The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1) in YA and Beyond

Jun 12, 2010 Brigid ✩ rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, mythology, on-my-kindle, middle-grade

Initial reaction:

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. The world Turner creates is very interesting, kind of ancient Greece-esque––and I found all the mythology intriguing. The narrative voice is pretty strong and humorous. However, the actual plot of the book didn't really engage me and I often was bored and/or confused. I've heard that the other books in the series get a lot better, so maybe I will give those a shot.

Full review:

Coming eventually! ...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Amanda rated it it was amazing

AWESOME. The book was written skillfully and there were twists and mysteries that just kept you reading till the end. I must admit, at the beginning I wasn't all that excited about this book, but I'm glad my brother convinced me to read it. It was oh so good :) the ending was totally unexpected for me. I did not pay attention to the minor details throughout the story and was not even close to guessing the ending. But even if I had payed attention to minor details, the ending is totally unexpecte ...more

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Apr 09, 2010 Brittany (finally graduated and can once again read for fun) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, ya-my-first-love

First 80% of the book ... 3 stars, last 20% 4 stars... so we'll go with 3.5 stars overall and round up.

MWT books have been recommended to me pretty much since I joined GR. I love reading YA, I love fantasy and high adventure books and I LOVE good character studies (of which Melina Marchetta is the queen). As such MWT has come highly recommended. But she has been one of those authors that has eluded me. When I search for her at the library, they don't have the first book in the series. When they First 80% of the book ... 3 stars, last 20% 4 stars... so we'll go with 3.5 stars overall and round up.

MWT books have been recommended to me pretty much since I joined GR. I love reading YA, I love fantasy and high adventure books and I LOVE good character studies (of which Melina Marchetta is the queen). As such MWT has come highly recommended. But she has been one of those authors that has eluded me. When I search for her at the library, they don't have the first book in the series. When they did happen to have the book, I would have a million other things going on and knew I wouldn't have time to read or other books would have taken priority and when so many people recommend a book, I like to be able to give it the proper attention it deserves. Oddly enough GR is the reason I heard of MWT and GR is the reason I now have the books in my possession...

I got this book from a lovely GR friend who let me borrow her entire Queen's Thief series (and generously understands that it might be a while before she gets them all back). She warned me about this one. I knew it wasn't going to be the greatest book ever, but I was told to plug through this one so that I could make it to the others... and that as they say is when the magic happens. And I have to say that she was right (at least about this book). I didn't love this book, but it definitely had it's highlights. I loved learning about the legend and lore surrounding the "old gods". The story telling by the characters was fabulous. I did figure out the "twist" at the end... both of them really, but there were other more minor things revealed that I didn't see coming, and I found that part to be the most enjoyable.

The first part of the book was very slow going, but not in an unnecessary way. In a weird way, I would compare this book to Catch-22. Don't get me wrong, the plots of these two books are in no way similar. But they are comparable in that you are reading all this information and as you are going along in the book you think "why are you telling me this? Is this really necessary to the plot?" THEN when it all finally comes together, it makes sense. That's how I felt about Catch 22 and that's how I felt reading this book. This only difference is that I was able to figure this one out sooner.

I look forward to continuing in this series, because I can't wait to see what happens. And although I didn't really fall in love with Gen like everyone else seemed to, he definitely grew on me and won me over by the end of the book. ...more

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Apr 05, 2010 Janet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, favorites, would-read-again

THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK!!! I cannot get enough of this book.

Gen is smart, funny, secretive, and engaging. In a lot of books, the reader is one step ahead of the characters. Not while reading this book. Gen will keep you on our toes time and time again.

This book makes me laugh and cry. And even though I've read it over 100 times, it's my go-to book when I need something to read. I can't say enough good things about this book.

09.02.12 - Reread it, for maybe the 1000th time. Loved it, as always. I ...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Becky rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, library, newbery

I would recommend this book to just about anyone. Not so much because this book is so great, but I found the third book in the series terrific. But you won't enjoy the third book as much as I did unless you read the first two books.

This book is similar to The False Prince (which I loved.) It was a little slower paced and I didn't enjoy the characters quite as much. Gen and Pol were my favorites and since it's told from Gen's POV, I guess that's a good thing.

I would recommend this for ages 9 and ...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Heidi rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010

This was a clever book with a very funny main character. At times I found myself drifting off, but was quickly able to return to the story because I really wanted to know what would happen to Gen. The book was short (280 pages), which I also liked, because some of these YA books can take themselves way too seriously and go on and on for 300-500 pages. Anyway, all in all I liked it and will likely read the second one.

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