The+Ruby+in+Smoke+(AE)

Annie E
 * //The Ruby in the Smoke//**, Philip Pullman

This book takes place in 1872 in London. The important characters are Sally Lockheart, a teenage girl who uncovers mysteries. Fredrick, Sally's friend who is a photographer, and Mrs. Holland, an evil old woman trying to kill Sally for a ruby. There are many conflicts in this story. One of them is that Sally and Mrs. Holland are both after a ruby that is extremely valuable. Another is Sally has to chose if she wants to put herself through pain to help her get the Ruby and find out about her past. The pain comes from Sally smelling opium, it makes her dizzy and she falls asleep. But sometimes she has to because while she's asleep, she can have a horrifying nightmare that tells her about her past, so she can solve mysteries. There is another conflict; Mrs. Holland wants to kill Sally and her young friend Adeline (Mrs. Holland's old servant), so they have to hide themselves from her in London and cannot be seen.

I would recommend this book becasue it has a lot of suspense to it. It is one of those books where you can't put it down. The ending is very exciting... finding out who gets the ruby, if Sally dies. It is a very unpredictable story. I also thought it was a unique book. Some storys are kind of similar, but this one was very different from others I've read. Another thing that was good about this book was that the author did a very good job describing the characters. I had a really good picture of how the characters looked in my head.

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