Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Return of the Thief

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

6 reviews

rubyredders's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense 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

4.0

I am going to miss this world so so much. While I know MWT has plans to move on to other stories if she wants to dip her toes back into this world I would be bare knuckle brawling to grab that book.

Pheris took me sometime to warm up to but by the end I was rooting for him. As before MWT has a talent for making you care for her characters and shows them growing as people that has me seated and turning pages like an extremely enthusiastic tax accountant - I want every detail! To see a character whose life is so obviously impacted by his disability thrive in this world felt really impactful - he can not do everything others can; he physically isn't able to but that has no bearing on his worth and while that does mean he has struggles, he can achieve a lot more than his family ever expected from him. The

training he receives from Relius and how capable Pheris is shown to be when he's given the opportunity, the care and allowed to feel trust - his love of math and the delight he took in it and that Relius and the Magus even got communicating to bring Pheris more complicated math - had my heart feeling so tender

I want to see more of

Eugenia and what the family dynamics for Gen, Irene and their new family would be like. I need to know how Hector and Eugenia get on. How are Gen and Irene as parents? What about Sophos and Helen? So many questions!

I'd also want to learn more about Costis and Kamet as they got so little mention despite having two books between them where they were main characters. I need to know they get a fulfilling life after all this.

Overall, this story feels complete but with so much potential to spin off into other stories and if it ends here for good I shan't be mad but by god if MWT comes out with a new book in this world it is over for my productivity until I devour it saturn eating his son style

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octopus_farmer's review

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

it was the happy ending that fit with enough seriousness to make it stick

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evanescent's review

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mariepriwitzer's review

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ajparmentier's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a fantastic wrap-up to the series. It's split into two "books", the first is much more similar in style and scope to the previous books, the second half is more keyed into wrapping up the whole series, though the two halves are still unified. I love Pheris. It was amazing seeing how a lot of the plot wrapped up and the themes and myths came back. It was a lot darker in tone, though it still had plenty of humor, and was quite emotional. It's written from a historian's perspective, so while it is the last book it is also probably the clearest look we have at all the characters and events of the past books. So much happened, I can't wait to go back and reread this book and the previous books to put the puzzles together.

There are a few things I do wish were different. I wish MWT was just a little more explicit about her queer ships. I don't think they're quite subtext, and certainly I think the one in this book is the most explicit she's been, but comparing the language she uses to talk about the heterosexual couples, it's just a little disappointing that she continues to use the word "friend" to describe the m/m couples, usually. (yes I know she finally used "lover" in this book, though she did still do it in a roundabout way.) I also wish in the later half of the book that Pheris wouldn't let himself bleed into the background in the narration quite so much. In the first half of the book it felt like he was there but just observing, whereas the second half felt like more of it was just a general 3rd person POV. Also there are some loose ends I wish she would've wrapped up, but hopefully she'll have some short stories about those characters and threads, since their inclusion wasn't really necessary to the ending of the book.

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stephblair's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I had this book on preorder for a year and I can’t believe it finally is here! As always, I had no idea where the twists and turns would take me but I loved it. And having a physically disabled main character was awesome. That’s something we desperately need more of in media. It did have me wanted to climb into the pages and beat some ableist bullies up for the first 200 pages though.

I’m sad the series is over now, but it was great ending.

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