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A review by rachelroo13
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
3.0
So I have mixed feelings about this one. I enjoyed the first book in this series, but between the strange writing style and the overt anti-Christian sentiment, I had a hard time concentrating on this one. Now yes, I know the whole point of this series is to take on the Church as an institution and to bring forward its (many) faults, but even as a Christian who recognizes the problems with the institution of the Church today, it was hard to agree with what this book was implying. Obviously, I will finish the series and I may update my opinion on this matter once I have the full story, but right now I'm more annoyed than anything.
Also, the writing style is so... strange? I dislike that in Lyra's world the characters are always referred to by their first and last names. I also dislike that most of the book is just giant blocks of dialogue, most of which is one character or another giving a small speech that takes up an entire page and a half without stopping to let someone else speak or to even take a breath. Some people may be into this style, or it may work better for children (the arguable audience of this series), but for me personally, it needs more variation. All this to say, I was tempted to give this book a 2/5, but it barely scrapes by with a 3/5 instead.
Also, the writing style is so... strange? I dislike that in Lyra's world the characters are always referred to by their first and last names. I also dislike that most of the book is just giant blocks of dialogue, most of which is one character or another giving a small speech that takes up an entire page and a half without stopping to let someone else speak or to even take a breath. Some people may be into this style, or it may work better for children (the arguable audience of this series), but for me personally, it needs more variation. All this to say, I was tempted to give this book a 2/5, but it barely scrapes by with a 3/5 instead.