4/5 stars
Midnight Thief (Goodreads | Amazon) is the type of book I have a soft spot for. Following a young but gifted thief growing up in the slums surrounding a palace, it is part adventure novel, part fantasy with a dash of castle politics. It's written in the vein of Tamora Pierce (may she live long and write all the books), which is something I always need more. Give me young spunky girls fighting oppression and trying to survive in a world that's not built for them any day. Give me them every day! For these books I am your ideal reader.
I'm not saying this book is as good as Tamora Pierce, I'm mainly saying it's a Tamora Pierce-ian genre book (Can I make up genres like that?). There were a few flaws, at times the story dragged a little and some of the romance (not all of it) didn't make much sense, but those are the type of things I'm willing to forgive for a story like this. Overall it was a well-built story within a believable and interesting world.
One thing I liked a lot about this book was that many of the characters were never clearly defined as the good guys or the bad guys. Like most people, they often fell in the middle and characters who were part of problematic systems/organizations could also be good people. That's nuanced and much prefer to the cackling evil bad guy who just likes being evil.
Overall this book was a lot of fun and I found myself cheering for Kyra, despite her many mistakes and imperfections. If you're looking for a quality book in the adventure-fantasy genre, this is a solidly good choice with a lot of potential for further storytelling within the world.
I received an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment