The Book List

Thief Lord

Author:: Cornelia Funke
Pages: Don't remember
Setting: Venice!
Read during: in the car during the ride from Racine to Minneapolis, just after winter break
Shall I spoil the ending? No.

When I opened the book, I wasn't sure who this book was going to be about. Was the main character going to be the titular Thief Lord? The funny, not-quite-bumbling detective introduced on the first page? Or perhaps the two brothers he was looking for? I wasn't sure what I was expecting, or even what I wanted. What I got, though, I liked.

Two young boys, newly orphaned, run away from their thoroughly unlikeable relatives... and where better to run but Venice, city of beauty and gold and light and winged lions? Where better, indeed?

Even after having just read and loved Inkheart, I had misgivings about reading Thief Lord. It seemed too clichéd to work... did I really want to read another book about parentless children, being roguish and clever and thwarting adults at every turn? I certainly did not. Happily, that wasn't what Thief Lord was about.

It got a trifle predictable here and there, but in general it remained fresh and exciting, with a couple twists I never would have imagined.