Rook

by Sharon Cameron

Overview

History has a way of repeating itself. In the Sunken City that was once Paris, all who oppose the new revolution are being put to the blade. Except for those who disappear from their prison cells, a red-tipped rook feather left in their place. Is the mysterious Red Rook a savior of the innocent or a criminal?

Meanwhile, across the sea in the Commonwealth, Sophia Bellamy's arranged marriage to the wealthy René Hasard is the last chance to save her family from ruin. But when the search for the Red Rook comes straight to her doorstep, Sophia discovers that her fiancé is not all he seems. Which is only fair, because neither is she.

As the Red Rook grows bolder and the stakes grow higher, Sophia and René find themselves locked in a tantalizing game of cat and mouse.

Daring intrigue, delicious romance, and spine-tingling suspense fill the pages of this extraordinary tale from award-winning author Sharon Cameron.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545675994
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.70(d)
Lexile:	810L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sharon Cameron's debut novel The Dark Unwinding was awarded the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' Sue Alexander Award for Most Promising New Work and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and was named a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection. Sharon is also the author of its sequel, A Spark Unseen; Rook, which was selected as an Indiebound Indie Next List Top Ten selection, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection, and a Parents' Choice gold medalist; and The Forgetting, an Autumn 2016 Kids' Indie Next List selection. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee, and you can visit her online at sharoncameronbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

02/02/2015
The Scarlet Pimpernel gets an eco-disaster update as Cameron (The Dark Unwinding) imagines how civilization would regress if a shift in Earth’s magnetic poles caused worldwide catastrophe. One could contest whether the structures and worldview of 1790s France would reemerge as a stabilization point 800 years after the apocalypse, but given this scenario, Cameron puts an entertaining spin on the original. Eighteen-year-old Sophia Bellamy, enabled by paternal inattention and fraternal complicity, darts between the ravaged British coastline and a partially sunken Paris. As the Red Rook, she rescues French prisoners doomed to the Razor by the malignant security chief LeBlanc. At home, she faces a loveless marriage to René Hasard, LeBlanc’s foppish cousin. Their engagement is still new when Sophia realizes that there is more substance to René—and more hazard in their situation—than she had reckoned with. Alas, one element Cameron preserves is the Pimpernel’s thoroughly male-constructed reality. While energetic, Sophia is nevertheless dependent not only on her beau but on a panoply of fairy-tale good guys to get her out of her messes. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Rook:

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection

An Indiebound Indie Next Top Ten selection

Winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award

"The suspense kicks right off in this action-packed tale, quickly wrapping readers up in the drama." -- Romantic Times

"Full of derring-do and double crosses, this romantic adventure is thoroughly engrossing." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Cameron crafts a brilliant homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel yet also manages to make her telling unique, particularly in... the many twists, turns, betrayals, and lucky breaks [that] will keep readers breathless until the very end." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Rook is sure to be a read all readers will remember." -- Portland Book Review

Praise for The Dark Unwinding:

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection

Winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award

"Utterly original, romantic, and spellbindingly imaginative." -- USA Today

"Haunting thrills unfurl..." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Gripping twists, rich language, and an evocative landscape." -- Publishers Weekly

"[A] singularly polished piece." -- The Horn Book

"A strikingly original, twisty gothic tale that holds surprises around every dark corner." --Judy Blundell, author of What I Saw and How I Lied

Praise for A Spark Unseen:

"Gripping... [an] absorbing, intelligent adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Sophia Bellamy, an energetic and resourceful young woman, is as likely to be found climbing out of windows and scaling buildings as she is to be dancing in a ballroom. At the age of eighteen Sophia is forced to become engaged to collect a marriage fee to save the ancestral home. She is both intrigued and perplexed by the actions and demeanor of her new fiancé, Rene Hasard. As she goes through the motions expected by society, she must determine if she can trust Rene with the details of her mysterious life outside of the debutant persona. Sophia must continue with her mission to save dying prisoners in the Tombs, helping them escape while disguised as the enigmatic Red Rook. Sophia strives to keep her identity unknown while working to rescue her brother and do the good she feels she must do to help others. Due to her feisty determination and sense of selflessness, Sophia accomplishes the impossible while simultaneously securing a future for herself and her family. Influences of The Scarlet Pimpernel and the French Revolution are felt throughout this enticing presentation of a post-technological dystopian society laced with romantic interludes. Reviewer: Allison Fetters; Ages 12 up.

Children's Literature - Allison Fetters

In this stunning homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel, sixteen-year-old Sophia looks like a high-society debutante engaged to an equally foppish young man, but she hides a secret identity. As the Rook, Sophia saves innocents from the guillotine and stirs up trouble for the people in power. Her career as a revolutionary runs into trouble when she discovers that her fiancé’s rakish façade disguises his true character. Sophia must place her trust in the right places or a final dungeon rescue will either free those she loves or end her life. Author of The Dark Unwinding (Scholastic, 2012/Voya August 2012) and an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults nominee, Cameron modernizes the original tale of derring-do. She places the story in the distant future where disaster resets civilization to the Regency period. This world contains amusing tidbits about the ancients, addicted to their technology and plastics, and totally different from Sophie’s technophobic world, where even clocks are outlawed. Cameron uses multiple vantage points to build tension as Sophia and her compatriots struggle through the French Revolution, starring a memorably mad LeBlanc as Robespierre. After world building, character development, and action sequences, it would seem a love triangle might overwhelm the story. Instead, Cameron’s shrewd use of romance acts as another weight to pull the plot even tighter. For fans of historical adventure featuring intrepid heroines, it just does not get any better. Reviewer: Jessica Atherton; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, April 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 1) - Jessica Atherton

03/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—"It was a fine night for an execution…" but the Red Rook has other plans. Eighteen-year-old Sophia Bellamy, with the help of her older brother Tom and their trusted friend Spear, has freed the prisoners before the Razor could sever their heads. This retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel (a story unlikely to be familiar to most teens) is set in a far-future England and France, when magnetic pole shifts have rendered technology a distant memory. Candlelight, penned letters, and escapes on horseback are the order of the day, and shards of plastic can fetch a pretty price. A political atmosphere similar to the French Revolution has taken hold, and the Rook is determined that innocent lives will not be lost. When not wielding her sword (and a red-tipped feather as a calling card), Sophia is juggling her betrothal of convenience to handsome Frenchman René Hasard, meant to save the Bellamy estate from forfeiture. René is more intriguing (and smarter) than she expected, and though uncomfortable sparks initially fly between them, they soon find they are on the same side, despite René kinship to the Ministre of Security—the very man who has vowed to see the Red Rook brought down. Sophia and René are well matched, and Cameron's atmospheric writing keeps the novel moving. A good choice where Robin LaFevers's Grave Mercy (Houghton Harcourt, 2012) or Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution (Delacorte, 2010) are popular. VERDICT This dashing story line combines a technology-free dystopia with swashbuckling romance.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

School Library Journal

2015-02-03
A clever homage to The Scarlet Pimpernel, set in a post-apocalyptic future Europe. In a distant future where most modern technology has been lost, Sophia Bellamy, 18, leads a double life. By day, she is a young woman of the Commonwealth whose arranged marriage will save her family from debt. By night, she's the daring Red Rook, who rescues prisoners from the bloodthirsty revolutionaries of the Sunken City (which once was Paris). However, LeBlanc, the Sunken City's fanatical Ministre of Security, has tracked the Red Rook back to Sophia's home in Kent. Now Sophia must protect her family and the prisoners she has just rescued and determine whether her sly, all-too-charming fiance, René Hasard, is an enemy or an ally. Cameron (Unseen, 2014) riffs off Baroness Orczy's sentimental classic without losing any of the romance and adventure that has made it perennially popular. Rich descriptions bring Sophia's world—from the horrors of the Sunken City's prisons to her glittering social milieu—to Technicolor life. Sophia's wits and bravado make her an irresistible protagonist; René proves to be a worthy foil, though unfortunately the same cannot be said of LeBlanc. Still, the novel's 456 pages mostly fly by thanks to the nonstop intrigue and the occasional swoon-worthy kiss. Full of derring-do and double crosses, this romantic adventure is thoroughly engrossing. (Science fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews