Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

103 reviews

breaklikeafish's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful slow-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

3.5

Am I getting too old for YA?

While Little Thieves is a great book, I didn't love it as much as I could have. Some of my criticisms are at least somewhat justified; others line up very well with something I have been suspecting for some time now: at the ripe old age of 23, I might finally have grown out enjoying books targeted at teenagers.

The book starts with a prologue that sets the atmosphere for a story that is just a bit too original to be called a fairy tale retelling but with enough references to one of my favorite Grimm tales to make me squeal in delight several times.

I especially enjoyed the Falada reveal at the climax. Looking back, I probably should have seen the talking horse coming since it kind of is the most memorable part of the fairy tale (I had nightmares about that as a child), but it caught me completely off guard and I loved it.

Vanja, the protagonist, gets rejected by her birth family and adopted by two so-called Low Gods; but despite this very fairytale-esque origin story, she has a lot more personality than your stereotypical Grimm's maid. I enjoyed her introduction a lot. The first few chapters set up some important themes of the book perfectly, and also already gave the reader a glimpse of the development Vanja would presumably need to go through to reach her fairy tale ending. I found the mysteries in Little Thieves surprisingly intriguing for a YA book that focuses mostly on personal fulfillment.

Sadly, after this very strong start, I felt like the book dragged for the entire first half. I still liked Vanja's character, but her adamant refusal to let anyone help her, while realistic, kept any meaningful relationships from developing in the first half. I sometimes feel like I read solely for character interactions, so I found it increasingly hard to care about the plot at all.

The other thing that bugged me was Vanja's narration. There were many witty comebacks and fourth wall breaks that I'm pretty sure I would have found funny a few years ago. Now, it just threw me out of the tale for chunks of time. This is probably the main reason I would recommend Little Thieves to actual young adults and not, well, people like me, who are not quite the target audience but refuse to let go of an entire genre for the sake of growing up. Seriously, I loved Vanja even through her darkest moments in the book and would gladly forgive murder, but whenever she gloated about pulling off a successful trick, I just could not stand her.

I also found the ending to be incredibly cheesy, but I honestly simply don't enjoy happy endings as much as I used to. I guess it is fitting for a fairy tale.

There were, of course, also things about this book I loved. I think more fantasy books would benefit from weaving in LGBTQIA+ representation as seamlessly as it was done in Little Thieves. Most of the time, it was no big deal and just casually happening in the background, and the few times the issues were talked about, it was done respectfully and to give more insight into the characters (

Emeric not wanting to kiss Vanja, the discussions of Gisele's sexuality

). The characters were all lovely and I wanted to adopt them, and the love stories made me giddy and excited as if I was the one having a crush.

This is, by the way, how I like my enemies-to-lovers: actively trying to murder each other repeatedly even after they presumably develop romantic feelings. Lastly, I appreciate that the big bad was defeated not by murdering him, but instead in a court case. Murder does not solve anything, and the mechanics of the court of the Low Gods were very interesting.

All things considered, I'm glad I took the time to read Little Thieves, if only because I got to know Emeric, Gisele, and all the other amazing people in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia and Homophobia

alexijai98's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall not too bad, but a little long and the protagonist got to be grating in the last third of the book. There’s only so many times I can read one character going through the misunderstandings trope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

avacadosocks's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Animal death and Body horror

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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

4.5

To read my original review of this book (a different edition to this one), go to the following link https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7aec891b-d918-40c4-b380-27dd080dbbcc

For this reread,  my original opinion of this book still largely stands - this is an incredibly good read chock-full of excellent character development, diversity, plotting, and worldbuilding. And Vanja's snarky, irreverent narration is just GOLD.

I did pick up on a couple of things that I appear to have missed the first time I read this.  The theme of privilege, more specifically around the privilege enabled by wealth, influence, and good looks. What choices do you have to make if you don't possess these things?

The other thing that niggled at me  (and caused me to drop my rating by 0.5 for this reread)was that

no one picked up Vanja's ruse/disguises earlier.

But that was only a minor irritation and did not affect my overall enjoyment.

Onto Painted Devils!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing and War

miblette's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to dive into the next. I really love fairytale retellings, and this one did not disappoint! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Classism

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This boon was absolutely AMAZING! I had such a blast reading and while their was a small lull at the beginning it very quickly pulled me in once it picked back up.

The characters were easily the most interesting part for me. Each one felt so well-rounded and alive, I could so easily fall into their point of view and understand their choices. Even when they were doing stupid things, it completely made sense to their perspective and character that I wasn’t frustrated or felt like it was a contrivance.

This depth of character also benefitted the romances in the book well. Having characters that feel so rounded and play off each other so well really invested me in their love stories. Every time there was a development in the romance I was giggling and freaking out because I was so invested.

The plot itself was also riveting. Once it started to pick back up I was pulled into the story and didn’t want to put it down. Every twist felt properly built up to and the mystery had me trying to solve it with the main characters without knowing all the answers myself. The book itself was on a tight timeline with only two weeks for our protagonist Vanya to live, which added a sense of urgency to things. The only thing the two week timeline weakened was the romances, as it felt like things were moving rather quickly and unrealistically. Especially with the implied asexuality of one of the characters.

Overall it was an amazing book and I can’t wait to see what comes next in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror and Eating disorder

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

aytac's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Rape, and Fire/Fire injury

tasig's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I finished this book in 3 days, which considering the amount I've been reading on average per day so far this year, is fast. The writing style is one that I flew through, and the plot had me hooked from chapter one, which isn't common. Despite the constant threat of death, the trauma, and dark topics, this is the funniest book I've read in a while. It doesn't make light of the heavy stuff, but the narration and dialogue contain a lot of jokes which so happened to be exactly my sense of humour, and I laughed a lot. I also cried a little bit.

I adore so many of the characters, especially Ragne. The world was good, though nothing incredible. The Gods were amazing, probably my favourite Gods that I've ever read in a story, though to be fair I'm not normally a big fan of Gods in stories so there's not much competition. The description of Eiswald was incredible.

Unfortunately, this book isn't 5 stars for me. So many parts of it were, and I wish it had been 5 stars, but there were certain things in it that I just didn't like as much. Nothing it did wrong really, just things that brought my enjoyment of it down.

I can't believe they called this Untitled Goose Girl when it was being written, reading that in the acknowlegments cracked me up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Outing, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Transphobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia