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laelyn's review
2.0
I was really excited for this book because, well, I do love fantasy heist books with found family tropes and I was told there's a sapphic romance as an extra treat. Sadly, "Among Thieves" turned out to just not be for me.
The writing is well done and fits the dark, gritty world the story is set in. To me, the grittiness and edginess of this world, especially concerning the characters, felt a little forced at times, though. It read less like an actual dark gritty story than a story that just really wanted to be dark and gritty. The magic system is interesting though very simple (which isn't a bad thing!), and I like the heist story in itself.
The twists and reveals of the story are mostly very predictable (Tristan's identity and the Quill secret especially) so I wasn't surprised by anything, but it's still well-written and structured.
The ending was a little disappointing because there are so many things that simply didn't get resolved in a satisfying way, or at all really, which would be fine if "Among Thieves" were the first book in at least a duology, but apparently it's a standalone so it really left me hanging.
The character concepts are interesting but the characters never managed to make me feel anything for them. They don't feel as fleshed out as they should be to make the reader care about them. What I really missed was the real honest found family feel of it all. They never really seemed to develop actual bonds, and the relationships that do develop are still pretty superficial by the end of the book. I did like that they were all planning on backstabbing each other because that's actually fun! But because I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and their motives were mostly entirely tell-don't-show so I didn't care about those either, I was just... meh. The villains aren't really fleshed out either so I never felt threatened by them.
Oh, and the romance? Basically nonexistent. Riya's way of flirting made me a little uncomfortable at times, too. I think she was supposed to come off as one of those flirty, promiscuous charmer kind of characters but she made me cringe more than once instead. But I personally don't like the "turn absolutely everything into a sexual thing even if it doesn't fit the situation at all" type of flirting in any character, so there's that. It has to be written really really well to be sexy and not just kinda creepy. Also, personally just not a fan of this new character trend that is "stone-cold killer but has to end every sentence with some quip because they're so snarky and witty" because the snark is rarely done well.
A very subjective and super personal minor issue I had was with Ivan's language, because Kuhn uses quite a few German words (like "verdammte") and mixes them with non-German words. Also, there are some words like "stehlen" that have a meaning in German (in this case, "to steal") but are given just an entirely new meaning in Ivan's language. Basing a fantasy language on an existing language is all perfectly fine, but this kind of thing just completely breaks immersion for me.
In the end, this just wasn't the book for me but I can still appreciate M.J. Kuhn's writing and the exciting storytelling. I'm absolutely in the minority here so I still recommend fans of fantasy heist stories give this one a try.
many thanks to Gallery Books for the arc!
The writing is well done and fits the dark, gritty world the story is set in. To me, the grittiness and edginess of this world, especially concerning the characters, felt a little forced at times, though. It read less like an actual dark gritty story than a story that just really wanted to be dark and gritty. The magic system is interesting though very simple (which isn't a bad thing!), and I like the heist story in itself.
The twists and reveals of the story are mostly very predictable (Tristan's identity and the Quill secret especially) so I wasn't surprised by anything, but it's still well-written and structured.
The ending was a little disappointing because there are so many things that simply didn't get resolved in a satisfying way, or at all really, which would be fine if "Among Thieves" were the first book in at least a duology, but apparently it's a standalone so it really left me hanging.
The character concepts are interesting but the characters never managed to make me feel anything for them. They don't feel as fleshed out as they should be to make the reader care about them. What I really missed was the real honest found family feel of it all. They never really seemed to develop actual bonds, and the relationships that do develop are still pretty superficial by the end of the book. I did like that they were all planning on backstabbing each other because that's actually fun! But because I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and their motives were mostly entirely tell-don't-show so I didn't care about those either, I was just... meh. The villains aren't really fleshed out either so I never felt threatened by them.
Oh, and the romance? Basically nonexistent. Riya's way of flirting made me a little uncomfortable at times, too. I think she was supposed to come off as one of those flirty, promiscuous charmer kind of characters but she made me cringe more than once instead. But I personally don't like the "turn absolutely everything into a sexual thing even if it doesn't fit the situation at all" type of flirting in any character, so there's that. It has to be written really really well to be sexy and not just kinda creepy. Also, personally just not a fan of this new character trend that is "stone-cold killer but has to end every sentence with some quip because they're so snarky and witty" because the snark is rarely done well.
A very subjective and super personal minor issue I had was with Ivan's language, because Kuhn uses quite a few German words (like "verdammte") and mixes them with non-German words. Also, there are some words like "stehlen" that have a meaning in German (in this case, "to steal") but are given just an entirely new meaning in Ivan's language. Basing a fantasy language on an existing language is all perfectly fine, but this kind of thing just completely breaks immersion for me.
In the end, this just wasn't the book for me but I can still appreciate M.J. Kuhn's writing and the exciting storytelling. I'm absolutely in the minority here so I still recommend fans of fantasy heist stories give this one a try.
many thanks to Gallery Books for the arc!
merethebear's review
2.0
The book itself is fine, I suppose. It just felt very underwhelming. The premise felt very similar to another book I’ve read, which did sour the experience a little. (The book in question being Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett)
My main qualm with the book was the overuse of POV change. It jumps from character to character in a random order, switching through like 5 people without explaining who they are and expecting us to scrape through context clues. Many of the characters all have a ‘big secret’ that we usually figure out halfway through the book, but it’s never announced until the very end.
The world building is cool, but we have to figure out everything through dialogue and these characters do nothing to explain anything as they’ve lived like this their entire lives. While I know everyone hates large paragraphs of world lore, we’ve got to be given more than scraps.
All in all, the writing is fine. It feels like a first book, something that should’ve had more editing than it did. I hate to be mean, and maybe I’m just high maintenance or can’t connect context clues as well as I thought I could, but this book was underwhelming at best and disappointing at most.
My main qualm with the book was the overuse of POV change. It jumps from character to character in a random order, switching through like 5 people without explaining who they are and expecting us to scrape through context clues. Many of the characters all have a ‘big secret’ that we usually figure out halfway through the book, but it’s never announced until the very end.
The world building is cool, but we have to figure out everything through dialogue and these characters do nothing to explain anything as they’ve lived like this their entire lives. While I know everyone hates large paragraphs of world lore, we’ve got to be given more than scraps.
All in all, the writing is fine. It feels like a first book, something that should’ve had more editing than it did. I hate to be mean, and maybe I’m just high maintenance or can’t connect context clues as well as I thought I could, but this book was underwhelming at best and disappointing at most.
heabooknerd's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a book about heroes. This is not a book where the good guys win. A criminal mastermind, an assassin, a smuggler, a thief, a forger, and a disgraced guard. Six agendas, one epic heist.
It's rare for me to read a book outside the romance genre but the cover and description for AMONG THIEVES really caught my eye and I ended up absolutely loving it! This was a stunning debut from M.J. Kuhn. The thing that hits me the most is how fast paced this was compared to a lot of fantasy books. It's told from several different points of view so we get the motivations and thoughts of everyone involved. The world building is really interesting and easy to understand even though there's quite a lot of pieces and parts that make up the world of Thamorr.
But what makes AMONG THIEVES truly fun is the characters -- our band of misfit thieves, criminals, and killers. Each character has their own agenda and the backstabbing and betrayal led to some great twists and turns. I actually loved that all these characters were selfish, morally gray, and out for themselves. Many of them are victims of poor upbringings or impoverished circumstances and while some of their motivations are about helping those they love, they're each still willing to do anything it takes to get what they want.
While I enjoyed each character, my favorite was probably Ryia, aka the Butcher of Carrowwick, because she's a chaotic ball of sarcasm and deadly accuracy with an ax. She's been on the run for a long time and she's determined to protect her secrets. She also has a surprisingly noble reason for joining the heist and I liked how we started to see a more vulnerable side to Ryia without lessening her deadly personality. I don't know if the author intends to write more about this world because the ending definitely left room for more, but either way I'm looking forward to more books by this author.
Content Warning: slavery, child abuse, graphic violence
**ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**
It's rare for me to read a book outside the romance genre but the cover and description for AMONG THIEVES really caught my eye and I ended up absolutely loving it! This was a stunning debut from M.J. Kuhn. The thing that hits me the most is how fast paced this was compared to a lot of fantasy books. It's told from several different points of view so we get the motivations and thoughts of everyone involved. The world building is really interesting and easy to understand even though there's quite a lot of pieces and parts that make up the world of Thamorr.
But what makes AMONG THIEVES truly fun is the characters -- our band of misfit thieves, criminals, and killers. Each character has their own agenda and the backstabbing and betrayal led to some great twists and turns. I actually loved that all these characters were selfish, morally gray, and out for themselves. Many of them are victims of poor upbringings or impoverished circumstances and while some of their motivations are about helping those they love, they're each still willing to do anything it takes to get what they want.
While I enjoyed each character, my favorite was probably Ryia, aka the Butcher of Carrowwick, because she's a chaotic ball of sarcasm and deadly accuracy with an ax. She's been on the run for a long time and she's determined to protect her secrets. She also has a surprisingly noble reason for joining the heist and I liked how we started to see a more vulnerable side to Ryia without lessening her deadly personality. I don't know if the author intends to write more about this world because the ending definitely left room for more, but either way I'm looking forward to more books by this author.
Content Warning: slavery, child abuse, graphic violence
**ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**
agathag's review
adventurous
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
3.25
pete_hamish's review
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
capercaillie's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The characters were all pretty much written the same, with roughly the same motivations and character arcs and voices even if superficially different.
liadh4's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
tolove_abook's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
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
4.0