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Mythili

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You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

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Mythili is Currently Reading

Mythili is currently reading

The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)

by Philip Pullman

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in October 2019

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Mythili said: " It's just...UGH, how to possibly give a story in this universe, especially one that is ABOUT Lyra, less than 5 stars? And maybe even less than 4?? But if I'm being honest...truly honest...I guess that's where we end up.

This is genuinely a 5 star book It's just...UGH, how to possibly give a story in this universe, especially one that is ABOUT Lyra, less than 5 stars? And maybe even less than 4?? But if I'm being honest...truly honest...I guess that's where we end up.

This is genuinely a 5 star book that started losing stars as it went along. There was so much strength in the plot as we started--an adventure, a large conspiracy, and some truly heartbreaking, understandable tension between Lyra and Pan over what it means to be a daemon and their bond and how it's changed. I cannot explain to you how excitedly I read this book at the outset, and how much it drew me in. I was Ready and Willing with the story, loving the mental notes from Lyra on Will but also her determination to continue living the life on earth (where we have to create our Kingdom of Heaven!).

But just over time the story loses its way. The strength of His Dark Materials is the gradual reveal of the larger forces in the universe, the build to the mysteries and the fantasy that makes it of our world but not at the same time. The allegory of Iorek lands in a way that feels true, in a way that the fairy that suckled Lyra (???? see I can't even remember La Belle Sauvage that well) never really does. Is the world really just full of magical creatures? What does the Magisterium have to do with that? With Roses? Why doesn't Lyra draw upon her extensive childhood adventures to inform her reading of her Jordan Peterson knockoff literature professors?

And therein lies the rub, a sort of spoiled scent throughout the book that doesn't sit as well with me at 29 as it did at 9 when I first read of Lyra. At 9 herself (or 10, whatever) Lyra has no female friends and is a tomboy and then goes out into the world and meets all sorts of people. Now we are 20 something, and...it just reads a bit weirder. I don't know how to fully describe it, but it's a summation of a number of feelings sort of summarized as, Pullman loves his character and her journey without respecting that her journey is tied to who she is. Almost like how Lyra comes back at the end of The Amber Spyglass and finally sees worth in Dame Hannah? It's like Pullman doesn't see that same worth in Lyra, or not as much.

(view spoiler)

But I'm reading the next one, you bet yourself I am. ...more "

Nov 02, 2019 12:08AM · see review

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The Names

by Florence Knapp

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Oct 21, 2025 05:06PM

Mythili’s Notes & Highlights

Book cover for When the Moon Hits Your Eye

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

1 note & 3 highlights

“I’m not straight, I’m just lazy,” Cassie said. “I don’t want to have to go looking, and men hit on me more. So it’s just a numbers game at that point.”

bi truths

Blue Sisters

by Coco Mellors

13 highlights
Swordcrossed

by Freya Marske

1 highlight

See Mythili’s 468 books with notes and highlights…

Mythili’s Quotes

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
― John Rogers

tags: atlas-shrugged, ayn-rand, books, children-s-literature, education, fantasy, jrr-tolkien, life-changing, lord-of-the-rings, reading, real-world

1094 likes

“When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.”
― Ruth Bader Ginsburg

274 likes