That's an understatement. I wonder how I would have taken it as a child. Probably pretty badly.
This is actually the first truly happy-and-sad-ending book I think I've ever read. For some time I expected it to be only happy, but that's probably because I'd last read Rowling.
I have to applaud Philip Pullman for taking so many goddamn risks (pun pretty much intended). I bet I never heard of these till adulthood because they were probably banned in the southern public schools I attended as a child/teen. Then again, so was L'Engle, but I sure as heck read her books, anyway.
Mmmm, how I love those books. I remember, the first time I read them and how, towards the end of the last book, I kept thinking, "Wait, he wouldn't actually do what I think he's going to do... HOLY SHIT HE DID!" I just love how it gets more and more audacious as it goes on. And of course, what a world. I still love starting the series again and being totally enthralled by the possibility of going North.
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After re-reading it a few months ago, I choose who to recommend it to a bit more carefully...and I warn parents that the ending is difficult to take.
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This is actually the first truly happy-and-sad-ending book I think I've ever read. For some time I expected it to be only happy, but that's probably because
I'd last read Rowling.
I have to applaud Philip Pullman for taking so many goddamn risks (pun pretty much intended). I bet I never heard of these till adulthood because they were probably banned in the southern public schools I attended as a child/teen. Then again, so was L'Engle, but I sure as heck read her books, anyway.
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Whoa.
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Yeah.
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And of course, what a world. I still love starting the series again and being totally enthralled by the possibility of going North.
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