Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

21 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Good, solid worldbuilding alongside character development. From the first page, you know exactly who the main character is and why she does the things she does. Sometimes heavy on the symbolism, but I cannot fault the pacing, the twists, the characters, the romance and friendships that seemingly blossom naturally. Nothing in this story feels forced. Poldi and Ragne honestly have my whole heard, and Barthl is on track to be up there as one of my favourites if he appears in the next book. It was genuinely such a delight to read, but it was also so genuinely heartbreaking at the same time.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

speterson47's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious

5.0

Would suggest for Fantasy fans that enjoyed books like Six of Crows or Once Upon a Broken Heart. That complex heist feel with a sprinkle of romance and magic. Our main character wears many different names and with them accomplishes many cunning tasks. She has been taken care of by Death and Fortune, but they aren't ready to claim her as "daughter". She doesn't want to become their servant instead and seeks a way to escape from the kingdom out of their grasp, but living costs money and she needs a start up fund. What's worse, hanging for being caught as a thief or living a life as the servant to a minor god. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kemikemi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It’s a book you finish and just have to sit there in silence reeling and thinking about everything that happened, because there was so much happening at every single point and it was a really fucking good book. I loved the prose and how storytelling and fairytales were weaved into the writing with the presentation of the story and individual chapters. It was playful, and I enjoyed how the narration played games with us and had us guessing and went back for the wild reveal towards the climax. I loved the characters; Vanja was written so well as a morally grey antihero protagonist, and everything about her story hurts so much. She and Emeric have the most complete and best enemies to lovers loveline that I’ve ever seen in a story. Her relationship with Gisele was also so interesting and painful, and I thought the development throughout the book was so good. Ragne became a favorite character of mine, she was so funny and fascinating and the best fucking friend ever.
I’m sad I couldn’t get tooooo into her loveline with Gisele just bc we barely saw it develop since it all happened offscreen, but lesbian rep!!!! I loved Ragne’s role in the final plan and their scenes together toward the end, bless them.
Despite being so long, this book managed to hold my attention well throughout my listening experience, and I had fun trying to crack the case and problem solve with them despite always being wrong! I think I enjoyed the twists and gotcha moments more because I went into this book not actually knowing the Goose Girl tale; things continuously caught me by surprise and it was a fun ride!! 

**To note, I think it would’ve been better to have the main character group be about 20 rather than 16 and have the legal adult age (referenced throughout the book) be 21. They all read as young adults rather than midteens, and the child marriage was really unsettling whenever I was reminded what the girls’ actual ages were.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

4.5

A mother gives her 13th daughter to Death and Fortune rather than raise her. Instead of killing her Death and Fortune take the girl as their goddaughter and find her a place in a castle as a servant. She becomes close to the Princess of the castle eventually swapping places with her and stealing her place. She will do anything to survive and cares about no one because no one cares about her but eventually her past and lies will catch up to her.

I really enjoyed this story it's a very spooky and intricate tale of female rage. All the characters were very complex and interesting and I enjoyed the multiple deadlines rushing our characters to the end. However, I didn't really love the beginning. It wasn't until I was about halfway into the story that I was finally invested. I also didn't love the ending. It almost seemed like the author realized she backed herself into too much of a corner and just reversed it.  But I did like the little interludes that were told as tales before each section and I think the end section interlude is my favorite. I also like what she did at the end but not how we got there. The germanic words and culture were interesting but not well explained so I spent most of the book skipping over the words I didn't know since they weren't really explained. I loved the gods aspect and I love a good enemies to lovers and a good morally grey main character. I also loved the casual lgbt+ representation (including lesbians, gays, and a demi character!).

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sagec_13's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Once upon a time, there was a girl as cunning as the fox in winter, as hungry as the wolf at first frost, and cold as the icy wind that kept them at each other’s throats.
Her name was not Gisele, nor was it Marthe, nor even Pfennigeist. My name was—is—Vanja. And this is the story of how I got caught.”

Do you want a book with impeccable Six of Crows vibes set in a German fantasy world filled with German fae folk? Do you want a chaotic, charismatic, morally-grey MC (who was raised by the gods of Death and Fortune, respectively, which honestly explains so much about why she is the way she is <3)? Do you want DEMI REP?

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sophiesmallhands's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

To read my original review of this book (a different edition to this one), go to the following link https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7aec891b-d918-40c4-b380-27dd080dbbcc

For this reread,  my original opinion of this book still largely stands - this is an incredibly good read chock-full of excellent character development, diversity, plotting, and worldbuilding. And Vanja's snarky, irreverent narration is just GOLD.

I did pick up on a couple of things that I appear to have missed the first time I read this.  The theme of privilege, more specifically around the privilege enabled by wealth, influence, and good looks. What choices do you have to make if you don't possess these things?

The other thing that niggled at me  (and caused me to drop my rating by 0.5 for this reread)was that
no one picked up Vanja's ruse/disguises earlier.
But that was only a minor irritation and did not affect my overall enjoyment.

Onto Painted Devils!


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This boon was absolutely AMAZING! I had such a blast reading and while their was a small lull at the beginning it very quickly pulled me in once it picked back up.

The characters were easily the most interesting part for me. Each one felt so well-rounded and alive, I could so easily fall into their point of view and understand their choices. Even when they were doing stupid things, it completely made sense to their perspective and character that I wasn’t frustrated or felt like it was a contrivance.

This depth of character also benefitted the romances in the book well. Having characters that feel so rounded and play off each other so well really invested me in their love stories. Every time there was a development in the romance I was giggling and freaking out because I was so invested.

The plot itself was also riveting. Once it started to pick back up I was pulled into the story and didn’t want to put it down. Every twist felt properly built up to and the mystery had me trying to solve it with the main characters without knowing all the answers myself. The book itself was on a tight timeline with only two weeks for our protagonist Vanya to live, which added a sense of urgency to things. The only thing the two week timeline weakened was the romances, as it felt like things were moving rather quickly and unrealistically. Especially with the implied asexuality of one of the characters.

Overall it was an amazing book and I can’t wait to see what comes next in the series.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

aytac's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mlottermoser's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

3.5

Retelling of a classic tale from a new character’s perspective. Dark. Full of abuse and revenge. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings