Book Review: ‘Little Thieves’ is Everything You Want in a Folklore Retelling
Yet another gem of a book sitting on my TBR shelf for so long, and I can’t believe it took me this long to take it down and devour. Because devour it, I did. Little Thieves by Margaret Owen is everything I want in a folklore retelling: Heists, mortal danger, an incredibly snarky and witty main character who’s morally grey, some wholesome side characters, and a villain or two to detest. Set in a delightfully dark medieval and Germanic-inspired setting, this loose retelling of the Goose Girl fairytale grabbed my attention from the very beginning. If you have not picked this one up yet, and you like dark fairytales, do yourself a favor and read it immediately.
“Once upon a time, there was a girl as cunning as the fox in winter, as hungry as the wolf at first frost, and as cold as the icy wind that kept them at each other's throats. Her name was not Gisele, nor was it Marthe, nor even Pfennigeist. My name was -is- Vanja. And this is the story of how I got caught.”
Things to Know:
Book one of a trilogy
Folkore retelling of the maid of the Goose Girl
The audiobook is stellar—highly recommend!
Diverse set of characters
Stunning illustrations throughout
There is a significant amount of emotional trauma in this book, and the main character struggles to deal with it. Vanja is completely abandoned by her mother and is raised by Death and Fortune, who, frankly, are a bit petty and play off each other to get her to choose which one she will spend her life in servitude to. But she doesn’t want to choose, she just wants to be loved. Spoiler alert, she’s treated pretty horribly by everyone in her life. And she decides to finally do something about it, stealing the enchanted pearls of the princess she serves and taking her place, while also robbing the rich families around her blind. A mousy little junior prefect arrives determined to catch the thief terrorizing their city, and a nasty curse starts turning Vanja slowly into jewels. Oh and her evil betrothed keeps trying to kill her. So yeah, she’s got problems.
“There's a saying in the Blessed Empire: Little thieves steal gold, and great ones steal Kingdoms, but only one goes to the gallows.”
I absolutely adored the breaking of the fourth wall by Vanja. This is her story, and she talks to us frequently. There’s also incredibly beautiful illustrations before each section, and seven brief ‘fairytales’ at the beginning of each as well. I loved Owen’s writing style and the blending of different styles. Now is also a good time to mention how fantastic the audiobook is. The voices for Vanja and Ragne especially, had me laughing out loud multiple times as I followed along with my physical copy.
“In the world I knew, there were three reasons a person could be wanted: for profit, pleasure, or power. If you could satisfy only one, they used you. Two, they saw you. Three, they served you.”
Overall, I really appreciated the richness of the plot, and each of the characters goes through pretty major transformations. I slowly fell in love with each of them—much like they did with each other. What I really need to know though, is why Margaret Owen hates horses?! What did they ever do to her? haha You’ll have to read it to see what I mean…
I cannot wait to read the sequel, Painted Devils, which comes out May 18th, 2023 and is currently available for preorder (click the cover below for the link).
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