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bookeater101's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
librarian_wendy's review against another edition
4.0
I've been listening to this trilogy in the car. What a brilliant writer Philip Pullman is! These are wonderful mystery stories centered around the character Sally Lockhart, an independent young woman living in London in the late 1800's.
ginnykaczmarek's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this one. It seems like just my kind of thing: a Philip Pullman novel about a female detective in Victorian England with magicians and seances and murder. But I got about halfway through and just do not care to finish. This book takes so many deep dives into dull Victorian minutiae (accounting practices, international shipping business, early photography, stagecraft) that the plot gets lost. The result is a dry dump of nonessential information between bits of intrigue. (To be fair, maybe all that info is leading somewhere, but ugh.) On top of that, the main characters' constant squabbles, which I think are supposed to read like they're falling for one another, feel like listening to your most irritating friends argue ad nauseam.
I'm a pretty patient reader who likes a broad range of books, but this one bored me. Bummer!
I'm a pretty patient reader who likes a broad range of books, but this one bored me. Bummer!
sarabearian's review against another edition
The second book in the Sally Lockhart mysteries. It is the best so far. Sally gets involved in a conspiracy when one of her clients loses their investments. She demands answers as she gets closer to the villain behind the missing money and the countless attempts to kill a magician who lies a lot.
-Christina S.
-Christina S.
hoytreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A solid, if VERY dark YA/teen historical mystery. This was missing the magic that made me love the first volume in this series, but was still a decent read. Our heroine is a few years older in this installment and is working on her own running a financial advice firm while the rest of the gang from the previous book is running combo photo studio/detective agency. So of course everyone gets together to investigate a case for this book. But in true Philip Pullman fashion, he goes super dark for this sequel, so be sure to look online for any trigger warnings if you're so inclined (I think he objects to having any of his characters actually be happy). I like the Victorian setting, the plot is reasonably twisty, the ending is a page-turner, but it just got so dark, that I can't give it higher than a 3. But I'll still keep reading the series.
crazyraccoon's review against another edition
4.0
Damn, Pullman can write (an make me weep, but don't tell anybody). It's been so long since I've read a good detective story that the Sally Lockhart series really swept me off my feet. The characters are just so... alive!
litlfrog's review against another edition
4.0
Another gripping story of Victorian financial adviser and reluctant adventuress Sally Lockhart. It's a darker tale than "The Ruby In the Smoke," with bigger consequences for all involved. Pullman succeeds brilliantly in his desire to write a book that his heroine would want to read.
calledplainkate's review against another edition
4.0
Well, I was greatly disappointed with one of the events that takes place in this novel, but someday I'll get over it.
I will say that there were several really awesome turns of phrase in this book, enough that I marked them to laugh over them later.
"She took the fish out of her mouth again, looked at him steadily for a moment, and then released a flood of the filthiest, richest, ripest, fruitiest, foulest language Jim had ever heard. It went on for an uninterrupted two minutes and a half, without repetition. He, his face, his manners, his ancestry, his clothes, and his mind were compared unfavorably to parts of his body, to parts of other people's bodies, to parts of animals' bodies, to the stink arising from dead fish, to boils, to intestinal wind, and to several other unpleasantnesses."
"Shut yer gob-boxes, the pair of you."
"At your best, you're magnificent, and I loved you for it. At your worst you're nothing but a smooth, self-righteous, patronizing bitch." Harsh for a kid's book!
Sex too?!? I better make sure that this isn't in our j fiction section! "He laughed. She bit his nose."
A bit racy this one and I do believe that Mr. Pullman may have forgotten some of the social niceties of the time he's writing about, but then again Sally is supposed to be a bit ahead of her time.
I will say that there were several really awesome turns of phrase in this book, enough that I marked them to laugh over them later.
"She took the fish out of her mouth again, looked at him steadily for a moment, and then released a flood of the filthiest, richest, ripest, fruitiest, foulest language Jim had ever heard. It went on for an uninterrupted two minutes and a half, without repetition. He, his face, his manners, his ancestry, his clothes, and his mind were compared unfavorably to parts of his body, to parts of other people's bodies, to parts of animals' bodies, to the stink arising from dead fish, to boils, to intestinal wind, and to several other unpleasantnesses."
"Shut yer gob-boxes, the pair of you."
"At your best, you're magnificent, and I loved you for it. At your worst you're nothing but a smooth, self-righteous, patronizing bitch." Harsh for a kid's book!
Sex too?!? I better make sure that this isn't in our j fiction section! "He laughed. She bit his nose."
A bit racy this one and I do believe that Mr. Pullman may have forgotten some of the social niceties of the time he's writing about, but then again Sally is supposed to be a bit ahead of her time.