His Dark Materials

The Golden Compass was a very fun read.  It brought back the feeling of when I was back in middle school reading books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and many other fantasy literary novels.  But now that I am in high school I've learned something that will go along with me forever which is to look at the book deeper than its plot.  The plot surprising the least interesting thing about a book for me now.  A good example of this was shown when I was reading The Golden Compass.  A thing that was very interesting was in the theme of destiny throughout the whole story.  You had two opposing sides going against each other that literally represented destiny (the Church) and free will (Lord Asriel).  These two sides clashed because Lord Asriel hated destiny and thought that all people should be able to control their own lives. On the other side you had the Church trying to control people's lives.  A way the Church was trying to control people's free will was by preventing sexual interaction between one another.  They believed that sexual interaction would lead people to be mature and independent figures.  A way that the main character (Lyra) defies the Church is by having a sexual encounter with Will.  I think the boys name being Will was kind of interesting because I think it referenced her going towards free will over destiny.  Also an interesting thing I saw was that Dust meant consciousness or knowledge.  I thought of it as when you become an adult you attract dust as an object would as it sits their or ages so as you age you gain knowledge.  I found that very interesting as a concept and that is what I thought the thought process behind it was.  Overall this book goes to many deeper levels as many other books do and you will not understand them when you are a middle schooler like I didn't until I reread it in high school.