THE SUBTLE KNIFE (His Dark Materials #2) by Philip Pullman ⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Original review written June 2, 2019)

I should’ve read this series a long time ago.

I don’t know how hard this falls under the Young Adult banner, but I can’t imagine any age that wouldn't get into this. It’s like a supernatural Stephen King thriller blended with the adventure and youth of Harry Potter. There’s witches and prophecies and vampiric spirit things. Academic research projects, lots of arrows, an air-ballooning Texan I wish could be my uncle, a castle with a madman, and a really sharp knife.

I was fully onboard the Lyra hype train after The Golden Compass, but Will steps in from page one and steals the show (and possibly the outright title of main protagonist). The Subtle Knife is really Will's book to rule and that’s not a bad thing.

The best part of both Will and Lyra’s characters is that they don't start out as innocent, naive kids. They already know who they are and what they stand for due to their complex backgrounds and aren’t going to wait for an adult to teach them morality because they’ve got some serious shit to do! And some serious shit goes down in this book.

Knife is better than Compass, if only because it manages to keep this great story chugging at full speed, sending me right into the next one.

P.S. YA books really don’t want you to be turned into a mindless/soulless zombie person. Mortal Engines and this one agree on that.