A review by moencat
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings