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A review by toggle_fow
Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
5.0
YOU GUYS.
I can't say anything here hardly at all. If I had to try to extremely vaguely describe this book, I'd say it's a good blend of Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia.
Just know that every single one of my predictions was wrong and I am ECSTATIC about it.
Edit 02/23/2024: I STILL cannot believe we got an everybody lives/nobody dies story, guys. It's been 4 years and I am still SHAKEN to my core.
I hope MWT knows how worried she had me. I hope she understands the chokehold of terror she had me in, absolutely sure that Gen was going to fall ill and die a premature death, or any other manner of awful things were going to happen. Especially with the UNCALLED-FOR tagline on the back of the book "history is written by the winners" making it clear the book was "written" from an Erondites POV! Cruel and unusual.
And then she does THIS. I'm aghast, but I'm not mad. How can I be mad when I was given everything I could have ever wanted????
Some spoilery things:
I can't say anything here hardly at all. If I had to try to extremely vaguely describe this book, I'd say it's a good blend of Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia.
Just know that every single one of my predictions was wrong and I am ECSTATIC about it.
Edit 02/23/2024: I STILL cannot believe we got an everybody lives/nobody dies story, guys. It's been 4 years and I am still SHAKEN to my core.
I hope MWT knows how worried she had me. I hope she understands the chokehold of terror she had me in, absolutely sure that Gen was going to fall ill and die a premature death, or any other manner of awful things were going to happen. Especially with the UNCALLED-FOR tagline on the back of the book "history is written by the winners" making it clear the book was "written" from an Erondites POV! Cruel and unusual.
And then she does THIS. I'm aghast, but I'm not mad. How can I be mad when I was given everything I could have ever wanted????
Some spoilery things:
• There is so much literal divine intervention in this book. I thought the gods were getting a little frisky when they manifested just to stop Gen from tossing Pheris out, but then later...!
• All the kings and queens and their relationships <3<3<3 Again, I can't believe we got to have ALL OF THIS. When Sophos douses Gen with a bowl of water... Hearteyes. It's what Gen deserves.
• Pheris is a very interesting POV character. Because he's always hiding, he gets away with "coincidentally overhearing" important plot points in a way that's ALMOST but not quite unbelievable. His development from pretending to be an imbecile to eventually finding his place and his role is great. The part at the beginning where he just goes to sleep and then wakes up like "oh, I've missed Sophos and Eddis's wedding" YEAH THAT'S FINE. COMPLETELY FINE TO JUST MISS THAT ENTIRE SCENE. AND JUST MOVE ON. MEGAN.
• The Eddisians are fully feral in a way that the previous books did not fully communicate. Also it's FASCINATING to see how tenuous Gen's position was in Eddis through the more explicit window opened by this book.
• The Pent ambassador scene... I cannot express in words the perfection of this. Gen walks in and Attolia just yells "RUN" because she knows. She knows. And then Gen being all offended at her and her getting offended right back because SHE was the one who was assaulted. Iconic. Flawless. Unparalleled.
• The one single crime this book committed is yet again not enough Costis and Kamet. When Costis was there he was EXCELLENT, though.
• Attolia in this book in general. We get to see so much more of her personality than we previously have, and she even makes the occasional joke. You can just see how she is THRIVING.
• The entire war. I love the concept of Attolia and Eddis orchestrating everything because of their extensive past experience prosecuting wars, meanwhile Gen and Sophos do who-knows-what down with the soldiers.
• Gen getting a "Henry V in disguise around the campfire" moment.
• I did NOT see the betrayal from the greater powers of the continent coming. I don't know how, but for some reason that suckerpunched me.
• The minister of war ;_;
• THE BABIEEEEEEEEES