Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Secret Commonwealth

I did not hate it but there are certain moments that almost took me out of the story entirely for the worse.

I will probably read the sequel cause I need to know how it ends but we're still waiting on that.

But yeah it is a bit orientalist and writing a romantic subplot for malcom and lyra in this day and age is quite a choice. He held lyra as a baby ffs.
But luckily there wasn't that much of that so I was able to just ignore that was a thing happening on the side.
So I really hope it isn't actually pursued into an actual relationship, I mean lyra hasn't expressed those sort of feelings at all.

I loved the whole thing with the daemons and separation and exploring lyra and her conflicting feelings and pantalaimon. And the pursuit of truth and imagination. That's why I kept going.
But yeah this is quite dark and I expected so and really makes you think.
It's just a shame, malcolm was such a lovable character in the first volume and the author chose to turn him into a creep.

Content Warnings

sunny_afternoon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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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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moencat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

2.25

Honestly reading this whole book was sad. It was depressing, which isn’t normally how I feel about Pullman’s books at all. I really enjoyed Belle Sauvage and was looking forward to this book, but I feel so let down. The ideas of self and imagination are so interesting, but

having a 30 year old male professor be in love with a 20 year old Lyra, especially a Lyra who is so depressed and beaten down and alone, felt so gross. I’m so sad that’s the direction that this is going. Not to mention the sexual assault scene. It just felt so unnecessary and poorly handled. To have that happen to a character who I fell in love with as a young girl, was really upsetting. It happens everyday to women everywhere, does it really need to happen here too? Just felt very uncaring to me. And then to say she should be building a romance with a man 11 years older than her, who she had barely interacted with since she was 16? Gross. Very disappointed.

Overall it also felt like this book was just setting up for the next, it didn’t really seem to tell a story of its own.

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noggy46's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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lapislazuli's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It felt like the book fell apart after the middle. It was hard to keep reading, and at the end, nothing came together. I know this is the middle book of a trilogy, but it was unrewarding and did not stand on its own at all. I don't think I will continue the series.

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elenaluisa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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saltyy_sarah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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