Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
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Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl…
Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love–and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele’s dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.
The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.
Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.
Little Thieves is a loose retelling of the Goose Girl, and whilst I do not know much about the original tale there’s definitely little snippets that are fairly accurate to it. There’s a talking horse head at one point, and the entire story feels fairytale-like at times due to Margaret Owen’s writing.
The magic and fantasy lies closely with the inclusion of gods in the story. Fortune and Death are Vanja’s godmothers, and there’s a plethora of Small Gods that we hear about with some more that we encounter in the story. The Small Gods are both good and bad for the people in this world, and gods differ per culture. If Vanja could raise enough money to leave to another country, then she is potentially exempt from the deals she’s made with gods in hers. This distinction made the Gods and their system even more interesting.
One such god was Eiswald, the Lady of the Forest. Her inclusion brings about the start of the story and is what pushes Vanja into becoming not just the antagonist of Gisele’s story but the hero of her own. She also acts as a contrast from Vanja’s godmothers as she treats her own daughter, Ragne, much better than they did.
Our main character Vanja is well rounded as the villain of the tale, whilst being the hero of the actual story. Her history is explored so we fully understand (and sympathise) with the actions she takes, and she’s written to be likeable due to her wit and humour. Despite the “evil servant” taking the place of the princess and being a high-profile thief, you do end up rooting for her to succeed. Her overall aim is to escape to another country to find happiness, and most of all freedom which you want her to gain.
Then we have Gisele, the princess that Vanja stole from. Her story arc shows off the classism in this world, and the entitlement gained through her upbringing. As the story gets more high stakes, we see how Gisele has adapted to her new life, and whilst resentment is there she’s not unhappy that she doesn’t get to marry a prince and live “happily ever after”. Gisele also works as a tool to show motivation for Vanja’s actions, as well as a reminder for those actions.
The relationships between characters are wonderfully written also, I appreciated the strength of female friendships which help Vanja overcome some of her bigger problems. Ragne is the daughter of Eiswald, the Lady of the Forest who places a curse on Vanja to turn to gemstones. As the story unfolds, Ragne learns more of what it means to be human and finds that she loves Vanja and other characters in the story.
Speaking of relationships, we can’t not talk about Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad. Being the one to investigate around Vanja, he becomes a vital part of the team once they realise how many other bad things are happening. He’s our introduction to the Prefects who are like magical law enforcement, and a bit more skilled than the local security at identifying threats. The overall goal of Prefects is to call the Little Gods down to judge criminals for their crimes.
Then there’s Gisele’s betrothed, Margrave Adalbrecht von Regenbach. Adalbrecht is an awful human being, only amplified as the story goes on and we learn more about his actions. As with Vanja, he does get given backstory which tries to explain his behaviour, but as he’s a much less likable character it’s harder to emphasise with his actions.
Adalbrecht brings some of the more horrible magic into the story. From the trippy hallucinogenic poison, Augur’s Tears to the nightmarish Nachtmahrs. The Augur’s Tears link closely with another low god, Truth, and the writing as it peels away the present so Vanja could see history (and horrors) of the rooms she were in were so engaging.
Some of the more fantastical magics were the necklace enchantment allowed Vanja to take Gisele’s place, Emeric’s magic that he learnt from the prefects and the small pieces of magic that the little Gods perform. Overall these little uses of magic help make this world more whimsical.
As a whole I adored Little Thieves and would recommend it to any fantasy lover. It was a wonderful story with interesting characters, world building and magic systems. Perfect for anyone who’s read Margaret Owen‘s previous books like The Merciful Crow.
Trigger Warnings – child abuse, neglect, abusive environments and attempted assault
Positives of Little Thieves
- Outstanding characters and relationships throughout
- Fantastical magical elements
Negatives of Little Thieves
- Some trigger warnings (However all told by the author at the start too!)
I received Little Thieves by Margaret Owen from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
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