Hmm. This book left me indifferent. Plot-wise I feel it's the weakest of the trilogy - there are some plot holes I would like explained or at least hinted at more clearly. I would say it hinges a lot on the concept of imagination and that some things you should find out for yourself or they should be felt or left a mystery, because that is simply the point of the story, but still some of the business is left untied or tied-in very broadly (where had Oakley Street gone in the end, Malcolm's agency? Alice is in the wind, too?? Etc.) for TRF to feel, I would say finished.

I'd seen many fans complain that the plot point revealed to be what it is, is a weird pivot from the previous main points but I beg to differ. It could be tied a bit better to TSC for a better understanding from readers who are not raging leftists or chronic consumers of socio-economic and political non-fiction such as myself, or might not be viewing and feeling these things so deeply, but all-in-all it does make sense. And I mean including Lyra's sudden realisation, because that's how it often is with these things. So this was fine with me (for those who don't get it, I strongly recommend reading The Shock Doctrine or No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein). What I had a problem with were the weird "romance" parts between Lyra and Malcolm which were completely unnecessary and the story would easily do without, and which, frankly, were just uncomfortable. Then the aforementioned plot holes, and also several weird author's decisions which just felt rushed or just outright lazy. Pantalaimon, as always, is the one remaining brain cell, the rest of the protags have left to none character development.

This review is just as chaotic as the book, I'd say. I might give it another read later, perhaps do the whole trilogy, to write a coherent one. But tl;dr, TRF does read like a Pullman, but a very lazy Pullman as in it feels as though he got bored with the new trilogy halfway writing this book and just quickly taped together whatever he plotted of the end. 🤷‍♀️ It's definitely my least fav of all HDM and TBD, which is a shame, bc it had a pontential to be the most political of all of them right after The Amber Spyglass. 🥀