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Invisible in a Bright Light

Book Synopsis

From I, Coriander to Invisible in a Bright Light , Sally Gardner’s first middle grade novel in 14 years soars with the imagination of a master story-teller. A pitch-perfect story about a crystal chandelier that splinters into a thousand pieces, a girl abandoned as a baby on the steps of an opera house and a dangerous game called the Reckoning.

It is 1870 : opening night at the Royal Opera House in a freezing city by the sea, where a huge, crystal chandelier in the shape of a galleon sparkles magically with the light of 750 candles.

Celeste, a theatre rat, wakes up in a costume basket from what she hopes is a bad dream, to find that everyone at the theatre where she works thinks she is someone else.

When the chandelier falls, she is haunted by a strange girl who claims to know Celeste’s past and why she must risk playing a game called the Reckoning to try to save the people she loves.

Our Review Panel says...

Phantom of the Opera meets Alice in Wonderland in prizewinning author Sally Gardner’s first middle grade novel in 14 years.Celeste is the lowest of theatre workers in the Royal Opera House – a mere orphan whose job it is to run errands for everybody else. One day, Celeste wakes up in a costume basket to realise that everyone else in the opera house seems to think she is somebody else – a talented young dancer preparing for a stage performance. Utterly confused, Celeste also remembers fragments of a strange dream from the night before; a man in an emerald green suit, a devastating shipwreck and a dangerous game called the Reckoning, in which she is a player.The same day, a crystal chandelier in the shape of a galleon comes crashing down from the ceiling in the opera house, causing Celeste to become too injured to dance on stage as expected. After the accident, a series of clues about Celeste’s true identity begins to emerge, including the appearance of a ghost-like girl who seems to know more about Celeste’s past and an increasing realisation that Celeste is part of a high-stakes game to which she does not know the rules. A labyrinthine mystery unfolds – with elements of the surreal giving the whole plot a dream-like quality that keeps readers on their toes the whole time.I enjoyed the opera house setting, complete with its prima donnas, colourful costume and sham effects. I also enjoyed the unravelling of the plot, cleverly moving the reader from initial disorientation and confusion to piece together the answer to Celeste’s mystery step by tiny step . The story is quite dark in places and takes good reading stamina to move through the parts that feel surreal, making it most suitable for confident readers in upper KS2 or lower KS3 who can cope with feeling a little disorientated as a mystery unravels.Intriguing, haunting and filled with suspense, this story will transport readers right to the gutter of time and back again and is one to recommend to those who love an other-worldly read or who are looking for something a little bit different to get stuck into.