Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

10 reviews

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

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

wildflower09's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Medical trauma, and Murder

vivivi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

This is a reread! I don't remember much about the book during my first read, seeing as I was a little kid when I read it the first time. 

Lyra's a very charming child. The story and the characters are magical, especially the bears 😁 I love how much this is truly a children's book and she has so much agency. Children and bears save the world. Wooo!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Physical abuse

jadziaaudrey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

📱
This was an enjoyable book. I think the characters are well-developed. The story started off strong and the ending was weak. I do plan to read the other books in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

An immersive world of steampunk-Esque magic combined with the beginnings of a portal fantasy! The worldbuilding comes naturally, and Pullman brilliantly captures the thought process and mental state of a preteen girl left to her own devices. The side characters are well developed and often ride the fine moral grey line.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

marianneiriss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

feuillycakes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If you think this is a lighthearted fantasy for kids, you’d be wrong. The concepts in this book are horrifying, the main character Lyra faces some horrible abuse and hardships, and though it’s perfectly understandable for a child, I didn’t fully grasp the horrors of this universe until I reread as an adult. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Medical trauma

There’s a lot of discussion and descriptions of what is essentially an awake lobotomy but worse and more traumatic and fatal. Descriptions of violence and body horror, descriptions of experimentation on children including a form of torture that isn’t real but is still horrific to read about.

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

[~2014]
Read years ago, in middle school, twice I think.

[20/01/2021]
a marvelous book that is as good as I remember it being as a child

pros:
- the plot is complex, neat, clever, and fascinating. It all ties together so cleverly, even all the tiny aspects.
- the writing is brilliant, engaging, beautiful, gripping, and flows brilliantly.
- It's wonderfully imaginative and original, intertwining familiar fantasy ideas (witches) with the original (armored bears) and then tying it up into complex social ideas, like the impact of the Church and thoughts around sin and growing up. And all the details and world-building around daemons is fabulous too.
- I love the characters and their range of voices and personalities. The contrast of different types of power and evilness was fascinating too, with Mrs Coulter's weaponised feminine ambition and Asriel colder ambition. Neither were cardboard villains and both were scarier for it.
- It was very gripping and even though I knew many of the twists from previous reads, I still didn't want to put it down.

cons:
- one thing i didn't like was how servants daemons were often dogs. This implied that they were innately servile and belonged forever to the lower class because of some quality of their character, which seemed extremely classist and backwards. People can work as servants without that being the pure core of their being and it seemed very like if someone was born with a dog daemon they could do nothing with their life but serve others?
- I wasn't sure on the 'gyptians' which seems clearly drawn from the slur word for Romani peoples. There presentation seemed overly positive to me, though most of their purpose did seem to be to aid Lyra.
- some parts were pretty complex and there was some names I didn't remember. Asriel mentions Boreal being one of Mrs Couter's lovers and i don't remember who he is. Also, Lyra asks Iorek to tell the witch Serrapina Pekkala of what she did and I wasn't sure what that was exactly??
- oh and it might be a sign of an older book written by an older written but there is casual discussion of Lyra getting beaten. She's afraid of Asriel or another of her guardians physically beating her and Asriel grabs her and even threatens to kill her at one point near the start I think, which was pretty disturbing.

- I was disappointed that Roger didn't survive and that his death seems barely described in favour of describing Lyra's parents' reunion instead. I wished for more of a powerful emotional scene with his death that we didn't get at all, considering Lyra's wish had been to save Roger all along. His death did seem to be passed off as something not that important in the way Lyra doesn't even seem to mourn him for a moment.

(- Lyra is a bit of mary sue, in the nicest way. The world does seem to rearrange itself around her. but that's alright)

Overall, it is a great piece of literature and extremely readable for adults. I can't wait to read the Subtle Knife.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder