Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

10 reviews

camille_llv's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Medical trauma

sorkka's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Kidnapping

Moderate: Child abuse, Abandonment, Medical trauma, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Overall this is a children's book but some children may be disturbed by the child kidnapping and

medical trauma / child experimentation that occurs. This leads to some animal and child death.

The main character is neglected by her relations and raised in a 'school'. The main character's

mother and father are revealed to be exploitative of children

wildflower09's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, and Physical abuse

mirandyli's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.75

This was a delightful read. I read this book after watching the HBO series, which was great as well. The premise is adorable. I wish I read this series as a child.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

ra22ouille's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-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

3.0

What a fun adventure! I was so invested in the characters and enjoyed hearing the cast's various backstories and interweaving narratives. The world is exciting and fresh.

The plot ambled and the intensity/stakes kept seesawing with a lot of intensity. It took away from the impact of the ending. It felt like it was just another one of the big hurdles that had already happened and didnt feel particularly special. 

I found the way some of the accents were written annoying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, and Child abuse

cassie7e's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

I have a vague memory that I read this as a kid, and it has so many things that kid me would've loved, so I'm surprised I didn't remember a single thing about it! The particle physics, animal companions, fantastically reimagined biblical doctrine, free roaming kids... I wonder if this was the source of many of my tween interests and I forgot, or if I was into these things all along and just read this book too young and it all went over my head.

Also this book is unexpectedly DARK in the details, some graphic fights and descriptions of atrocities done to people in the name of something or other. Things I probly wouldn't've understood or caught as a kid but definitely noticed as an adult. 

Overall very enjoyable and just what I needed when angsty YA fantasy wasn't doing it for me. It was action packed, with plot after plot strung together that might've been the sole focus in some other story, plus it was full of moral questions and mysterious characters, and gave a lot of agency to the kid characters.

Main gripe w the audiobook was Lyra's constantly exasperated/whiny voice even when she's sposed to be whispering, and that the voices cut in abruptly between bits of narration and other dialogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Animal death, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Blood, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, and Medical trauma

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

An immersive world of steampunk-Esque magic combined with the beginnings of a portal fantasy! The worldbuilding comes naturally, and Pullman brilliantly captures the thought process and mental state of a preteen girl left to her own devices. The side characters are well developed and often ride the fine moral grey line.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Medical content, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, and Child death

Minor: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Colonisation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Racial slurs, and Drug use

fiveredhens's review against another edition

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

feuillycakes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

If you think this is a lighthearted fantasy for kids, you’d be wrong. The concepts in this book are horrifying, the main character Lyra faces some horrible abuse and hardships, and though it’s perfectly understandable for a child, I didn’t fully grasp the horrors of this universe until I reread as an adult. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Gun violence, and Body horror

There’s a lot of discussion and descriptions of what is essentially an awake lobotomy but worse and more traumatic and fatal. Descriptions of violence and body horror, descriptions of experimentation on children including a form of torture that isn’t real but is still horrific to read about.

aconfundityofcrows's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.0

Feb 2021: I left this at two stars for a long time, because I wasn't sure how to represent my feelings about it and I didn't want to change my rating until I reread it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual violence, Body shaming, and Misogyny