Title: The Tiger in the Well

Author: Philip Pullman

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 394

Rating: 9/10

Philip Pullman – The Tiger in the Well

The Tiger in the Well is one of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart novels, and I thought it was the strongest one behind The Ruby in the Smoke, where everything kicked off. Here, Sally has changed – she’s almost damaged, possibly slightly deranged, and ready to do anything that she needs to do to protect her daughter.

She’s also being sued for divorce, despite the fact that she isn’t even married, and she’s never even heard of the person who’s suing her. So as you can imagine, you’re along for a bumpy ride, and the young woman has her work cut out for her when it comes to finding out what’s happening and trying to deal with it, so she can get her life back on track.

Here, there’s a constant, pervading sense of danger, and you can feel it as a reader. Sally never knows where the next attempt on her life or her sanity will come from, and so she has to be constantly aware, with her eyes open at all times. The dangerous game that she’s caught up in threatens to take everything away from her, but not necessarily to kill her – rather, her adversary wants her to be alive, but to wish that she was dead.

Philip Pullman Quote

Of course, I’m not going to tell you who that adversary happens to be, because that would ruin the whole book for you. What I will tell you, though, is that Pullman keeps you guessing – in fact, because there are no obvious suspects, the reader tends to feel just like poor Sally Lockhart, who knows that someone is trying to ruin her life but who doesn’t know who, or why.

Overall then, this is a fantastic book for anyone who likes Victorian stuff, steampunk stuff, or just the phenomenal work of Philip Pullman. And the best part about it is that you don’t necessarily need to have read the rest of the books in the series to understand what’s happening. So what are you waiting for? Go out and grab a copy as quickly as possible, then read it and come back to let me know what you think.I’d be interested to know what you think of it – comment away!

Philip Pullman

Click here to buy The Tiger in the Well.