Revolver

I have to say, when I read the description of this book, I wasn't expecting to like it. A teenage boy in a cabin with his dead dad? Not really my cup of tea. But I loved it. The story is gripping and suspenseful and the writing style has a sparseness to it that made you feel the fast empty landscape and let you fill in the details for yourself. The story interweaves a fascinating mystery with a coming of age story. I could have done without the last chapter of wrap-up, the story didn't really need it but it also wasn't hurt by it either.

Sedgwick writes primarily for the young adult audience, but his books have much wider appeal and are always thought-provoking reads for adults too. I loved one of his other titles, Blood Red, Snow White, and I also really enjoyed another of his which I read last Easter, Kiss of Death. So I was really looking forward to reading his latest book.

Revolver is the story of a boy and a gun – a Colt forty-four forty revolver to be precise. It’s set in the Arctic north, where three continents meet around the North Pole. It starts in the northernmost town in Sweden, Giron (Kiruna), and Sig Andersson is sitting alone at home, except for the corpse of his father, who died falling through the ice that day as if he was running away from show more something, or someone.

Sig’s sister and step-mother had gone for help, leaving the young teenager to think about his father and their hard life up in the Arctic, but also his late mother. When Sig was little, they had lived in Nome, Alaska during the gold-rush of 1899; Sig’s father Einar was an assay clerk in the claims office. Einar’s most prized posession is a Colt revolver – it lives in its original box in the storeroom, and needless to say, Sig has always been fascinated by it....

" ‘A gun is not a weapon, Einar once said to Sig, ‘It’s an answer. It’s an answer to the questions life throws at you when there’s no one else to help.’
Sig hadn’t understood what he meant by that. Not then."

While Sig is mounting his vigil over his father’s body, there is a knock at the door. But it’s not the help he was waiting for, it’s a giant of a man who has come looking for Einar, to claim back what he thinks is his. Wolff knew Einar back in Alaska, and has a tale to tell of gold and the corruption and lust it brings. Now Sig knows why Einar kept a gun; if only he could manage to get it out of the storeroom. Einar had let him and his sister shoot the Colt just once to know what it was like.

"He tried not to smile, for Anna’s sake, but inside he felt the best he’d ever felt in his whole life. It had felt amazing, incredible, indescribable. It hadn’t been frightening at all."
The only frightening thing was how easy it had been, but it would be years before he understood that."

The tension rises with each short chapter, and there is a definite frontier feel to this novel with its themes of gold and guns. The far north too has never seemed as cold as when Einar is explaining about the effects of sub-zero temperatures on gunmetal – as always, Sedgwick’s research is top notch. Ultimately though, Sig’s dilemma over whether or not to use the gun is the most fascinating part of the story and makes this short novel a great little thriller making it my first 10/10 read of the year. show less

This was another one of this years Printz Honor books. Sig finds his father frozen to death on the ice. The same day while his sister and step mother go for help a man he's met before as a child that he has no memory of appears in their cabin in Giron. Gunther Wolff claims to have been Einar's business partner and that he and Wolff were cheating prospectors and that Sig and his family ran off with Wolff's half. Sig must figure out what the truth is and whether he should get his father's revolver and try and get out. The story alternates between Sig and Wolff and what really happened ten years ago between Einar and Wolff.

This story felt like it was all about the mood. The tension just built and built as Sig tried to figure out how to show more escape, what he should do and what could possibly have happened ten years ago. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat wondering what Sig would do. I really liked how the Sig chose to handle the situation in the end. He was true to himself by finding a mid ground between his parents and their feelings on the revolver.

I also thought that learning about how Einar and the family survived in Nome in 1900 was interesting. I also thought the quotes between sections were interesting giving both an interesting idea of how the colt revolver has been perceived and a few other interesting elements of the story. I also liked the very ending of the story. I felt like it gave an interesting sense of realism to the story. show less

This was another one of this years Printz Honor books. Sig finds his father frozen to death on the ice. The same day while his sister and step mother go for help a man he's met before as a child that he has no memory of appears in their cabin in Giron. Gunther Wolff claims to have been Einar's business partner and that he and Wolff were cheating prospectors and that Sig and his family ran off with Wolff's half. Sig must figure out what the truth is and whether he should get his father's revolver and try and get out. The story alternates between Sig and Wolff and what really happened ten years ago between Einar and Wolff.

This story felt like it was all about the mood. The tension just built and built as Sig tried to figure out how to show more escape, what he should do and what could possibly have happened ten years ago. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat wondering what Sig would do. I really liked how the Sig chose to handle the situation in the end. He was true to himself by finding a mid ground between his parents and their feelings on the revolver.

I also thought that learning about how Einar and the family survived in Nome in 1900 was interesting. I also thought the quotes between sections were interesting giving both an interesting idea of how the colt revolver has been perceived and a few other interesting elements of the story. I also liked the very ending of the story. I felt like it gave an interesting sense of realism to the story. show less

[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 show more 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... show less

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.

Not long after he finds his father's frozen body on the lake near his remote arctic homestead, Sig is visited by a menacing stranger who has unfinished business with his father. This taut thriller makes excellent use of its remote, punishing setting as well as the protagonist's moral dilemma: take advantage of the power of his father's revolver or protect the humanity instilled by his mother's bible?