Finally got around to reading this classic, and it didn’t disappoint! It follows Lyra and her daemon, as they become embroiled in a secret plot and try to figure out how to survive it. 

I absolutely adore the concept of a daemon. Even though I had never read these books, I’ve known the basics of how they work forever (I saw the shitty movie as a kid, and maybe it stuck with me from that? or it’s just part of popular culture?). I was excited to read the source material for it though, and god do I love it. An external soul, that we can cuddle and talk to?? I want every character in every book to have a daemon, and I want one for myself so so bad. 

When it comes to the plot, I’m a bit conflicted. I love Lyra, and I love the armored bears, and the idea of a group of people trying to separate daemons from their people. All of that is super interesting! But the whole “Dust” thing, especially as it relates to religion, is just a bit “really?” to me. I get it, it’s the driving force of the plot and reason as to why all that shit was going down, but still—Dust? Come on. I’m hoping the next book will be a bit more grounded and less hokey to me, but we’ll see.