A review by zaidzu
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

His Dark Materials is one of my absolute favorite book series. That being said, I was really disappointed in this book. Book of Dust 1 was enjoyable enough, different from HDM but still had enough of the mysterious adventurous feeling I’ve come to associate with these works. However, book 2 just plummets into so much unnecessary territory, while accomplishing very little plot-wise. I know this trilogy was originally one giant book, so in that context the second book would have maybe worked better if you could just continue reading right away, but it’s still too drawn out. I didn’t really get a sense of that “Lyra on an adventure” feeling I love until literally the very end of the book. Also,
Spoilerthere a scene where Lyra is raped
and that completely ruined any shred of hope I had for this book/series. Completely unnecessary and felt like a weak attempt to write something more “adult”. Not to mention the
Spoiler weird situation of Malcom having feelings for Lyra when he is 10 years older than her and she is still rather young.
Icky. Curious to see how Will is going to be squeezed into the story (if at all at this point). Maybe the third book will be better, but this one really bummed me out.
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