Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

8 reviews

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

vivivi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

This is a reread! I don't remember much about the book during my first read, seeing as I was a little kid when I read it the first time. 

Lyra's a very charming child. The story and the characters are magical, especially the bears 😁 I love how much this is truly a children's book and she has so much agency. Children and bears save the world. Wooo!

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Physical abuse

jadziaaudrey's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

abby_can_read's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

📱
This was an enjoyable book. I think the characters are well-developed. The story started off strong and the ending was weak. I do plan to read the other books in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Child abuse

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, and Blood

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Racism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, and Physical abuse

orchidlilly's review

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

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

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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

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.

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

[~2014]
Read years ago, in middle school, twice I think.

[20/01/2021]
a marvelous book that is as good as I remember it being as a child

pros:
- the plot is complex, neat, clever, and fascinating. It all ties together so cleverly, even all the tiny aspects.
- the writing is brilliant, engaging, beautiful, gripping, and flows brilliantly.
- It's wonderfully imaginative and original, intertwining familiar fantasy ideas (witches) with the original (armored bears) and then tying it up into complex social ideas, like the impact of the Church and thoughts around sin and growing up. And all the details and world-building around daemons is fabulous too.
- I love the characters and their range of voices and personalities. The contrast of different types of power and evilness was fascinating too, with Mrs Coulter's weaponised feminine ambition and Asriel colder ambition. Neither were cardboard villains and both were scarier for it.
- It was very gripping and even though I knew many of the twists from previous reads, I still didn't want to put it down.

cons:
- one thing i didn't like was how servants daemons were often dogs. This implied that they were innately servile and belonged forever to the lower class because of some quality of their character, which seemed extremely classist and backwards. People can work as servants without that being the pure core of their being and it seemed very like if someone was born with a dog daemon they could do nothing with their life but serve others?
- I wasn't sure on the 'gyptians' which seems clearly drawn from the slur word for Romani peoples. There presentation seemed overly positive to me, though most of their purpose did seem to be to aid Lyra.
- some parts were pretty complex and there was some names I didn't remember. Asriel mentions Boreal being one of Mrs Couter's lovers and i don't remember who he is. Also, Lyra asks Iorek to tell the witch Serrapina Pekkala of what she did and I wasn't sure what that was exactly??
- oh and it might be a sign of an older book written by an older written but there is casual discussion of Lyra getting beaten. She's afraid of Asriel or another of her guardians physically beating her and Asriel grabs her and even threatens to kill her at one point near the start I think, which was pretty disturbing.

- I was disappointed that Roger didn't survive and that his death seems barely described in favour of describing Lyra's parents' reunion instead. I wished for more of a powerful emotional scene with his death that we didn't get at all, considering Lyra's wish had been to save Roger all along. His death did seem to be passed off as something not that important in the way Lyra doesn't even seem to mourn him for a moment.

(- Lyra is a bit of mary sue, in the nicest way. The world does seem to rearrange itself around her. but that's alright)

Overall, it is a great piece of literature and extremely readable for adults. I can't wait to read the Subtle Knife.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence