Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

23 reviews

fjerda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Pullman’s writing is concise and gorgeous: lush in the extreme. Lyra and Will pull on my heartstrings deeply. A very well executed finale. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Murder, Violence, War, Death of parent, Child death, and Gore

corrin_takara's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: Child death, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

elenaluisa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

brycestevenwilley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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

4.0

Lots of unorganized thoughts. I'll extend this as I add more:

• it's very good
• it's very cheesy
• it does the "chosen one" and prohpecy thing a lot, which I'm not a fan of. But it didn't feel like it mattered as much to me as it normally does
• the last paragraph of
  Spoiler

  the battle scene, where Lee becomes part of the universe
  is one of my favorites of all time
• it's very weird
• I rated Subtle knife lower because it starts to introduce all of these weird plot points, almost too many, but Amber Spyglass really uses them well. It also adds some things that I think are unnecessary, but I'm willing to overlook some
• the begining is slower than I remember, but the last half is such a wild ride
• Spoiler

  human / daemon / ghost split as the holy trinity is really clever, and ties in well with a lot of what is in the Golden compass
• Spoiler

  the amber spyglass itself really doesn't affect much; Mary never does anything to affect the plot, she just reports on what's happening with Will and Lyra. Story would be the same without it.
• the thing I like most anout this book is that the plot and story is very complex, but the themes are simple. 
• Much of it really does read like a myth or a folk story, where the details are replaceable, and the main points are extremely strong and iconic. That makes sense given how much of it is from bible stories like Paradise lost, and other misc myths and hero stories
• somehow does the least with it's multiple worlds than other multiverse stories. Mainly a twin universe story, with a few side universes as well
• Spoiler

  father gomez was a mildly interesting thread with an extremely underwhelming ending. Literal angel ex machina, but no one even knows about it, and kinda makes it stupid
• Spoiler

  Metatron was interesting and built up to be intemidating, but was also dealt with stupid quickly. "He just really horny" is a waste of a character
• Focuses on Will more, and I really wish that Lyra felt like she had more agency.
  Spoiler

  She gets a little in the end, but, nothing compared to Will's entire 1/3rd of the book dedicated to just him

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Pedophilia and Colonisation

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

3.0

I have a lot of opinions on The Amber Spyglass, many of which aren't very popular.

First the good: when people said the books got too religious, I expected a thinly veiled Jesus metaphor like is found in Narnia, instead I was pleasantly surprised with the opposite. It's really quite refreshing to read a book whose religious themes are critical of the church as opposed to praising it. I found the whole 'kill god' basis of Asriel's motivation rather amusing and the commentary on the church is, as a Christian, very accurate and not without basis. The writing is, as always, impeccable, and I found myself becoming very attached to the minor characters of Dr. Mary Malone, the Galevespians, Balthamos, and Baruch.

The bad: It annoys me greatly that Lyra is once again reduced to nothing more than a damsel in distress for Will to moon over. For the majority of the book, Lyra is asleep and helpless, and once she wakes up, she becomes a nervous, clingy, mostly useless ingenue. The only time we get to see the old Lyra is in the land of the dead, and that fire is short-lived. For all Will loves to wax poetic about how strong and stubborn Lyra is, we get to see exactly none of it. There is also the matter of the character deaths. After Scoresby and Mr. Perry, the deaths of our beloved side characters begin to feel very forced and unnecessary very quickly. Asriel and Coulter's "redemption" is so short, abrupt, and seemingly out of character that it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Worst of all, is the romance between Will and Lyra. The entire book, the budding romance feels both painfully obvious and forced. The love conquers and fixes all theme is tired at this point, and it only works if the characters have any chemistry as lovers, these two are just about as ridiculous as Romeo and Juliet. So many questions are left unanswered that the story almost feels unfinished, which is a great disappointment given Pullman's in-depth worldbuilding from the two previous books.
 Three stars because up until the last seven or so chapters, the story is just as captivating as its predecessors.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Violence, War, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Genocide, Colonisation, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Religious bigotry, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Animal death, War, Violence, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

bi_n_large's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Child death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Violence, and Gun violence

pixxyhex's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I started off this book with big reservations. 
I loved the fist in the trilogy "Northern lights", and I hated the second " The Subtle Knife ". 
I think the big difference for me , was that in the first book I grew to love most of the characters , where in the second I found really disliking one of the main characters ( Lyra ) and not caring about any of the others. Also the story seemed to drag on for me . 

This time I was again transported into the wonderful multiple worlds with characters I could again care about and root for. 
The story for me, was much more fast passed ( which I prefer )  as well as engaging. 

It took my over a couple of months to get through the second book. This one took me 3 days. 

Over all I loved this book and I loved that the ending was

Spoiler

not all's well that ends well . Although I felt so sad for Lyra and Will , I think any other ending would not have highlighted  the meaning of the book as well.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

crykea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

Wonderful wonderful wonderful! Finishing this book made me go "well, what  the fuck."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, War, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicide, and Terminal illness

The minor content warnings are mentioned briefly in the

Spoiler

realm of death.

. Alcohol is drunk by characters throughout the book. Will's mother is mentioned in a few cases, hence the mental illness warnings. Animal cruelty happens throughout the book since the characters have daemons. The golden monkey especially likes to hurt animals. (Stalking)

Spoiler

will and lyra are stalked by father Gomez in the mulefa's world

Explicit content warnings: the book takes place during a religious war. There is a scene with a bomb (hence the fire warning). Confinement, kidnapping, death and grief warnings:

Spoiler

mrs coulier is kidnapped and confined by multiple people throughout the book, most often lord Asriel. Lyra begins the book in confinement after being kidnapped by Mrs Coulier as the end of the last book. The death of a parent tags refer to Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulier in the Metatron scene. The book has a through line theme of grief but it is especially poignant st the end in reference to will and lyra parting ways.