A review by spinebenderbooks
Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.0

This was my first read of this book and I think it's a fantastic ending to the series. In this book we are introduced to Pheris, the grandson of Baron Erondites - a seditious baron of Attolia - who has newly been named his heir and sent to court to serve as an attendant to the king, Eugenides. I really enjoy that Whalen Turner continues to write disabled characters with sensitivity and gives them full personhood in her stories. I also appreciated that
while we know that there are visual indicators of Pheris' disabilities, she doesn't actually describe the way he looks, only how his disabilities affect him. It feels very different from the way in which some writers describe disability in an extreme detail, which can come across as similar to the way disabled people have historically been made a spectacle in sideshow attractions.


Pheris is an interesting POV to read and his perspective on events shows us yet another way that Whalen Turner is a master at the craft of misdirection and foreshadowing. The way his neurodivergence is portrayed made me feel very seen. The ableism experienced by disabled characters in her books continues to be realistic, but written in a way that invites the reader to examine how they might have internalised this kind of thinking in themselves.

Pheris and Eugenides' relationship is an important relationship in this book. They each understand what it means to be dismissed and underestimated and mirror each other in so many ways. It is Eugenides who first understands who Pheris truly is and Pheris recognises himself in Eugenides in turn. It is this commonality that leads Eugenides to place such trust in Pheris at crucial moments in the story. These moments are small but the course taken in later events hinge on these moments.
It is Pheris who, when Eugenides is at risk of giving himself over to the Thief, pulls him back.


Which brings me to a part of the story that I loved and that the title itself is a spoiler for: the return of the Thief. For the past 3 books, people far and wide have been so unhappy with the idea of Gen being king that they forgot to fear who he is when that is taken away. All the books leading up to this have been laying down a mythology of the Thief, telling us the ways in which we should fear and be awed by him, and this book brings those threads together to show us how a myth is made legend.

I will say that ultimately I found the war with the Medes to be not as large in scale as I had been expecting and so somewhat disappointing. We don't see much of the large battles, they are fairly glossed over. But then I suppose it makes sense for a book series about a thief that the parts we do see are smaller incursions and guerrilla tactics rather than an all-out fighting. But there were parts of it that were fantastic to finally see come to pass, such as the death of Nahuseresh, and I found it very satisfying that the queens  - who have the most experience with directing their respective militaries - were the ones directing the armies of the Lesser Peninsula.


All in all, a satisfying ending to a phenomenal series.
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