Revolver [Hardcover]

Marcus Sedgwick (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 13, 2010

A LOADED GUN. STOLEN GOLD. And a menacing stranger. A taut frontier survivor story, set at the time of the Alaska gold rush.

In an isolated cabin, fourteen-year-old Sig is alone with a corpse: his father, who has fallen through the ice and frozen to death only hours earlier. Then comes a stranger claiming that Sig’s father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold. Sig’s only protection is a loaded Colt revolver hidden in the cabin’s storeroom. The question is, will Sig use the gun, and why?

 

Revolver is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up—In 1910, in a lonely cabin 100 miles north of the Arctic circle, Sig Andersson sits alone with his father's body while his sister and stepmother go for help. A sled crossing on thin ice had proved foolhardy for Einar, an otherwise prudent man, and his son found him half-submerged in icy water, frozen to death. When a menacing stranger bangs on the door, claiming to be Einar Andersson's ex-business partner, Sig wrestles with the possibility that his father had cheated prospectors out of gold in his position as Assay Clerk. As Sig is held captive by the pistol-toting Gunther Wolff, the story flashes back, in short glimpses, to events leading up to this day. Sig relives the mystery surrounding the death of his beloved mother when he was very young and his father's lessons about God and respecting the power of a gun. The tension escalates as the teen calculates his chances of retrieving his father's hidden revolver or escaping from the bearlike intruder, all the while worrying about the return of his unsuspecting sister. The bleak setting and ominous circumstances will draw immediate comparisons to a Jack London tale, but in a more accessible, spare style. Reluctant readers will be riveted by the suspense and the short chapters. Scenes dealing with brutality or the harsh realities of death may not be for sensitive readers but the satisfying ending will dispel some of the gloomy tone. A great addition to survival/adventure collections.—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Sedgwick’s historical mystery, set in the Arctic Circle in 1899 and 1910, makes good use of the word chilling. Outside their remote Scandinavian village, Sig’s father dies of exposure after trying to rush home across a frozen lake. The reason for his carelessness becomes apparent to Sig when a hulking beast of a man arrives at their tiny shack with a Colt revolver, demanding his share of a stolen wealth of gold. But Sig has his own Colt hidden in the storeroom, and some very pressing questions. Who is this brute at the door? Is there really a hidden treasure? And, most importantly, can he bring himself to use that revolver to save himself and his family? As the claustrophobic tension in the Arctic cabin mounts, Sedgwick doles out bits of backstory set a decade earlier in the Alaska gold rush, and the climax reveals that there hasn’t been a single superfluous detail in the intricate, freezer-burn buildup. A carefully crafted story effectively rigidified by taut plotting and the crystalline atmospherics of its isolated setting. Grades 7-10. --Ian Chipman

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Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; 1 edition (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596435925
• ISBN-13: 978-1596435926
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A finely crafted tale of psychological suspense and survival May 8, 2010

By J. Prather TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

When you look at all the authors out there currently writing young adult fiction, Marcus Sedgwick seems to operate on a different playing field than most of the rest. In Revolver, he has offered up a chilling tale of psychological suspense that left me breathless. His descriptions of the Artic Circle, the cold that forms ice crystals in your lungs, and the hard life of his characters as they struggle to make it on this frozen frontier fully transported me there. I was so into this story that when Sig looked out his cabin window and first saw Wolff standing outside, I gasped and felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

No words are wasted in this tale. Each phrase seems carefully crafted to convey tension and to bring the reader in. The revolver that serves as the focal point of the story is as much a character as the humans we get to know. Sig's battle with Wolff, and his struggle within himself to make what he deems to be the right choice is so achingly and beautifully portrayed that you find yourself wondering what your choices would be. This is a great book and an easy recommend for any fan of Gary Paulsen. Aside from all of the psychological elements, it's also a great survivalist story. This book simply has a lot to offer to both teens and adults. I will be recommending it often.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a taut historical thriller set in the Arctic Circle June 4, 2010

By M. Tanenbaum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Originally published in London in 2009, Revolver combines two of my favorite genres: historical fiction and adventure/survival stories. Sedgwick is the author of ten previous novels for young people, most of which include gothic or paranormal elements. This psychological mystery/survival story, however, set in the forbidding world of the Arctic Circle, does not need any hints of vampires, ghosts, or witches to cast a spell on its readers. Once begun, the reader will have a hard time putting this book down.

The story alternates between Giron, an iron mining town, in 1910, and Nome in 1899, at the time of the Alaskan Gold Rush. What happened in Nome that has made 14-year old Sig's father be on the run for so many years? When Sig's father dies after a fall through the frigid ice, Sig and his sister are visited by an evil man, Gunther Wolff, who claims that he is owed half of their father's gold. They know nothing of any gold, and are terrified that this giant of a man will kill them both. An ancient Colt revolver--and ammunition--is hidden in the back of their cabin. Can Sig's resourcefulness--and the Colt revolver--possibly rescue them from this threat?

The author goes back and forth between Sig's terrifying encounter with this man whom he cannot remember and the time years before when the family lived in Nome. Sedgwick writes of Einar, the father: "He'd come for the gold, and he hadn't meant to stay. These things never lasted long, Einar knew." But when Einar is offered a job as an Assay Clerk, the government official who "does the testing and the weighing and the paying," the family settles into this harsh environment. That is, until tragedy strikes, after the arrival in Nome of the villainous miner Wolff.

There are several scenes in this book that suggest rape and murder; even though not described in graphic detail, these scenes make this book appropriate for a young adult audience but not recommended for younger children.

In the U.K. , Revolver has been short-listed for a number of prestigious prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Independent Booksellers Award, the UK Literacy Association Award, and the Northern Ireland Book Award, The book was also nominated for the Guardian Children's Book Prize.

This is the kind of fast-moving adventure story that would make a good recommendation for reluctant readers, particularly boys.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Revolver (YA) October 20, 2010

By Melissa A. Palmer VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Sig and Anna's father dies after falling through the ice in their small mining town. Shortly after, a huge, evil man Wolff comes looking for the gold that their father supposedly stole from him. He holds the kids hostage and threatens to kill them if they don't tell him where the gold is and they have no idea what he is talking about. Showing courage, the two end up making the odds a bit more even. A good, quick read that YA boys would especially like, I enjoyed this book. I borrowed this book from the library.

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