books, 2009

[derien]

#3) "The Shadow In The North" Philip Pullman. It ended up being not at all what I expected. I thought I was in for a light kid's adventure/mystery, and halfway through it turned into something else again. It should have warnings for character death, because you don't expect that in something that says "A Sally Lockhart Mystery" as if it were an ongoing series. Although the prose was somewhat clunky in places, and there were a few stretches, the end left me feeling a bit like I was reeling. Though of course that could also be because I'm sick.


I had to mutter about it to Eor: "Do you want to know about some of this book before you read it? How do you feel about dogs dying?"

"It depends," he said. "Was it in the line of duty?"

"Yes."

"Then that's as it should be."

Because, yeah, that seems to be how dogs prefer to go. It's a symbol of one of the reversals of expectations in this book that the cover features a ferocious looking black dog leaping on a guy, reminiscent of the Hound of the Baskervilles. I actually didn't cry at the moment of the dog's death, but a few pages further on when Sally goes to reach for him, needing the reassurance of his stolid devotion, and he's not there.

Comments

[ladyfalcon.livejournal.com]

The Sally Lockheart books are actually a trilogy, although I feel from the short description that you may have jumped in at the middle book. I can't remember the books well enough to say for sure, but I do know that there are certainly three of them altogether.

Erin

[derien.livejournal.com]

I think it's the second one, too, and I had no idea that they had to be read in order. Most fluffy kids mysteries everything returns to status quo at the end of the book so that you can write as many as you want, and that's what I was expecting when I picked it up, so I didn't bother to even think about whether there was an order to them.

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

I liked the Sally Lockhart books quite a lot* but yeah, Pullman doesn't pull his punches. Have you read the His Dark Materials series?

* Though IIRC one of them - the second one, maybe? - had somewhat dodgy racial issues in places. And then there was the one with the evil monkey. Phillip Pullman, what is your problem with monkeys? What did they ever do to you?

[derien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I read "His Dark Materials" books year before last.

Maybe he was raped by a monkey. I never said that. I did NOT say that. Maybe it's just easy to use monkeys as evil because they look something like humans but have no id to stop them doing all the evil things you know people want to do?