I was very excited when I saw the November theme of Illumicrate: “Death and Fortune”. If that doesn’t sound good, then I don’t know what does. And when I saw the special edition of Little Thieves by Margaret Owen that was included, I was stunned. It is marvelous <3

A retelling of a lesser known fairytale? Morally grey characters? Sarcasm and wit? Yes, please!

Little Thieves

Little Thieves tells the story of Princess Gisele. Or is it Vanja, the maid? Whatever she is or isn’t, she is certainly the goddaughter of two goddesses, Fortune and Death. When she turns 13, her godmothers demand that Vanja chooses between them and will start to serve the one she picks. Unwilling to do so, Vanja decides to take matters into her own hands and start living her own life without their assistance. Well, her own life is maybe not the right word. She forces her mistress, the Princess Gisele, to switch roles. She assumes the role of the bride-to-be royal and Gisele is cast out in the streets without a penny to her name.

But simply assuming a new identity will not help her get out of her godmothers’ reach. No, to do that, she must leave the country. But in order to succeed, she will need a small fortune. So Vanja takes on yet another identity: the mysterious jewel thief. But of course, “little thieves” cannot go unnoticed for long and before she knows it, she’s caught by another goddess, who curses her to slowly turn into jewelry herself, unless she’s able to break the curse. Which would be a lot easier if she wouldn’t have to deal with a junior prefect out to hunt for her, a shapeshifting half-god, and a seriously terrifying fiancé…

Unexpected humour, adventure, and so much feeeeeeeels

I had a really good feeling about this book as soon as I saw the cover. Like I mentioned above, the Illumicrate edition is simply stunning. It not only has a beautiful dustcover, it’s also filled with beautiful illustrations in fairytale style and the naked hardcover is illustrated in full cover. I was a bit confused about the chosen style of the cover, because it really called to mind children’s books like A Series of Unfortunate Events, but after getting to know the characters, I believe the illustration style fits perfectly. I also really liked the phases of the moon that are pictured at the start of each chapter. As the curse will be completed once the moon is full, these are really useful to help the reader keep track of time.

When you open the book, one of the first things you see are the trigger warnings. I adore it when authors include these. It’s so important, yet I often feel people still do not take it into account sufficiently. This is by no means an extremely dark book, but there are certain aspects that could trigger some (see below the section on trigger warnings).

Humor is a very distinguishing aspect of this tale, and it starts as of the very beginning with the following short quotation:

To the gremlin girls, I would like to tell you something inspiring, but the truth is, when life closes a door for us, it doesn’t always open a window. The good news is: that’s what bricks are for.

I laughed out loud at the unexpected twist at the end. Loved it. The humour in this book is twofold. On the one hand, you have the sarcasm, wit, and banter that I value so much in stories. It’s definitely one of my main criteria for dialogues. However, it’s not a rare quality (luckily!). The other type of humour, on the other hand, I’ve never encountered in a novel before. I don’t know how she did it, but Margaret Owen manages to give it a distinct feel of slapstick and Commedia dell’arte. It was very unusual and made me laugh out loud multiple times.

At the beginning, I found it a bit difficult to get into the story because the storytelling felt a bit dense and I was distracted by the weird version of German that was used. The story is set in a sort of alternative Western Europe, with a focus on what I assume is the Prussian Empire. But the German that the characters use is off and because it’s so close to Dutch it kept drawing my attention and distracting me from the story. But I got used to it after about 100 pages and as of then, I was unable to put down the book.

This is when I realize: This is why he keeps tripping me up, finding truths that catch me in the throat. Our lives are very different, but we both speak the brittle language of loneliness.

Once I got past my initial resistance to the writing style, I came to really appreciate the storytelling and the way the different sections are clustered into “tales” that start with “once upon a time” told by Vanja to the reader. It’s a very good method to create the fairytale atmosphere. The metaphors used are very clever (e.g. white pennies/red pennies, little/big thieves) and I teared up multiple times because I was so emotionally invested in the story. I was really afraid the entire time that the book would break my heart. I will not tell you whether it did or not, of course 😉

I also quite appreciated the interesting magic system and the various plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. While the story is clearly plot driven and has a distinct heist-like feel, it was the character development and the relatable yet original characters in general that stole my heart. And I loved, loved, LOVED the fact that the main characters are both demisexual. I don’t think I’ve read any books previously in which this was the case, so I was pleasantly surprised. And I totally adore Emeric. He reminded me a bit of a combination of Wylan & Kaz from Six of Crows. What’s not to love, right?

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I was unfamiliar with the Brothers Grimm’s The Goose Girl before reading this book. In all honesty, I didn’t even realise it was a retelling until I read the acknowledgements. I’ve since then googled the original and I have to say I really like the twist Margaret Owen gave to it. It makes it so much more interesting to tell the story from the point-of-view of the maid and give context to her actions. Definitely a very successful retelling! I gave it four out of five gemstones:

Seeing that I am a non-native speaker and always hoping to improve my English skills, I will as of now try to highlight one word that I learned while reading the book in each of my reviews. For this book, I chose “adrogation”. I had never before encountered this word and it turns out to be a practice of Ancient Rome in which a free person was willingly adopted by another. Small wonder that I was unfamiliar with this term, really. Even my Word autocorrect doesn’t recognize it.

Age Category: Young Adults, but definitely also suitable for an adult audience

Representation:  Demisexual main characters, F/F relationship between supporting characters, non-binary supporting characters, PTSD

Trigger Warnings (click here, may contain spoilers)

Mild. Warnings for emotional/physical abuse, past attempted assault.

Do you want to discover more?

If my review inspired you to pick up the book, don’t hesitate to check it out at Goodreads or at the below online stores. If you decide to buy it via one of the following links, I will receive a small percentage at no extra charge for you!

Amazon.nl: Hardcover Edition

Similar to this

If you also adored this book, you might want to check out The Merciful Crow duology by Margaret Owen. It’s set in a world in which everyone belongs to a certain caste, and the main character, Fie, belongs to the lowest: the crows. Crows are the ones who take care of the dead. But one day, two bodies they gather from the palace turn out to be very much alive. And one of them is royal at that. I had some difficulty getting into this story so I temporarily put it aside, but I’ve heard so many good things about it, especially about part two. Therefore, I will definitely revisit it later one.

As mentioned above, I got Six of Crows vibes while reading the book. There’s a certain heist-like feel to the story (even though it’s not really a heist) and the dialogues and relationships between the characters also reminded me of this duology by Leigh Bardugo. If you haven’t read these books yet, go do so at once. These are without a doubt two of the best books I’ve ever read. They tell the story of six outlaws who try to pull of an impossible heist. Their motives differ (greed, freedom, revenge,…) but they all know that failure is not an option. Interested? Check out my review of part 1!