Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

29 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Alcohol, and War

tastytakoyaki's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

grp101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A really interesting book that understands kids very well! The world is creative and fun to read about. Everywhere you looked there was another new, interesting aspect of the world to examine, and all the exposition is given naturally and at times when you want it. 
I do have an issue(?)/question about one aspect. Were the “Gyptians” supposed to be direct Romany rep or a Romany analog? The word “gyptian” is an old-timey word (slur? i don’t know if that’s a slur) for Roma people, and they live out of boats the way Roma people historically had to do in many cases, but I don’t know enough about Roma people to tell if other aspects of the culture were also taken from/representative of Romany culture or just stuff Pullman made up. All the “gyptian” characters we meet are portrayed as noble, honest, and kind, at least from Lyra’s POV. It does a good job of not making them thieves/career criminals (though I think it is mentioned that they smuggle goods sometimes?) or fortune tellers, but I don’t know how a Romany person would react to this “rep” (again, I’m not sure if they’re meant to simply be Romany or just be an analog). If you’re a Roma person and you see this review, what did you think of them? I’m very curious! I’ve looked online but can’t find any reviews from a Romany perspective. 
TWs: child murder, child abuse, general harm to children, religious abuse, animal abuse, violence, animal death, minor sexism, racism (?)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, and War

Minor: Religious bigotry

valorelei's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-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

5.0

a new favorite series! lyra is quite the tempestuous child, but such a loveable character for it <3 pullman has a unique writing style, with heavy exposition via dialogue, which only makes his story that much more compelling. a spectacularly interesting fantasy world with a fascinating build up to a much, much bigger plot line than Lyra thinks she has in store. absolutely love!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Alcohol

ronan_lesh's review

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Infidelity and Murder

cicizzy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Classism

rhiannon814r's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Classism

mythian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Religious bigotry

thehobbitbarbie's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

noxwitchbooklife's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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

I've read this a multitude of times in the last 20 odd years and it is absolutely my most read book. It opened my mind to fantasy and the idea of other worlds and realities along with the main character being a mischievous child with a big heart and a penchant for making up stories and it is just entertaining and wonderful every time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death