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Book Summary and Reviews of The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

The Red Necklace

by Sally Gardner

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (7):
  • Published:
  • May 2008, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Clever and head-turningly attractive, fourteen-year old Yann is an orphan who has been raised in Paris by Têtu, a dwarf with secrets he has yet to reveal to the gypsy boy. It's the winter of 1789, and the duo have been working for a vain magician named Topolain. On the night when Topolain's vanity brings his own death, Yann's life truly begins. That's the night he meets shy Sido, an heiress with an ice-cold father, a young girl who has only known loneliness until now. Though they have the shortest of conversations, an attachment is born that will influence both their paths.

And what paths those will be! Revolution is afoot in France, and Sido is being used as a pawn. Only Yann will dare to rescue her, and he'll be up against a fearful villain who goes by the name Count Kalliovski, but who has often been called the devil. It'll take all of Yann's newly discovered talent to unravel the mysteries of his past and Sido's and to fight the devilish count.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. [A] lush tale of magic, betrayal and Revolution...Gardner's heightened prose rarely falters, and teen readers will eat it up." - Kirkus Reviews.

"Sally Gardner's follow-up to I, Coriander, aimed at 10 to 16-year-olds, is enthralling: a vividly detailed concoction of murder and romance, drama and intrigue, set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. The sense of rising panic on the Paris streets and in the salons suffuses a superb reading." - The Telegraph (UK).

"Starred Review. Suspenseful, complex and haunting. Ages 12–up." - Publishers Weekly.

This information about The Red Necklace was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

CrazyChicken

the red necklace
Very good book, my favourite character is Yann, Kalliovskis' son.

S.E

Amazing
This book mingles the perfect amount of adventure and history with a romance. It is a book that you will love.

TEEHEE :D

Great Book :P
This was a great book, I had to read it for a summer reading assignment and I enjoyed it. I like how the author uses many true events of history during the French Revolution, but at the same time adding fiction and a story line making the book interesting and more enjoyable :

kaity

amazing!!!!!
This is my favourite book!! I love the story line and it has a lot of historical depth as well. It intrigues me because it is a bit magical, and a little magical. I have recommended it everywhere and I am in the middle of reading it for the 4th time :) I love this book and it's sequel is amazing as well!! You should definetely read it!

logan

very good book
I really enjoyed reading this book and all but I didn't find any connection to the actual revolution. It was an amazing story and I would definitely recomend it, and actually I have to a few people, and I would even read it again. I am looking forward to the sequel "the silver blade"

A Kid That Read This Book

AMAZING!
What a spectacular book, if a may say so my self. An amazing vocabulary of intriguing words. A absolute finamina!

...1 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Sally Gardner Author Biography

Sally Gardner grew up and still lives in London. Being dyslexic, she did not learn to read or write until she was fourteen and had been thrown out of several schools, labeled unteachable, and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a theater school, and then went on to become a very successful costume designer, working on some notable productions. After the births of twin daughters and a son, she started first to illustrate and then to write picture books and chapter books, usually with fairytale- or otherwise magical subject matter. She has been called 'an idiosyncratic genius' by London’s Sunday Times.

I, Coriander is her ...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Sally Gardner's Website

Other books by Sally Gardner at BookBrowse
  • Maggot Moon jacket
  • I, Coriander jacket
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More Recommendations

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