I'm getting to see how I'd never fully appreciated the books' complexities as a child. So many nuances and the way children are being represented, it's so accurate honestly, I love that! It makes me remember the child I'd once been and find it highly relatable too... (Will's emotions for example - the way he's doing his best putting a brave face but he's a child at the end and his inner thoughts are so clear on that!) It's the one thing that really irks me off while reading YA , the way literal kids are saving the world and have such mature perspectives and like I know I felt that way as a young adult myself but it still feels quite unrealistic to me. And so I really appreciate the representation here, the stark differences in adults when compared to Lyra, Will and even those other kids with Angelica and her brother.
In Chapter 7, I really love the way he wrote the dialogue with the police inspector and Lyra. A perfect example of balancing action, description, dialogue, and interiority, and why unbalancing it isn’t always a bad thing. The rapid fire of the dialogue makes you read it very quickly, and I feel like when I first read it I didn’t even see where she tripped up at first. It actually catches the reader along with Lyra in the trap. So yeah it’s a big block of dialogue, but it has a purpose.
Also the way he wrote Lyra’s reaction and how she tells will, or doesn’t tell him, about giving him away and losing the alethiometer, Pullman has such respect and understanding of children. Like she’s clearly kind of having a tantrum, but he never dumbs it down or talks down about it. And it’s so vivid, I can really see both that she’s having a genuinely strong emotional response to what happened, and that she’s never had to control her emotions before. It’s so different from Will who has to keep everything really tightly controlled. And having Will talk to Pan instead of Lyra and pan changing shape so quickly, it’s just so interesting how emotions are different for people who have a literal symbol of their emotions walking around and talking. Which makes me think of Lee and Hester and how good she is at guarding his emotions.
I love this series very much, I might like reading this as an adult even more than I did as a teen. The death of Lee and Hester. So many people die in this book. Also John Parry just getting shot in front of Will, the moment they reunite! Philip really is a tough one. Will is just such a lovely and loving character. You can just see (or read) Lyra growing in this chapter, leaning on Will and seeing how he behaves. Lord Azriel is really scary and so is Miss Coulter. I can really appreciate how there is no clear good or bad side anymore. Just awful people doing awful stuff and Lyra and Will just trying their best.
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