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LorCon's Reviews > The Ruby in the Smoke
The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart, #1)
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I'm a big fan of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, so I thought I would give this a try. Heck, I even liked the Golden Compass movie (two words--Daniel Craig). This is what librarians call "young adult" literature i.e. "for teenagers." As such, I find it a bit disturbing. I'm a far cry from a book-burning censor but this heroine is not my idea of a role model. Set in Victorian London, Sally Lockhart is an orphan (of course)who falls in with a Dickensian cast of characters to solve her father's murder. She packs a pistol and dabbles with opium, but has to get a man to purchase them for her. It doesn't even occur to her to try to solve the riddle...she's too busy embarking on a career as an accountant! She's also rather too quick to tell all her secrets to everyone she meets. And pretty much everyone ends up conveniently dead. Oh, dear. Where is Nancy Drew when we need her? Pullman should stick to insulting religion.
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Reading Progress
December 5, 2008
– Shelved
Started Reading
December 17, 2008
–
Finished Reading
December 18, 2008
– Shelved as:
fiction
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
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Samantha
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rated it 5 stars
Apr 20, 2009 11:51AM
You obviously missed the point of this novel.
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I have not read this yet, I saw your comment and you strike me as a very funny individual. When I saw the comments I decided to leave a positive one, this is a site dedicated to books and the people who love to read and share them so I am glad that you posted your opinion and selfishly enjoyed it. This isnt the place to be pretentious and mean spirited we all have something in common and should progress beyond the immature comments left on other sites.
Some shops say His Dark Materials is aimed at 8-11 year olds, others at 11-18 so that also puts them in the "Young Adult" too and Lyra's not the best role model either (from having just read the second book).
You can't compare this series to His Dark Materials. She is a woman in Victorian England - therefore she had little or no rights of any kind - hence having to have a man do her purchasing...
People died a lot in Victorian London
Sally's decisions were made right, she knew she can't get the pistol and opium herself because she could get caught by Mrs Holand. And that's very smart. And her going into a career WAS NEEDED because SHE WAS HOMELESS. And i definitely feel like this job was like her coping mechanism
And this could possibly just be character development for the next books
that's why the book is so good, BECAUSE Sally is involved with slightly adult things. It ENHANCES the danger. I'd rather kids read non stop horror pawn from the god awful Dean Koontz than turn into Internet zombies.
