Kalliovski is surely one of the more evil characters to be found in young adult literature, and his mysterious relationship to both Yann and Sidonie and his menace to them are ever present and always threatening. Gardner has woven a tense and believable fantasy into a setting of great danger and social turmoil. The reader vividly experiences the extreme entitlement of the wealthy and the hopeless poverty of the peasantry, and, in the end, the fetid, squalid prisons of the time. Yann’s growing love for Sidonie and his efforts to help her fuel this intricate fantasy, taking the reader into the extreme excesses of French nobility and the resultant bloody excesses of the Revolution. Their performance at the chateau of a decadent Marquis brings Yann into contact with the Marquis’ crippled and neglected daughter, Sidonie, and the Marquis’ mysterious, sinister friend, Count Kalliovski.
Set during the French Revolution, the plot centers on a young Gypsy boy, Yann, who uses his mind-reading abilities and ventroquilism as a magician’s assistant.
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