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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
My dad really wanted me to read these and I love him so here we go. I don’t really like fantasy. Northern lights is written well and has a beautiful description, however, the magic system and the overall fantasy aspect is boring to me and I don’t really get it.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm sorry but I hated this book. I should have DNF'd it and I almost did but I was already at 62% and figured I might as well finish it.
I will say that the second half was better than the first and that's why I decided to keep reading it. The second half was much more adventurous and had a lot more going on to keep you interested.
Unfortunately, the first half lacked a lot. I found it so boring and the info-dumping was not helping that either. There would be whole pages of just exposition about the world or something that I mostly tuned out and seemed unnecessary. The time jumping was stilted and just weird. Most of the time it took me a while to realize that months had passed between one event and the next. I was so confused if I wasn't completely bored.
The writing style is definitely not for me. With a children's book, you have to expect more telling than showing and I would have been okay with that, but then there was the info dumping, the pages and pages of exposition, and the basically nothing that happened throughout the first half that made me question why any of that was in the novel in the first place.
I feel like this would have been a lot better if we had gotten the whole hiding-in-the-closet-during-the-meeting thing as a prologue and then did a time jump to when the action actually starts, that would have benefited the novel as a whole.
I was also really confused about the fmc's characterization. She seemed super smart, like even smarter than some of the adults, but yet she's never gone to school or had a tutor or anything. There's no way a kid just knows stuff and can put connections together like she could without having some form of formal schooling.
Anyway, this one was definitely not for me and I know that it's pretty beloved so I'm an outlier here.
I will say that the second half was better than the first and that's why I decided to keep reading it. The second half was much more adventurous and had a lot more going on to keep you interested.
Unfortunately, the first half lacked a lot. I found it so boring and the info-dumping was not helping that either. There would be whole pages of just exposition about the world or something that I mostly tuned out and seemed unnecessary. The time jumping was stilted and just weird. Most of the time it took me a while to realize that months had passed between one event and the next. I was so confused if I wasn't completely bored.
The writing style is definitely not for me. With a children's book, you have to expect more telling than showing and I would have been okay with that, but then there was the info dumping, the pages and pages of exposition, and the basically nothing that happened throughout the first half that made me question why any of that was in the novel in the first place.
I feel like this would have been a lot better if we had gotten the whole hiding-in-the-closet-during-the-meeting thing as a prologue and then did a time jump to when the action actually starts, that would have benefited the novel as a whole.
I was also really confused about the fmc's characterization. She seemed super smart, like even smarter than some of the adults, but yet she's never gone to school or had a tutor or anything. There's no way a kid just knows stuff and can put connections together like she could without having some form of formal schooling.
Anyway, this one was definitely not for me and I know that it's pretty beloved so I'm an outlier here.
Still brilliant. Always nice to see that an old favorite holds up as an adult.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hacia mucho que quería leer este libro, por fin se dió la oportunidad.
Me pareció brillante, con un mundo que ya conocemos rodeado de magia y criaturas fantásticas.
Lyra es valiente, tiene pensamientos de niña y eso fue lo que más me gustó. El autor la retrató justo como la niña que es, con sus dudas, arrebatos y miedos.
Me encantó Pantalaimon, y en general los daimonions. Siento que es interesante, que es novedoso tener una extensión de su propia alma.
Es una lectura bonita, un tanto larga pero vale completamente la pena. Seguiré con la saga, definitivamente.
Me pareció brillante, con un mundo que ya conocemos rodeado de magia y criaturas fantásticas.
Lyra es valiente, tiene pensamientos de niña y eso fue lo que más me gustó. El autor la retrató justo como la niña que es, con sus dudas, arrebatos y miedos.
Me encantó Pantalaimon, y en general los daimonions. Siento que es interesante, que es novedoso tener una extensión de su propia alma.
Es una lectura bonita, un tanto larga pero vale completamente la pena. Seguiré con la saga, definitivamente.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had anticipated. It had a very C.S.Lewis Christianity meets Children's Literature thing going on, alluding to original sin, castration, the garden of Eden, etc. And just like it's biblical allusions, it even read like the bible; wonderful and truly amazing stories but the delivery was dry and straightforward. The pages were filled with elementary sentence structure of subject, verb, noun and what seemed like lots of repetition and stating of the obvious. It was like reading Genesis. Perhaps if I had read this for the first time in 4th grade, I would have been caught up in the enchantment of talking animals and warrior polar bears and the magic of the aurora borealis... it's the kind of story that would be perfect told aloud around the campfire, but it did nothing for me on the page.
Sorry book club friends. DNF at 40% so I feel like I gave it a fair chance. The pacing was just very off for me and I can’t seem to convince myself to feel invested in the story. Maybe it’s unfair that I was trying to read this at the same time as words of radiance?
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated