Happy September! It's not really that happy is it because we'll be heading back to school/ college/ university soon which isn't exactly fun. Unless you enjoy school which if you do all power to you I wish I did!
Anyway it's time for another Instalment of Books I Did Not Finish!. And honestly I don't really know why I never finished this book but let's just go with it okay?!
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass)
by
Phillip Pullman
Tagline: There are worlds beyond our own - the compass will show you the way . . .
This book is an international best seller, it's also a major motion picture, so it stands to reason that since I loved fantasy books I would pick this book up and give it a go. In hindsight I shouldn't have because up until that point my experience with this type of fantasy book hadn't been all that great. So it didn't surprise me really when I put it down and never picked it up again.
The Synopsis:
"Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternative universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra that attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multi-layered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. (It never is is it? How generic.) Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing - victims of so-called 'Gobblers' - and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Ariel and Mrs Coulter are involved."
Now then as I'm reading that synopsis again I realise I should have read it before I bought the book. Rookie mistake right there. Because honestly I think if I had I would have placed it back on the shelf and never thought of it again. Nothing about that synopsis draws me in, I just can't seem to care about the story or the characters, it doesn't appeal to me at all.
Before writing this post I went through quite a lot of reviews trying to recognise any of the reasons I didn't like this book in myself since I couldn't pin point it down to one certain thing that made me put it down because I'm not even sure I made it to my 100 page count. After I did this I came to realise that there wasn't one big thing wrong that made me want to put this down but rather a lot of little things that just put me off.
1st, I watched the film before I read the book which was probably a bad idea because I didn't actually finish watching the film, it bored me and I switched it off (another sign I should have never picked up the book) Which going back and reading the reviews for the film I realise watching the film first definitely wasn't a good idea since the film wasn't exactly well received, garnering just 42% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.
2nd, Fantasy books of this type have never appealed to me. Similar to the likes of The Chronicles of Narnia, I never liked those films or those books. Something about a story set in the real world were the characters find a whole other alternate universe (through a wardrobe or near the northern lights) just never appeals to me. (Which is odd thinking about it because I like the Mortal Instruments Series maybe because that's not two separate worlds and rather 2 worlds meshed into one.)
3rd, Along the same lines as my second reason for not liking this book is the fact that a lot of people have called it The Chronicles of Narnia for atheists, well I'm an atheist I guess it's just a shame I don't like the Chronicles of Narnia. Again something I would have realised/ found out about had I researched the book a bit more.
4th, A lot of reviewers said it's worth a read if your looking for Harry Potter style entertainment. Well I'm not looking for that because I didn't enjoy Harry Potter as much as the rest of the world did. I read books 1-3 and then the last one (which was a struggle) so again, it's been compared to yet another series I didn't like.
5th, Child protagonist. I have never been much of a fan of child protagonists. I just prefer more teen/ adult protagonists because I feel they are more mature and I can relate to them more. So the fact that I didn't feel I could relate to Lyra definitely didn't help.
Like I said there isn't one big reason that I didn't like this book it was just a number of little things that put me off and I probably won't ever read it but that's not to say you shouldn't If you're a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter then you'll probably enjoy this book. But I'm not a fan of either of those, so it stands to reason that I don't like this. And when it comes to this type of epic fantasy book I've always preferred it to be a totally fantasy setting like Game of Thrones. To me this type of epic fantasy is total escapism I don't feel I can accomplish that if part of the story is still rooted in the real world.
That's all for today I hope you enjoyed this post and I shall see you all on Wednesday!
Don't forget to comment below and tell me your opinion on this book! I would love to hear from you!
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