La Belle Savage

I liked it, but I feel like I would have gotten more out of it if I had read the Dark Materials series more recently. As is, it felt like it referenced a lot of exposition in the series without really building up the universe in the same way. In fact there were even times when I was wondering “Where is Malcolm's daemon?” In some sections is almost felt like Asta was forgotten.

Malcolm and Alice are great characters, I would love to see more of their story. I loved infant Lyra and seeing what baby daemons are like.

However, the second half of the novel is a long canoe ride through a dreamy flooded British landscape, all while being chased by a lunatic and his increasingly maimed and tortured daemon. They find a witch, a faerie and some sort of weird purgatory party. It felt like it dragged on, and then the ending when they are finally rescued felt incredibly rushed. We never see Malcolm reunited with his family or Dr. Relf for example, instead we just have Lord Asriel telling them to go back to the Trout, as he drops Lyra off at the University.