From the preponderance of 'young adult' characters, I guess that is who this book is aimed at. Unfortunately that meant it was not so much for me. The bears and knives are doubtless borrowed from Philip Pullman, but the quality of the writing is not really comparable. The invented swearword 'skylights' is just bizarre. Maybe it means something else in Australia, but swearing by a type of window is distinctly odd. This book was supplied by the author for free, but I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy.