The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

Format: Audiobook (BorrowBox)

Read: July 2024

I decided to read this one for nostalgia. I first read this series when I was a teenager and remember loving it, and being surprised by how adult the content in these Young Adult books was – genuine threat, violence, guns, murder, heroin, teen pregnancy. As with His Dark Materials Philip Pullman presents complex issues and doesn’t talk down to his young audience.

I enjoyed this as much as I remembered. Sally is an interesting protagonist with both strengths and weaknesses. Frustratingly (for her) most of her strengths are more appropriate for a man than a woman in Victorian society. As a sixteen year old girl she must take risks in trusting others to get the help she needs and undercover the truth of her father’s death.

Mrs Holland is a chilling villain – even more so given the voice Adrian Lester gives her in his narration! There is a slow burn sweet romance if you can get past the fact Fred is 21 and Sally’s 16. The plot does require Fred to be adult age to help Sally, and he’s never anything other than respectful and supportive so I can be ok with it.

The plot has plenty of twists and turns, and as I said up top it goes to some surprisingly dark and brutal places for YA. There was just one frustrating silly thing that Sally does in the plot that I remember annoying me originally. If you’re hiding from people who want to harm you maybe don’t star in stereographs you’re selling… I felt like the characters were smarter than to make a mistake like that.

I’m giving it 3 that’s just because I am now 36, and it doesn’t quite have the complexity  I’m looking for as an adult reader!

I might read The Shadow in the North if I see it, but I’m also still scarred by events in that book twenty years after I read it!