The Thief Lord

"I remember when I had finished this book thinking to myself over and over again. Man that was a good book. Man that was a GREAT book! That's all I have to say...."

"A little slow to start, but a charming story that I couldn't put down."

"This was a fascinating and adorable story of Venice, magic, and childish fantasy that had me spellbound! I'll admit not being a big fan of Funke's Inkheart series but this blew me away! From the adorable characters, slow though fascinating plot, and (thankfully) amazing ending, I was very happy with this book!<br/>(Read full review here.)<br/>http://sutorinohana.blogspot.com/2015/02/book-review-thief-lord.html<br/>(Includes content advisory.)"

"Will always be a favorite from my childhood "

"I was going to give this four stars...until I got to the last quarter of the book. Several reviews I read commented that they didn't like that magic was introduced 3/4 into the book. I thought "what's the big deal?" but I have to say once I got to that point I had to agree with them. Prior to that I looked forward to reading more, but at that point I rushed through it, skimming sections just to be done with it. I felt the whole aunt subplot was weak, and the way they tied that up at the end was odd and unnecessary. <br/><br/>My favorite moments were Scipio's and Prosper's interactions, and I would have liked to see more of their friendship."

"One of my favorite books from childhood. I've little memories of it but I remember it being magical. With absolutely no knowledge of Italy, I thought Venice was a fictional city. Imagine my surprise when I found out it's real! I've dreamt of going there ever since reading this."

"Starts good ends weird"

"Read it when I was a 6th grader in middle school. Great book!"

"I really liked how the story began, and the overall premise of it was charming. I liked the characters, and Scipio was my favorite; I liked the idea of some mysterious kid who, in reality, wasn't as Cool as his peers had thought he was. To top that off, he has his own personal conflicts that he deals with. I just liked how he was characterized overall. <br/><br/>The plot was fun too, save for towards the end of the book (and I will get to that). I liked Prosper and Bo's relationship a lot and I appreciated how good of a brother Prosper was to Bo. I also liked the friendships between characters. It was a fun read.<br/><br/>However, it did kind of take a turn I didn't like towards the end. Spoilers below:<br/><br/><spoiler>Scipio deals with an emotionally abusive father, and because of it, he deals with it through escapism and pretending to be someone he isn't. One of the main things Scipio wanted was to be an adult so he could be taken more seriously.<br/><br/>When the plot point about the magic merry-go-round came up (a thing I will touch on later), I knew Scipio would most likely age himself up. I figured that, after he had aged himself up, perhaps he would realize it was a mistake and change back or something. Because **** like this usually has consequences. Also, I just find it real sketch to just. Age a 13 year old up to be an adult without them turning back or anything. Like, I just find it kind of weird???? 13 year olds are at an age where they try to act like adults/grown up, but they're still evidently kids. To have a 13 year old suddenly be aged up without them growing up mentally is just.. Eh.. I don't like that personally. <br/><br/>(Also it kinda makes me sad that Scipio never will have a childhood lmao. He just got thrust into adulthood.)<br/><br/>But yeah, Scipio never really did suffer from any repercussions of this aging up, and he could never change back because the merry-go-round got broken. I just didn't like how his character arc was handled-- he had become an adult, and suddenly all his problems were just gone. He doesn't seem to regret this decision, but like... he's still a 13 year old. And that was part of his charm, he was a stupid ******' kid who liked to pretend he was a thief. I guess I'm just kinda upset because it feels like I've adopted a lil son but then it turns out he's an Adult Now!!! Even though he's still a kid in an Adult Body and I just don't like that concept much at All!!!!<br/><br/>Contrast that to if he had stayed a kid, and the book had ended up with him running away from his home or something, I would've felt much more satisfied with how the book ended. I don't know, but I would find it really bittersweet that it had ended up with him staying as a kid and living with Victor or something. Like, that's cute. And it would've ended in a way, where if I reminisced on the book and thought about Scipio, he'd still have a childhood or some **** and have grown up. <br/><br/>I dunno, that's just a big nitpick of mine. That's a highly specific sentiment, but I guess it just boils down to the fact that I just. I liked the fact that Scipio was a kid with big dreams and I was attached to him as a character. As I said before, it felt like I adopted a lil son, but then him suddenly becoming an adult sort of felt like a cop out to his character arc. But I digress.<br/><br/>That does bring me to the next point: I don't really like the sudden Fantasy Elements in the book. It just felt out of place. I feel like, if you took out the fantasy elements in the book, the plot would not change at all. The part with Scipio's aging up and Barbarossa's aging down didn't do much for the plot. Sure, Barbarossa got adopted by Esther, but at that point, she had already given up on adopting Bo. Scipio also could have just run away from home without his aging up, and nothing would be different at all. <br/><br/>Don't get me wrong, I loved the overall vibe and mood of the story-- It was just only when the fantasy elements kicked in was when it just started to feel a little weird and off-kilter. After the aging ****, everything just felt off.</spoiler><br/><br/>Despite all my ranting, I still really enjoyed the story, hence why it has 4 stars. Still, it could've been so much better........... I'm just mostly upset with how Scipio's character arc was handled. He was such a likable character- sure, he was a bit arrogant and ****, but he was a good kid with a good heart! And I just loved that about him. <br/><br/>Other than his disappointing character arc, everything else was fine. I loved how Prosper and Bo's conflict was resolved, and the ending was pretty cute. I just wish it could've been better."