Hello friends, happy Monday! Today I’m going to be posting my review of the second novel in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy, The Secret Commonwealth.

You can read my review of book one: La Belle Sauvage

The Secret Commonwealth by: Philip Pullman: Set twenty years after the first novel in this trilogy, the story follows Lyra’s journey as a young woman on the search for her dæmon, Pan, and answers to secrets long ago thought to be solved. When Pan witnesses a murder, the dying man leaves them with a secret from their past. Now Lyra is being watched and followed and she must keep quiet as she hunts for answers. This was a rollercoaster of a novel. The twists and turns that occurred within the span of the six-hundred plus pages were wild. The reader was definitely engaged throughout; there were parts of the story where it was disengaging and some parts that didn’t really need to be as long as they were, or that needed to be added at all. Not really sure what the rape scene near the end was supposed to add, aside from that, everything played a part in the end. The way Pullman was able to weave his plots in and out of each other was really clever; the way everything connected was really interesting, but sometimes it would take a long time for things to come together. It was good storytelling and the reader enjoyed following these characters around. The way this ended felt a little satisfactory. The reader thought the ending would feel slightly more final than it was; instead, it felt more like the reader watched Lyra on her long journey for her to be, what feels like, only halfway. For the length that this novel was, it just felt like there could have been more of a resolution. It was good to be back with Lyra and Pan, even if they weren’t together long, and revisiting old characters was exciting. The new characters also helped bring the story to life and set in motion what is going to happen in the future. Overall, this novel was a good solid novel in this trilogy, not the best, but the reader is intrigued how this will all end.