Books & Movies

The Charming Complexity of the Ruby Redfort books

December 15, 2021

Sometimes one is grasped by the sudden urge to talk about middle grade secret agent books.

Spoiler warning for Feel the Fear (Ruby Redfort #4), which is an odd book to break down considering there are six books in the series, but I think it’ll serve as a good example.

Ruby Redfort is a middle grade series written by Lauren Child. It surrounds the eponymous Ruby, who is recruited by a secret organization called Spectrum for her code-breaking skills. As Ruby navigates real life and her job at Spectrum, she also uncovers a series of complicated schemes that begin to blend the two worlds she treads.

In this post, I’ll be picking out aspects from the fourth book in the series, Feel the Fear, to demonstrate why Ruby Redfort‘s intricacies work.

Feel the Fear: a quick (and simplified) summary

After a series of events that almost got her killed in the last book, Ruby is now dealing with a lack of concern for her own life. As a result, she is putting herself into unnecessary danger because she does not believe she will die. I would probably mark this as her internal conflict for the book.

Meanwhile, the main plot surrounds a serial thief who is able to slip in and out of buildings without anyone noticing. At the same time, Twinford is preparing for a film festival where renowned actress Margo Bardem will be appearing.

Ruby learns that the thief is stealing things that Margo’s stunt double, Celeste, gave to the actor George Katsel. Katsel’s relative importance to the story? He had rejected Celeste in favor of Margo after the actress gained popularity. The thief — real name: Claude — is also revealed to be Celeste’s son. Since it was Celeste’s stunt work that had launched Margo into the public eye in the first place, Claude seeks revenge on Margo for stealing away Celeste’s limelight.

As Ruby is figuring all of this out, her best friend Clancy tries to avoid a new bully. Unfortunately, said bully is also trying to get Ruby’s attention (mostly because he thinks she’s not like other girls). Since Ruby is focused on the Margo Bardem case, however, she doesn’t pay much notice to him, but as a result also fails to notice Clancy’s dilemma.

Eventually, all of these things are tied up in the end. Ruby solves the case, stops Claude from murdering Margo, and helps Clancy trick his bully into fearing him. It’s all’s well that ends well (mostly).

A-plot and B-plot(s)

In each book in the series, there is generally an A-plot, and then multiple subplots that somehow all tie together under a main theme. Most of these usually make sense in the end or tie back to the overarching series/umbrella plot.

In Feel the Fear, the A-plot has to do with the skywalker/serial thief and his connection to film stars George Katsel and Margo Bardem. This is the main mystery that that Ruby has to uncover. The subplots include Ruby having to deal with her lack of fear and subsequent recklessness, Clancy’s conflict with the bully, and Ruby trying to stay out of trouble with her parents.

These all add to the complexity of the plot. As Ruby goes back and forth between plotlines, there are always multiple things to think about wherever one is in the story.

Themes

In general, each Ruby Redfort book will focus on a set of themes and/or motifs, and almost everything will tie back to these. These themes can normally be found in the title of the book (e.g. one of the main ideas of Feel the Fear is fear itself).

Because almost all of the plot’s events link back to a theme, Lauren Child is able to keep the book feeling tight and cohesive. Nothing feels out of place, and reading the book is like putting a puzzle together. This is especially since many story events also apply to multiple themes at once.

In this particular book, three main ideas stand out to me: fear, focus, and invisibility.

Focus

What’s interesting about the second prologue to Feel the Fear is that it references the commonly known invisible gorilla test. In this experiment, participants are shown a video where two teams pass a ball to each other: one in white shirts and the other in black shirts. The participants are then asked to count the number of times the team in white shirts passes the ball. Partway through the video, a number of other things take place, including: a gorilla appearing.

Lauren Child takes care to note that Ruby notices an unnatural amount of detail, including aspects of several audience members participating in the experiment. This comes back to bite Ruby later, and is also cleverly integrated into the Clancy subplot, where he refers to the bully who is threatening him as ‘the gorilla’ in his head. Essentially, Ruby, who usually pays attention to the things happening around her, is so focused on the A-plot that she fails to notice Clancy and his subplot.

Fear

Out of all the themes the book explores, fear is likely the main one. After the events of the last book, Ruby has become increasingly reckless, particularly since at this point, she has already cheated death multiple times. From skitching to sitting on windowsills multiple storeys above ground, Ruby is putting herself in unnecessary danger because she lacks any sort of fear for her life.

But because of this, she ends up in situations she would normally be able to avoid (e.g. stealing equipment but failing to notice an important note attached to it). Her lack of fear is interfering with her usual level of attention or focus.

In contrast, the book also plays with people who are afraid. Clancy’s fear of the gorilla interferes with his personal life, Mrs. Digby refuses to attend the film festival due to a fear of ghosts, and Margo Bardem’s fear of heights is a necessary clue that both leads to the climax and helps solve the serial thief mystery.

Invisibility

Invisibility is another idea that keeps coming up in the book. And like the rest of the book’s themes, it is shown in multiple ways. The skywalker/serial thief is able to break into houses undetected, Clancy plays with the idea of becoming invisible to hide from the gorilla, and a stolen item from Spectrum turns out to be an invisibility skin. A more metaphorical invisibility is also explored, as Celeste goes virtually unnoticed while Margo Bardem is launched into the public spotlight.

Setups and Payoffs

Ruby Redfort as a whole is honestly just a series of setups and payoffs and I am HERE for it. I always appreciate a good setup and payoff (especially if I don’t notice the setup at first), and this book is overflowing with them.

These are usually small events that pay off later. For example, Ruby talking to Frederick Lutz at the Scarlet Pagoda leads him to offer to do her makeup (setup). Later, when she needs to sit for a portrait after a skitching accident, she’s able to contact him in order to cover up the injuries on her face (payoff).

Layering these setups and payoffs add to the cohesiveness of the book — any detail that is mentioned now may come in handy much later. This also enhances the rereading experience as the reader is able to catch details they may not have noticed before.

Umbrella plot

As the series progresses, more and more key clues begin to fall in place and a larger picture tying back to the overarching story is created. As far as I know, each book does this (although it’s more evident in the latter half of the series).

In Feel the Fear, one can pinpoint details that add to the overarching plot, including the idea of a mole in Spectrum, the importance of the 8-key, and cameos from old villains. Each Ruby Redfort book also ends with a list of things Ruby knows and doesn’t know. Some of these are easily addressed, some link to the umbrella plot, and others are never quite answered (e.g. we never quite hear about Claude again).

All of this is especially impressive considering Lauren Child didn’t know how the series would end when she was still writing it (source).