CW: Suicide ( )

Teen/adult fiction. Historical (Alaska gold rush); suspense. Sig is left alone with the frozen corpse of his father in a isolated cabin in the arctic when he hears a menacing knock on the door--a large, threatening man from his father's past that is demanding his share of the gold, gold that Sig doubts even exists. Sig's only hope is to get to his father's revolver, hidden in the store room, but the stranger is wary and Sig may never have that chance. ( )

[I wrote this review in 2010]

** A good story, but it comes close to glamourising the revolver in parts**

All credit to the author for yet another unique and original story. What sets Sedgwick's young adult novels apart from many other authors is his ability to push boundaries and try out new ideas. He is not afraid to test the limits and allow his young readers the opportunity to make up their own minds about many of the topics he introduces. I do wonder in 'Revolver' if he strikes quite the right balance at times. It is a sensitive subject and in parts of the novel the revolver appears to be celebrated. A reader who does not read to the end of the story might go away with a quite different impression to a reader who finds out what happens at the end and for this reason it's a novel I would only recommend for more mature readers (11+).

A good, engaging, short read and clearly well researched. The story is set in 1910 (looking back to 1899 in parts) in an extremely harsh, isolated and unimaginably cold environment - a small mining settlement north of the Arctic Circle. Sig Andersson is all alone in the family cabin, with the frozen body of his dead father just rescued from the ice, when he hears a knock at the door... people just don't knock on the door of the Andersson cabin. The cabin hasn't seen visitors for years. Sig's nightmare begins... ( )

Given Sedgwick's skill with atmosphere in fiction, coming across a book by him that centres on a revolver and an isolated homestead in the Arctic circle was a moment of joy.

Unfortunately, this book is something of a failure; it should really be tense and atmospheric; pregnant with potential violence and full of mystery but somehow it fails to deliver any of that, or much atmosphere, until very near the end, which is at least quite good.

I am left wondering what Jack London would have made of the same inspirational premise, surely it would have been better than this and also more grim. ( )

A quick, suspenseful, but not scary read. The cold, and the primitive conditions of Alaska at the turn of the last century add to the story's appeal. Sedgwick is, as always, a great story teller. Still, I think this will appeal to adults more than teens, who tend to avoid historical fiction, at least at my school. ( )