Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Secret Commonwealth

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The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

9 reviews

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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amerikinz14's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The main conflict between Lyra and Pan is alright but there were moments where their arguments seemed too harsh. Yes, coming from the end of “The Amber Spyglass”, their relationship is strained. In the original HDM trilogy, I enjoyed Lyra and Pan’s camaraderie and their interactions were one of my favorite aspects. While in “The Secret Commonwealth”, they spend a good portion of the book either arguing with or being separated from each other. It fits the story but it isn’t how I envisioned the characters grown up.

The characters from “La Belle Sauvage” get re-introduced (since TSC takes place when Lyra is 20 years old; years after HDM ends) and I REALLY enjoyed that aspect! Pullman blended the familiar and new characters well.

The plot itself is somewhat confusing. Since the audiobook is 20 hours long, I found myself tuning in and out (and I sped up the narration) which led to some details being lost. I got the gist of it as the book progressed but I think the author tried to cram a lot into the book (which is basically 640 pages), spending time on flushing out less important details. And knowing there will eventually be a third book is very interesting!

Still docking points for the “Unabridged” audiobook version having some vulgar language and a few triggers.

Overall, I like “The Book of Dust”. I prefer the stories of “His Dark Materials” but “The Book of Dust” fits well as a continuation!

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lucecanon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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erinwolf1997's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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marie_is_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.25

I think when he was writing The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman just really wanted all the fans of His Dark Materials to shut up and stop asking what happened to Lyra next. After teasing longtime fans and readers with La Belle Sauvage, finally a book about Lyra Silvertongue is announced and the story we get is self-important and depressing. If you’re a fan of The Golden Compass and you haven’t read the gigantic tomes in the decades-later follow-up series yet… well, you’re welcome. I’ve done it for you so you don’t have to suffer.

First of all, the plot was… boring, I guess? There were a few different storylines running simultaneously through different POVs and I personally did not find any of them interesting. In fact, I’m a bit perplexed as to what kind of story Pullman wanted to tell, and further confused as to why it’s all Lyra’s story again. It’s almost as though both La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth were worldbuilding notes that Pullman had about Oxford and its world… but he wanted to loop in Lyra because he wanted to draw the readers of His Dark Materials into his new series. Realistically, I believe both the novels in The Book of Dust would be better served in the same world of His Dark Materials but following different characters.

Pantelimon is absolutely correct in saying Lyra has lost her imagination. As a character, she seems to have lost more than that. I understand that the character has grown up, but she feels like an entirely different character than the one we left in The Amber Spyglass. She has lost her curiosity and interest in the world. She’s lost her drive and optimism. Her entire journey in His Dark Materials did not take this from her, but going to school has. This, in particular, made me feel like the story should have belonged to a different character.

There were a couple aspects that made me a bit uncomfortable, writing-wise. There are scenes regarding homosexuality that I don’t feel Pullman was classified to write, and frankly, made me cringe a bit with the way he spoke about it. It’s one of those things that, in reading, it feels more like he was expressing his own (problematic) understanding of the LGBTQIAP+ community. From a social perspective, I hated that he said one could learn to love a woman after a while. From a worldbuilding perspective, it seemed like he went against how he explained daemons in his world earlier. There were also scenes where Lyra was wearing a niqāb, and Pullman was not subtle in how he wrote Lyra behavior felt like a judgment on the logic of niqābs and hijabs and I just… didn’t… like it. Finally, there is an attempte rape scenes that, again, I don’t feel Pullman was qualified to write. I dunno. Maybe I’m being overly critical. Maybe I’m reading into something that isn’t there. Either way, I didn’t like it. If he consulted outside sources or had sensitivity readers or any of that, it certainly isn’t references in the Author’s Note.

The story doesn’t become interesting until the last half hour of the twenty hour audiobook. Most the story is a journey, but Pullman seems to have lost his skill at making that journey interesting without making it vulgar. I just… don’t think I’m compelled enough to read the final book because both of the previous two have been far too long and went little to nowhere. I’m just not invested enough in the story to waste more hours of my life seeing the ending.

I love, I love His Dark Materials. But I can’t in good conscious recommend either La Belle Sauvage or The Secret Commonwealth. I was hoping the series was going to get better, but it hasn’t. If you have fond memories of His Dark Materials, I’m inclined to recommend avoiding this one as not to tarnish what you know of Lyra. Enjoy her adventure, you don’t need to know what happens next. Your time is more valuable than that.

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lumberelk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

I think the chapter featuring the

group sexual assault of Lyra

(the graphic content warning listed below) could've been left out entirely.

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snuzzbobble's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.5

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kayciedoom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Did not like this one as much as La Belle Sauvage. I gave it four stars because I am SUPER here for the expanded development about human-daemon relationships and the philosophical topics, which was enough to outweigh the things I didn't like about the book (which are mainly the Malcolm thing and soldier scene, already mentioned by many other reviews here).

I'll save full judgment on it until the next book, which I assume will be a continuation.

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