asthingsgrowinfastmovies 's review for:

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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I don't usually do fantasy but this was FANTASTIC - the scope! The detail! The characters! The plot zips along and the characters are all nuanced and complicated and believable; the magic is baked into the fabric of the world in a way that feels totally simple and natural; the mystery is compelling and the explanation is always just enough out of reach to keep you guessing. I guess it's a classic for a reason.

I'm still not 100% sure on the meaning of Dust - the morals of the book are also complicated and difficult at points - once they'd said Dust represented original sin, it seemed odd that Lyra is now looking at it as a positive thing...but hopefully the sequels will explain it