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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.
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.
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
mags_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Trafficking, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Abandonment, Slavery, and Xenophobia
cynicaesura's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Religious bigotry and Trafficking
marianneiriss's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Trafficking, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Cursing, Abandonment, Animal death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Torture, and Xenophobia
delaneyswann's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.5
If I had read this book in elementary school it would’ve been my personality for two or three years. Its incredibly readable without sacrificing good writing. The protagonist is really fully an imperfect human child and I am impressed with the author’s ability to access childhood the way he does. The story is creative and dark and interesting. I will not miss an opportunity to recommend this book to fantasy fans young and old.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail
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.
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.ailsaod's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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
4.0
This book wasn't what I'd expected and I'm not sure what to think about it. I feel like Pullman writes children far more accurately than most authors - Lyra is a feral little gremlin and not in a mostly sweet, occasionally troublesome way most people would portray her. Like this girl has been left mostly to her own devices to cause havoc for most of her life and you can tell! She is a very real feeling character who has believable flaws and is very resourceful but is still very much a child out of her depth.
The whole daemon thing was unlike anything else I had read before and was very interesting(if you aren't in the know 'daemons' are an animal representation of a human's soul that everyone has). The book is set in another version of Earth and Pullman has fully integrated much of the aspects he has added and considered the implications this would have for people's behaviour and culture.
This book does contain some darker elements (a lot of kidnapping of children, unethical experimentation and child death so that's FUN) and I found it impressive that Pullman can communicate the awfulness of the experiments being done in the arctic when it is based on things that are completely unknowable and impossible to us. In the opening chapters of the book a character makes an shocked remark about a child in a photograph being 'an entire child' which made me laugh at the time because isn't that a strange thing to say haha how amusing. Having finished the book I'm now like 'OH NO! That's not funny anymore! :0'
ALSO I am majorly reassessing everything about Lord Asriel because what is that man on?? Like I knew Mrs Coulter was going to be bad because of the way she was introduced as too good to be true but everyone in the book is like 'oh yea Lord Asriel is a great guy! The best guy ever!' and then when he finally gets more than like five pages on screen he's actually maybe worse than Mrs Coulter and does some casual murder just because. I thought he was going to be the typical 'Victorian father who is allergic to openly caring' but ACTUALLY it was a cover for 'religious extremist who is planning on wrecking everything'. All I can say that I guess they are the villain power couple I wasn't expecting but got anyway .
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Trafficking
Some unsettling scenes of unethical experimentation on children.seedsofsunflowers's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Trafficking, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Death
Minor: Alcoholism, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Slavery
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