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A review by sarah_the_reviewroom
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really thought I'd love Little Thieves, the synopsis and all the 5 star reviews just really sounded like something I'd enjoy. Unfortunately, I didn't!
I found the pace very slow, the back and forth storytelling didn't help because things would just start picking up and then the section would end and it'd start with another "Once upon a time" section.
There seemed to be a lot of things going on but it was so all over the place that it was just confusing!
There's also no explanation for the magic system so everything felt very convenient - particularly the ending. As events happen, more and more crazy things go on and I was just left with a sense of "oh well, literally anything can happen so there's no risk".
And the thing was, even if the characters looked to be in danger, I didn't really care! I found it very hard to connect to them, there are a lot of characters and none of them is particularly likeable.
There's a whole romantic plotline added in late in the book which didn't have any build up so it was an odd mix of enemies to lovers and insta-love.
The world-building was nice, I liked the descriptions of people and places - I could easily picture Death and Fortune for example. But there's a really odd mix of German words just added in, and again it just made things more confusing because several German words were used for the same English word.
I started this book on the 16th December 2021 and finished it on 2nd January 2022 - which is just way too long for me. I almost DNFd twice but I'd come too far to give up and not have it count towards my reading!
I found the pace very slow, the back and forth storytelling didn't help because things would just start picking up and then the section would end and it'd start with another "Once upon a time" section.
There seemed to be a lot of things going on but it was so all over the place that it was just confusing!
There's also no explanation for the magic system so everything felt very convenient - particularly the ending. As events happen, more and more crazy things go on and I was just left with a sense of "oh well, literally anything can happen so there's no risk".
And the thing was, even if the characters looked to be in danger, I didn't really care! I found it very hard to connect to them, there are a lot of characters and none of them is particularly likeable.
There's a whole romantic plotline added in late in the book which didn't have any build up so it was an odd mix of enemies to lovers and insta-love.
The world-building was nice, I liked the descriptions of people and places - I could easily picture Death and Fortune for example. But there's a really odd mix of German words just added in, and again it just made things more confusing because several German words were used for the same English word.
I started this book on the 16th December 2021 and finished it on 2nd January 2022 - which is just way too long for me. I almost DNFd twice but I'd come too far to give up and not have it count towards my reading!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
Minor: Abandonment and Body horror