melissaruhl 's review for:

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

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I stopped reading at about 40% through. I desperately wanted to like this book. I just couldn't get into it and found myself constantly irritated at the whole inexplicable Pan conflict (that could have been fascinating but was only ever a drag), his descriptions of women and not men by their beauty levels, characters needing to state whether or not Lyra was a sexual object to them, and of course the whole Malcolm "I got horny by sniffing a child's hair but I'm still a hero in this story" character development. When I decided to read some reviews on here and found out there was a whole disempowering rape scene, I decided it wasn't worth my time and energy. Too bad.