Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

3 reviews

alixlowe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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bookishwondergoth's review

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

3.5

I actually kinda loved this. The Book of Dust isn’t a patch on the original His Dark Materials trilogy, but this instalment still had bags of intrigue, magic and philosophy; it was definitely quite significantly better than book 1 in the trilogy, ‘La Belle Sauvage’.

It was really lovely to be back with Lyra and Pan again and to explore their relationship in a whole new way after certain events in ‘The Amber Spyglass’. I also really enjoyed how all the rationality and atheist leanings in the first trilogy were explored and deepened to order to take into account things like spirituality, imagination and faith.

The pacing for this book is very slow and at times a bit plodding, especially Malcolm Polstead’s chapters. I also thought it was a bit… hmmm… 🚩🚩🚩 what Pullman has decided to do with Malcolm and Lyra in terms of where their relationship is going. These are the things that brought my rating down.

I love both Lyra and Pan very much and I want nothing but the best for them. They both went through the wringer in this book, but it was so well done and felt necessary.

After avoiding reading this book for so long given how disappointed I was with ‘La Belle Sauvage’, I’m really happy I’ve read this now and can genuinely look forward to the release of the final book in this trilogy.

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the_pysselfia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


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