Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Golden Compass

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

80 reviews

shinyfox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

Lyra has moments where she can be annoying as the main character, but she's also a child.... and what child isn't annoying at some point? The beginning of the book was a bit slow and you get hit with a LOT of information pretty quickly.

Loved the narration of this book, each and every character had a different person reading for them and it was amazing and really lent itself to the richness of the world and characters.

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kelforrest's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I personally loved it. A lot of my love comes from nostalgia, but I genuinely really love the worldbuilding, the characters, the plot, and the settings.

It definitely felt less like a middle grade at times, with some brutal themes, but when I read it as a child I was okay with it so it depends on what your kids are fine with honestly and what you think they're ready for.

The writing was nice - slightly complex at times, but pretty and made it very easy to picture what was happening in my mind.

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a1exander's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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jiaa_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Philip Pullman is a wizard at creating a fantastical new world and merging it seamlessly with our own. This is by far one of the best fantasy books I have read and I cannot wait to read the second book in the trilogy. I would also like to add that I did watch the movie "The Golden Compass" first before reading the book and I can truly say full heartedly that it is better to read the book than watch the movie. I believe its perfectly fine to have watched the film first, but it should never be used as an excuse to not read the book.

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capriqueen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

I read these books once as a child and remember enjoying them, but not much else. An exciting adventure, and well-written—one of the best examples of an unreliable narrator. Lyra is a great main character

But while the story is interesting, it didn’t really capture me, so I probably won’t reread the rest. But I did rekindle my love for Iorek Byrnison

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toast38's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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tastytakoyaki's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book and this trilogy remains one of the most important works I've ever read. It had a huge impact on me as a young person and helped transition me into more mature content and ideas. It kept me reading at a point in my life where I was beginning to lose my interest.

Though technically marketed as a story for young people, I'd say this book (and trilogy) will absolutely appeal to adults and young adults too, and I bet the adult audiences will find much more depth here than you might expect. Despite being for young audiences, this book has a lot to say.

This author is very critical of organized religion, so if that will upset you, fair warning. There is not a specific religion from our world that exists in this book, but the parallels are clear.

This is a delightful fantasy adventure in a world that is both incredibly familiar and also clearly different from our own. The characters are fantastic, the writing is great and the story is gripping and exciting.

I can't recommend this enough, and that goes for the whole series.

10/10 will read again and again.

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