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A review by apolloapproved
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
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
4.25
My Book Blog — Apollo Approved
Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
Review
Literally drafted this in the car so fast, maybe movement made the juices flow…Wait that sounded so wrong, ignore. Little Thieves. A work of art at this point. It’s honestly difficult to explain why I enjoyed this book so much, but let’s get to brain dumping.
Little Thieves is a loose retelling of The Goose Girl about a girl named Vanja who was given away by her mother to Fortune and Death when she was a youngin. Vanja goes on to become a servant, take the life (not like kill like literally become, but not possess) of the princess who’s maid she used to be with the help of some enchanted pearls, become a thief to steal money so she can leave her life, to ultimately getting caught. The book continues on with her “catching” and all the problems that arise with that including a scrawny yet adorable boy, curses, lots of rubies, old friends (and enemies?), and an innocent little shapeshifting thing who we swear to protect with our life.
I'm doing a separated review again kinda like The Taking of Jake Livingston because I actually have things to say in a cohesive way (for once). So here we go…
The world. This book had some of my most favorite world-building that I've read in a long, long time. It somehow managed to convey so much without explaining barely anything. The info dump count: try 0. And in all books there's an info dump, so that goes to say how much I didn't mind because it managed to keep me engaged enough that it didn't feel like an info dump at all. Also, the mini chapters(?) that come before the actual plot at each "tale" were great. The weird sounding third-person almost formed a detachment from the book and you're looking on from a bystander type of point-of-view before you obviously jump back into the book.
So the world/setting in Little Thieves is fairly average fantasy sort of setting. There's a castle, a village, some markets, a river (because that's basically necessary), a forest (again, same). That basically sounds medieval (ish) and that really is what it is. Also, very much German (I don't think I actually processed that until Vanja went off with her sausage jokes but called them wurst something…brb gonna go find a quote). Alright here we are, Ragne (the shapeshifter I mentioned said, "'One shouted that she is selling the wurstkuss. Why would…'" Yeah, Google Translate that bad boy, it's exactly what you're thinking but oh my lord so much more literal *crying emoji because it's seriously never been more necessary, ah Ragne*.
Alright, moving on: the characters. Vanja Schmidt (who had like three other names in the book, it was kind of confusing). Emeric Conrad. Ragne Last-Name-Unknown-And-Probably-Nonexistant. Gisele Really-Long-Last-Name-That-I-Will-Not-Bother-Typing. And, Adalbrecht von Reigenback. Okay, so Vanja has quite a few flaws that are actually really prominent through the book, but the most focused (and obvious one) is basically her self-esteem (or lack, thereof). Not necessarily self-esteem, I suppose but more like not having high enough thoughts of herself that she can't imagine anyone caring about her enough that she only relies on herself until she realized that she doesn't need to (and that basically takes her the entire novel). But she's also such a great MC protagonist because she's so two-sided and oh so hilarious. I would give a quarter my life for Vanja Schmidt, for real. The other quarter is for Emeric and the last half is for Ragne. Emeric. A literal bean of a boy. It's been so long since I've read about an innocent acting love interest, like honestly. Authors have to let go of morally gray and give me wholesome fluff because I would die for Emeric way before, oh I don't know, Azriel, I guess that's what everyone thinks of first with morally gray right…Ragne as we've been over is a super weird (and by weird I mean extremely cool) shapeshifter who can turn into humans too. Gisele, former princess before tea with Vanja happens. And, our antagonist, barf-worthy, Adalbrecht von Barfenback. Just, ew. Fuck him. That is all. (Wow, that paragraph ended up being so long, gosh.)
Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
Review
Literally drafted this in the car so fast, maybe movement made the juices flow…Wait that sounded so wrong, ignore. Little Thieves. A work of art at this point. It’s honestly difficult to explain why I enjoyed this book so much, but let’s get to brain dumping.
Little Thieves is a loose retelling of The Goose Girl about a girl named Vanja who was given away by her mother to Fortune and Death when she was a youngin. Vanja goes on to become a servant, take the life (not like kill like literally become, but not possess) of the princess who’s maid she used to be with the help of some enchanted pearls, become a thief to steal money so she can leave her life, to ultimately getting caught. The book continues on with her “catching” and all the problems that arise with that including a scrawny yet adorable boy, curses, lots of rubies, old friends (and enemies?), and an innocent little shapeshifting thing who we swear to protect with our life.
I'm doing a separated review again kinda like The Taking of Jake Livingston because I actually have things to say in a cohesive way (for once). So here we go…
The world. This book had some of my most favorite world-building that I've read in a long, long time. It somehow managed to convey so much without explaining barely anything. The info dump count: try 0. And in all books there's an info dump, so that goes to say how much I didn't mind because it managed to keep me engaged enough that it didn't feel like an info dump at all. Also, the mini chapters(?) that come before the actual plot at each "tale" were great. The weird sounding third-person almost formed a detachment from the book and you're looking on from a bystander type of point-of-view before you obviously jump back into the book.
So the world/setting in Little Thieves is fairly average fantasy sort of setting. There's a castle, a village, some markets, a river (because that's basically necessary), a forest (again, same). That basically sounds medieval (ish) and that really is what it is. Also, very much German (I don't think I actually processed that until Vanja went off with her sausage jokes but called them wurst something…brb gonna go find a quote). Alright here we are, Ragne (the shapeshifter I mentioned said, "'One shouted that she is selling the wurstkuss. Why would…'" Yeah, Google Translate that bad boy, it's exactly what you're thinking but oh my lord so much more literal *crying emoji because it's seriously never been more necessary, ah Ragne*.
Alright, moving on: the characters. Vanja Schmidt (who had like three other names in the book, it was kind of confusing). Emeric Conrad. Ragne Last-Name-Unknown-And-Probably-Nonexistant. Gisele Really-Long-Last-Name-That-I-Will-Not-Bother-Typing. And, Adalbrecht von Reigenback. Okay, so Vanja has quite a few flaws that are actually really prominent through the book, but the most focused (and obvious one) is basically her self-esteem (or lack, thereof). Not necessarily self-esteem, I suppose but more like not having high enough thoughts of herself that she can't imagine anyone caring about her enough that she only relies on herself until she realized that she doesn't need to (and that basically takes her the entire novel). But she's also such a great MC protagonist because she's so two-sided and oh so hilarious. I would give a quarter my life for Vanja Schmidt, for real. The other quarter is for Emeric and the last half is for Ragne. Emeric. A literal bean of a boy. It's been so long since I've read about an innocent acting love interest, like honestly. Authors have to let go of morally gray and give me wholesome fluff because I would die for Emeric way before, oh I don't know, Azriel, I guess that's what everyone thinks of first with morally gray right…Ragne as we've been over is a super weird (and by weird I mean extremely cool) shapeshifter who can turn into humans too. Gisele, former princess before tea with Vanja happens. And, our antagonist, barf-worthy, Adalbrecht von Barfenback. Just, ew. Fuck him. That is all. (Wow, that paragraph ended up being so long, gosh.)
❝ Little thieves steal gold, and great ones steal kingdoms, but only one goes to the gallows. ❞
Anyway, on that extremely long note. I absolutely adored Little Thieves. It's one of the best fantasy books I've read and almost better because of it's simplicity. It was just so easy to read (predictable, albeit which is the reason I dropped half a star). But, truly, it's amazing. Usually I will drop ratings a few days after reading them but I already know this book has made it onto comfort level reread so, READ IT.
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