigation of the alethiometer given to her before she departed Jordan College, the mysterious Dust everyone wants to talk about but no one will explain, and even her own parentage. 

Pullman's world is similar to our own, though he clearly exaggerates several aspects for the purpose of critiquing the parallel institutions in our world. Specifically, Pullman's depiction of the Church in his novel is a less than subtle critique of the way the Church in our world exerts it's power over religious cannon to claim heresy and control both everyday people, and by extent academic institutions and their research. Pullman also critiques the academic institutions themselves, particularly the amount of power that both scholars and academic institutions have, and their disinterest in matters other than their own research and professional reputation. 
 
I appreciated how this book managed to introduce various themes, dynamic characters, and substantial world building, while maintaining an engaging plot and decent character development. Pullman strikes a perfect balance between answering enough questions by the end of the book to feel like a satisfying conclusion, while leaving some broader plot lines unanswered in preparation for a continuation of the story. Unlike many similar stories, Pullman doesn't allow Lyra to easily escape her trials for the sake of plot convenience, but rather allows her to develop as a character with each narrow escape.

He even allows her to be recaptured by the same forces, thus forcing her to rely on evermore on her own bravery and ingenuity to escape from her captors in new ways.

Of course there are some minor flaws in this book I could nitpick, or ways in which Pullman deviates from my own personal preference, but overall this was a dynamic and engaging book that I truly enjoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Child death

jonsnowsmanbun's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Animal death

mmefish's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Violence