The good thief

by Hannah Tinti

Paper Book, 2009

Description

Growing up in a New England orphanage unaware of his family and of how he had lost his left hand as an infant, twelve-year-old Ren is terrified of the future, until a young man shows up claiming to be his long-lost brother, with whom he embarks on an adventure-filled odyssey of scam artists, petty criminals, and resurrection men.

Genres

General Fiction

Young Adult

Collections

Library Room, Fiction, Junior

Publication

Dial Press Trade Paperback (2009), Edition: Reprint, 368 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member Marensr

This is a book that was almost oversold by the incredible praise on the cover. With comparisons to Dickens and Twain in the same breath, I was prepared to be disappointed by Hannah Tinti's debut novel, The Good Thief. However, I found that the characters and plot were compelling and she merits some

of the comparison. The book feels Dickensian with it's one-handed, orphan hero, Ren who is whisked away from the monastic orphanage into a life of grave-robbing and thievery all while attempting to do the moral thing and discover more about his obscure origins. Children's novels about orphans with uncertain parentage are not unusual but this one is a cut above the rest with well-drawn characters, atmospheric language, and a willingness to embrace interesting ethical questions.

The beginning of the story while Ren is living at the Catholic orphanage may seem slow-paced but it sets up his moral crises to come. It is also allows her to make some nice touches like the reference to St. Anthony, patron of lost things, appropriate both to the boys at the orphanage and to the small items Ren feels compelled to steal.

Tinti also sets her story in 19th Century New England. I felt the story could be in any country and so I was a bit disappointed that the American setting never really entered into the tale in a more specific way.

The characters, a thief, a drunken former schoolmaster, a murderer for hire, a dwarf, the unhappy proprietress of a boarding house with a propensity for beating people with brooms, the unlucky twins and unfortunate girls forced to work in a mousetrap factory are colorful and compelling. But it is the complicated Ren and his attempts to be good who draws the reader and makes it such a satisfying read.

I also respect Tinti for allowing her characters to discover unpleasant truths. She doesn’t condescend to her readers, adult or child.

The story was left somewhat open-ended so I suspect that if Ren is successful there will be more books about his adventures.

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LibraryThing member elbakerone

Abandoned as an infant and missing one hand, eleven year old Ren has been raised as an orphan at Saint Anthony's - a monastery appropriately named after the patron of lost things. Knowing that his disability will give him little chance at being adopted, Ren is excited yet nervous when a charming

young man named Benjamin Nab arrives one day claiming to be Ren's brother. Benjamin quickly fills in the details about Ren's life and whisks the boy away from the orphanage.

However, Ren soon learns that Benjamin is not all he appears to be - the story of Ren's past is only one of many that the man is used to spinning. Craving the freedom and intrigued by the adventure, Ren is swept up in Benjamin's world of thieves, con artists and grave robbers. It may just be that the keys to Ren's past lie in this uncertain future.

Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief was a wonderful book. The characters are realistic and instantly likable and the adventure and mystery run at a great pace. Tinti does a beautiful job coloring her historical landscape. I found myself fully enthralled through the whole story and when I reached the epilogue, I didn't want the book to end. With themes of friendship, family and belonging, this tale is sure to find a welcome home in the hearts of readers everywhere!

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LibraryThing member womansheart

"The Good Thief weaves a story that reads like a classic coming of age tale with all the devices, characters and plot twists that make it a tangible and entertaining experience. I kept thinking to myself, what will happen next, oh, no ... not that! I can't believe it! Whew! *Wipes brow.* *Sighs

with relief.*

A wonderful, stalwart protagonist (Ren), his unforgettable companions and each and every one of the other quirky, clever characters will come to life in your mind, fully realized.

You may be borne along, as I was, on an author-crafted vessel navigating a challenging imaginary river of action and emotional rapids. This, of course, leads to learning and experiencing many things that teach and strengthen him/Rem on his journey to knowing himself. He is what I describe as a sturdy soul.

I recommend this book to any reader who enjoys old-fashioned adventure and suspense stories. One of the best of this type I've ever read. I'm eager for Ms. Tinti's next book already."

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LibraryThing member arouse77

This novel represents the first full-length offering from the author Hannah Tinti. It shows, from its very beginning, some fair promise. Yet though many elements of this book revealed this potential with intriguing language and vivid imagery, the hand of a first-time novelist seems all too apparent

as the course of our tale unfolds.

We follow Ren, an orphan who begins in the care of the monks of St Anthony’s. They seem like a harmless bunch, if less than totally compassionate to the plight of their charges; those children not adopted are conscripted into the military and rather forcefully consigned to this fate whether they will it or no. Young Ren stands out even amongst the other orphans as an especially difficult case since he is missing one of his hands. We are treated to a poignant scene of one of the brothers discouraging a kindly seeming farmer from taking Ren away due to his infirmity. “You won’t want that one.” This seems, forgive the unavoidable pun, rather heavy handed. Ren seems fairly resigned to his condition, having known no other, but his fear of being left unchosen manifests in a tendency for petty theft which sometimes earns him the lash.

Then one afternoon, the miraculous happens and Ren is claimed by a stranger purporting to be his uncle. The fellow asserts the missing hand is proof that this lad is in fact the child he seeks. The monks let this character have off with Ren with nothing more than a faretheewell and a copy of a book Ren had been idly inclined to swipe during the interview between the monk and supposed long-lost uncle. Once the pair leaves the orphanage it becomes apparent rather quickly that Ren’s “uncle” may not be exactly what he claims, and that indeed he is a bit of a reprobate. His interest in the orphan child seems to be rooted primarily in the sympathy Ren’s missing hand can arouse in the common passerby. More, he is delighted by Ren’s apparent aptitude for theft since, as it happens, our good man Benjamin Nab (cringe) happens to be quite the burglar himself.

From this still rather engaging beginning, things somehow go astray. What at first seems to be a novel capable of interesting scope and questions of morality against a backdrop of desperation instead becomes a tale narrow in the extreme and focused to a rather distracting degree on all things grave; by which I do not mean serious.

We are shuttled in time and place between a boardinghouse, a graveyard, and a mousetrap factory, with the sometime addition of the hospital where the remains our heroes have begun to unearth for profit are to be delivered. The intensity with which this novel focuses on the details of graverobbing make it not for the faint of heart, and yet rather than seeming truly creepy or eerie, instead just feels awkward. Like lingering too long over a consoling embrace.

Ultimately I feel this novel loses its focus, or rather, that its focus becomes diffuse and something it ought not have been. If what we were looking for was an amusing tale of orphan scamp makes good, many of the detours in the tale were unnecessary and distracted from that vein. Likewise if we were seeking the heartwarming tale of orphan scamp finding his true family, we are not presented with an account that really wins our loyal attention. Finally, if we were meant to be engaged in the story of orphan scamp learning the trade of graverobbing, we could have done without the heart-of-gold-makes-good-finds-his-family element.

A not unworthy effort for a first novel, it would have benefited from a clearer sense of identity and a lighter touch.

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LibraryThing member aplomb1

The Good Thief is a confused novel that doesn't know what it wants to be. Written by the editor of one of the nine squillion literary magazines in America, it shares a flaw common to 99% of contemporary literary fiction: it's characterized more by what it's NOT than what it IS. For too much of its

length, Tinti seems preoccupied with dodging the label of popular fiction and misses the opportunity to tell a story. The result is that instead of being engrossing and moving, most of The Good Thief is lifeless, humorless, and pointless -- words on a page. At its heart, it's a genre-fiction story that's straining away from itself, trying to become "quality" fiction.

After about a hundred pages of literary blandness, the story does begin to move and to develop some charm, but it's too little, too late. Throughout, the protagonist Ren acts only as a vessel for the story's themes and never shows the slightest human idiosyncrasy, the setting is sparse and uninteresting when it could be lushly historical, and the prose wavers between dull and pseudo-profound. It's just forgettable. There's nothing stopping Hannah Tinti from writing a great story -- she just needs to throw out all the countless rules she's collected on how to write a novel.

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LibraryThing member lasomnambule

Hannah Tinti’s The Good Thief well deserves (and even invites) comparison with classic riproaring nineteenth-century adventure tales and orphan narratives. With an action-packed plot and a skillfully created universe, Tinti pulls her readers in to a story about stories—a tale in which the

tale-tellers have power to create and re-create the past, all the while manipulating their futures.

Ren, missing a hand and a history, falls swiftly into the world of Benjamin Nab, who claims to be Ren’s older brother and the key to his past. Ren, a clear analogue to the orphaned-boy-brought-up-by-hand type of character that dominates the novels of Dickens, Stevenson, and others, is all too eager to welcome his older brother. Nab weaves a skillful tale of Ren’s past, both to Ren’s guardian priest, and to Ren himself, who eagerly strokes the scalped locks of his dead parents as Nab tells of their demise. Quickly, though, Ren discovers Nab’s identity: a con-man, common horse-thief, and resurrectionist in need of a boy to garner his marks’ sympathy.

Ren and Nab encounter a motley cast of characters during the course of their exploits: a deaf old woman, a harelipped girl who labors in a mousetrap factory, a dwarf, and a man in a green velvet suit who’s been “resurrected” from the dead, among others. Ren’s world becomes dreamlike as he watches these characters and characters from his past float into view. Each character narrates their own story, and add something to Ren’s own narrative of his life. In the end, faced with the truth, it’s the story Ren’s able to create from his experiences that saves him.

Though Tinti has created a compelling world for Ren, and smartly populated it with references to great adventure and intrigue novels of the past, the tale rings flat. In a tale that insists stories have great meaning and power, Ren’s story ultimately wields little power save that of reference to and reflection of other great stories. References to David Copperfield, Kidnapped, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations do not a powerful story make. The Good Thief has merits, and is a well-crafted, page-turning adventure tale of a type not often published today. However, for a more meaningful statement on the power of tales from the past to speak to our lives today, readers are best off turning to novels such as Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip, a tale that transcends mere reference to Dickens and, by being itself transformative, further illuminates the transformative power of story.

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LibraryThing member Laurenbdavis

I'm torn by this book. It was a fun read, but good heavens, I expected more. Sadly, I think the over-the-top praise by such luminaries as Junot Diaz and Dan Chaon do the book no favors. They simply raise the reader's expectations beyond the novel's capacity.

Here's the problem: the narrative is

entertaining--(a bit Dickens, a bit Robert Louis Stevenson, although in flavor only, the quality does not withstand comparison)--but the ending is far too contrived and tidy, too neat by far for there to be any real resonance; and the characters are too predictable and even, dare I say, stereotypical. I understand this sort of thing worked nicely for Mr. Dickens, but times have changed and frankly, it feels imitative and unsatisfying here, at least to this reader.

As well, the writing needed a good editor...for example, the prose is bogged down by far too many connecting verbs: "....and a tin that was labeled Molasses." "The small man chose a jar that was yellowish orange." These two examples are in consecutive sentences on a page I picked at random. Couldn't any decent editor have changed these to "...a tin labeled Molasses." and "The small man chose a yellowish orange jar." This sort of sloppy writing kept snapping me out of the story. Similarly, one character shouts all her dialogue and we are ever-reminded of this because every word she utters IS RENDERED IN CAPS. It become tiresome quickly, as does the (only) character who speaks in phonetics, e.g. "They musta done it fah warmth, she kept saying. They musta found each othah, in tha dahk." It makes the prose sound amateurish, and really, I think Ms. Tinti is a better writer than she's exhibiting here.

For all these, perhaps overly critical nitpicks, I repeat that I found the book entertaining. The perfect novel for an afternoon in the hammock. So enjoy, by all means, and perhaps, like me, you'll look forward to seeing what Ms. Tinti does next. There's enormous potential here.

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LibraryThing member japaul22

I really liked this novel set in the early 1900s America about a young orphan named Ren and what happens to him when he's adopted by a man, Benjamin Nab, claiming to be his older brother. Ren showed up at the orphanage as a baby missing one hand and this man has a long, detailed story about how it

happened and what happened to their parents.

Ren is a good kid. This man is obviously a liar and we soon find out that he's also a thief. But throughout the book, even when put in unbelievably awful situations and even through some questionable decisions, Ren is a good person and people like him almost immediately. He's not a goody-two-shoes or saccharine-sweet, he's just the kind of person that people trust and feel connected to.

The books hinges on this idea of lies vs. truth that we're introduced to by Benjamin. This was the key concept for me - that the truth is the most horrifying scenario for these characters. After leaving the orphanage, Benjamin tells Ren the "real story" about their parents and it is absolutely gruesome. Ren says:

"I don't want to hear anymore"
"All right." Benjamin let go. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"No."
The man reached over, took hold of the lantern, and blew it out. Night enveloped the barn. "Well," he said at last to the darkness between them, "that's when you know it's the truth."

I really loved Tinti's writing and I will definitely read her new book that just came out. This was her first novel and it is really well done. It doesn't get five stars because parts were a little gory for my taste (they spend time as grave robbers and there's lots of violence) but it was definitely part of the story, not gratuitous. The book has this great Dickens feel without trying too hard to be a Dickens remake. The characters are fantastic and I like the underlying themes. I'd highly recommend this.

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LibraryThing member dizzyweasel

I didn't enjoy this book. I was reading it for a book club, so I finished it, but it was with only mild interest.

This novel recounts the wandering of a group of semi-successful thieves as they beg, cheat, borrow, and steal their way through 19th century New England. Ren, the crippled boy hero, is

saved from the orphanage by a con artist claiming to be his relative. Ren quickly discovers Benjamin's story is a sham, but he doesn't really care. They meet up with more thieves, crazy dentists, assassins, and grave-robbing doctors as they settle into an old mining town with a sinister factory. The story meanders along from there.

This book succeeds wildly at being a picaresque novel: good-natured low-lifes journeying through the dregs of society, getting by on their wits, encountering bizarre people, and having strange adventures. Picaresque. But that very quality betrays the author's beginnings in short story writing. The novel reads like a short story - a bunch of disparate tales collected together with the thin threads of a vague theme. The story wanders aimlessly. That seems to be the point, until it is loosely tied together at the climax of the book. Most novels have at least a tenuous structure or sketch to guide the reader along on a narrative path. This book doesn't.

You may be thinking, "Well, that's great, it's a book that keeps you guessing, keeps you reading!" Unfortunately, the book only seems to keep you guessing because the author too was unsure of where it was all going. The book has a climax by virtue only of the author's desire to be finished - at least, that's the impression I got.

The characterization was sketchy, and the characters only mildly likable. I'm sure the author was going for 'quirky', but what we got were vaguely outline shadows of people. Fill-in-the-blank reading.

All-in-all, this novel was bland and inoffensive, shallow and uncomplicated. It's hard to have strong feelings about it either way, because it did not endeavor to arouse any feelings from its reader. It's also difficult to guess at what age group this was aimed. At times the tale reads like a children's adventure story. At others, the author is describing penises (I stopped counting after 3). The lack of defined audience doesn't make it 'timeless' or 'a grand adventure for all ages'. It is merely further indication of the novel's indecisiveness. Skip it and find something with more depth.

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LibraryThing member Girl_Detective

It’s a thumping good read, one I finished in fewer than 24 hours. Tinti gives a New England twist to Dickensian themes of orphans, thieves and poverty. Young Ren was abandoned as a baby at an abbey, with two clues to his identity: a nightshirt with the letters “REN” sewn into the collar, and

a missing hand. Years later, a handsome, silver-tongued stranger appears, claiming to be Ren’s brother. Adoption is the highest hope of the orphan boys, whose only other fate is to be conscripted into the army when they come of age. Whether Ren’s being claimed is what he’d hoped for, soon turns out to be much more complicated.

Villains, grave robbers, illicit surgery, and overall skulduggery abound as Ren encounters an embittered former teacher, a dead man, a kind but deaf housewife, and a sarcastic dwarf. It is a skillful and entertaining adventure novel with suspense and mystery to spare. Good stuff.

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LibraryThing member bragan

The story of a 19th century orphan boy with one hand who is "adopted" by a conman/graverobber/thief and finds himself embarking on a new life of crime with various dubious characters. Several of the blurbs on the back cover compare this to the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, and I can see why.

In some ways, it does read a lot like Stevenson's boys' adventure novels, despite the fact that the protagonists, such as they are, would probably be the villains in a more traditional adventure story. It is rather darker than, say, Treasure Island, though, and I wouldn't give it to a kid; there's just a little bit too much in the way of violence, "adult themes," and other potentially disturbing stuff. But like Stevenson's tales, I quite enjoyed it. The plot is full of improbabilities, for sure, but it is entertaining and ultimately more satisfying than I'd expected it to be.

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LibraryThing member sunfi

The story is about a boy from an orphanage who is adopted by a man who claims to be his brother. The man is anything but who he says he is. Before the boy knows it, he finds himself surrounding by thieves, con-artists, and grave robbers. It was hard for me to get into this one and I don't

understand the hype surrounding this one. It was a decent story but it never jumped from the pages for me like some reviewers have claimed.

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LibraryThing member NovelBookworm

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti is the story of an orphan boy named Ren who was raised by monks in a large orphanage. Adopted by a clever grifter named Benjamin Nab, Ren learns the fine art of the con as he and Benjamin join up with grave robbers, thieves, and scam artists.

This book is written with

a contemporary flair for words, but it’s really an old time adventure story. The characters are well fleshed out, and even though they’re all doing really reprehensible things, it’s impossible not to like them. Charming and glib, Benjamin Nab and his often surly companion, Tom, take Ren along with them as a foil, to make their thievery easier. Ren, however, becomes the conscience of the trio by sometimes unexpectedly doing the right thing. Ren’s inherent goodness comes shining through and has an interesting impact on those around him.

Hannah Tinti spins a good yarn with this novel, smoothly paced and well written. This book has heart and will leave you with a slightly wistful smile on your face.

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LibraryThing member silverheron

The Good Thief A Novel
By Hannah Tinti
The Dial Press
ISBN: 978-0-385-33745-8
From the back of the book “Benjamin Nab appears one day at the orphanage where Ren has spent the eleven years of his young life. Convincing the monks he is Ren’s long-lost brother, Benjamin sweeps the boy away into a

vibrant world of adventure, filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves. But is Benjamin Nab really who he claims to be? As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage, he comes to suspect that Benjamin holds the key not only to his future but to his past as well.”
I completely enjoyed this book. I instantly became sympathetic to the plight of Ren and all of the situations that he found himself in. The writing of the book itself was great. There were many interesting characters within the pages and yet the author was able to make each and every one of them rich and full without excessively long descriptions. What I liked was that for some of them the description was enough to get you interested in the character but it was limited. Then later in the book that limited information would blossom into much more such as in the character of “Dolly”. The author never came right out with the medical diagnosis of his situation but it was alluded to. Other characters the author described using one word descriptions that pack enough punch that you understood much of the person’s situation and could move on. This style of working with characters really made me feel a part of the book as well. I felt like I was right along the journey with them.
In many places within the story I found myself laughing out loud over plot twists that I never saw coming. I would be reading along thinking “alright I got that, now what is next” then boom she would throw something new in the mix that would not only make me laugh out loud but forever would change the tapestry of the story.
I highly recommend this book. The story was interesting, eventful, funny, sad, and in the end satisfying.

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LibraryThing member readingrat

Ren had no memory of his life before St. Anthony's. The only clues to his past is the initials REN sewn into the collar of his nightshirt and his missing left hand. One day a stranger, Benjamin Nab, comes to St. Anthony's looking for him, claiming to be his older brother, and reeling off a story of

high adventure that explains both how Ren lost his hand and the reason he was left at St. Anthony's. However, Ren soon discovers that Benjamin Nab is not at all who he claims to be, but instead is a smooth talking con man that hopes to use Ren's disability in order to pull off more lucrative cons. When Ren decides, against his better judgment, to throw his lot in with Nab, he realizes that his life is never going to be the same again.

This contemporary book is a classic adventure story with the literary style and singular characters that will remind the reader of the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, and/or Mark Twain. It is a well-written, fast-plotted, thoroughly enjoyable read that holds up very well to these hefty comparisons.

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LibraryThing member SqueakyChu

Ren, an orphan missing one hand, is a young boy who is taken from an orphanage by his so-called “brother” Benjamin Nab to a life of grave-robbing and other mischief. Among a motley cast of characters, Ren’s life becomes a series of misadventures in which he finally comes face to face with his

own personal history – not all of it so good.

While this is an action–packed story, the thrills were not for me. I’m simply not much of a history buff nor do I care for fight-and-gore kind of tales – which this one surely is. What I found most interesting in the novel was the very beginning which described Ren’s life in the orphanage and the very end where Ren’s true relatives were revealed. I found it hard going through most of the rest of the book and wished it would have ended much sooner. I can see this book having some appeal for others, but I was one who was simply not taken in much by the convoluted story.

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LibraryThing member hemlokgang

The title of this book says it all. "The Good Thief". Good as in "talented" or good as in "morally''? This engaging tale answers the question. The characters and storyline in this novel were wonderful. When you combine a dwarf living on the roof , a murderous, gentle giant named, Dolly, with a

group of misunderstood, thieving misanthropes, how could you go wrong? The protagonist, a classic, pathetic, Dickensian child, named Ren, handles them all throughout this adventure tale which is also about loyalty, truth, what constitutes family, and survival. The characters are Dickens all over, and the adventure reminded me a bit of Robert Louis Stevenson. A really fine story. The only reason I gave a 4-star instead of 5-star rating is that the author's average use of language was not quite up to par with classic authors she mirrors in her character development and plot.

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LibraryThing member aimless22

Hannah TInti creates a wonderful adventure story for all ages. Reminiscent of Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, Ms Tinti introduces the world to Ren, the one-handed orphan protagonist of a wild story which takes him on a ride including petty theft, grave robbing, con men, a

murderer, and interactions with many other unique characters.
Ren is an orphan who is claimed by his supposed long lost brother, Benjamin Nab. But we soon wonder just who Nab really is.
Fun and fear. Danger and mystery. Bad guys and good guys. All of this and more fills the pages of this enchanting story that carries the reader along at a fast pace, not wanting to stop until the very last word.
This wonderful debut novel carries on the promise generated by Ms Tinti's debut story collection, Animal Crackers.

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LibraryThing member ForeignCircus

I picked up The Good Thief intending to read a few pages before bed but was unable to put it down before I finished. A 12-year old orphan at a Catholic orphanage, Ren has spend his whole life trying to unravel the mystery of his missing hand and missing family. Considered unadoptable because of his

deformity, Ren had nothing to look forward to but conscription into the Army when he got too old for St. Anthony's- nothing that is until the day Benjamin Nab showed up claiming to be Ren's long-lost brother. Unfortunately, Ren soon learns that Nab's story is just a story; he in fact excels at telling people just what they want to hear.

One on level, this book is an enjoyable adventure story populated with colorful characters and some light humor. Much more compelling are Ren's attempts to unravel the mystery of his past while developing a moral code that is much less flexible than that of his savior. Enough hints of the truth are peppered throughout the story to prevent the reader from crying foul at the denouement (no spoilers here though!) and the action is well paced if sometimes a little over the top.

Both the plot and the writing style are strong; the Good Thief is an enjoyable read I will certainly recommend to friends.

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LibraryThing member AnneliM

Well written, somewhat confusing story of an orphan who has lost his left hand but does not know how. He is picked up from the orphanage by a man who claims to be his brother--but is he?

LibraryThing member kvanuska

Terribly unique gothic tale -- puts quite an American touch to Oliver Twist. Ren, Benjamine, Mrs. Sands and Dolly are stand-out characters. Tinti really has a knack for bringing them all to life. While I could more than handle the grave-robbing, con-artistry, lying, and thieving, the violence at

the end went way over the line and took this novel into a movie thriller ending. Too bad. It could have been so much more.

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LibraryThing member davedonelson

If you are a sucker for off-beat but believable characters (like me), you will enjoy this cross between Huck Finn and Oliver Twist. Hannah Tinti has peopled her debut novel with some wonderful folks who stop just short of caricature and made them come to life with strong back stories and layers and

layers of interesting detail.

Twelve-year-old Ren is the star of the piece, a one-handed orphan who alternates between fearfulness and fearlessness in just the right situations. His pursuit of the real story behind how he lost his hand and who his parents really were is perfectly balanced with his day-to-day struggle to do the right thing despite being perpetually involved in situations that dictate he do wrong. It would have been easy for Ren's tale to drown in treacle, but Tinti keeps its head above the surface.

Ren's foils are a motley, jolly crew: the charming conman, the dwarf who lives on the roof above his perpetually-shouting sister, the over-sized murderer they accidentally dug up after he'd been buried alive, the maleficent industrialist who owns a grimy mousetrap factory. These colorful characters somehow never seem forced or over-drawn, which makes The Good Thief a Good Read.

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LibraryThing member joeltallman

Yes, the plot and characters of this short novel positively cry out to be called Dickensian. However, if you pick it up expecting to immerse yourself in such a densely populated world, you'll be as disappointed as a few of these Library Thing reviewers have been. The Good Thief is a swift-moving,

short-chaptered, plot-heavy tale of adventure, and I for one am often in the mood for such a book. We root for Ren and the companions he collects along the way, and hope for an appropriate comeuppance for the truly cruel villains, all while nestled safely in the fictional conventions in which the author is working. As for whether or not the book is appropriate for children, it's true that dead bodies abound (grave robbing is a central aspect of the plot, after all) and Tinti isn't afraid to put her characters in real jeopardy nor have them resort to violence in their attempts to escape danger; however, those who've actually read their Dickens--or Harry Potter, for that matter--recently will find this story tame by comparison.

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LibraryThing member Copperskye

Right from page one, I found myself drawn in and taken along on a wonderfully wild ride! The characters were well drawn and, oddly enough in some cases, likable. The situations they found themselves in were both bizarre and believable. Throughout the story, I was reminded of two recent books I’ve

read and loved - the buddy elements of City of Thieves and foundling aspect of The Graveyard Book. I was captivated by the story and didn’t want to put it down.

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LibraryThing member Lallybroch

From the description I thought this book would be something I really enjoyed and I couldn't wait to read it. I have been disappointed though. I thought it would have some mystery with Ren looking for clues to his parents, and some adventure along the way. What it turned out to be was the story of

some petty thieves that really weren't all that interesting to me. The storyline of Ren's parents doesn't even really get brought up until the last hundred pages.

There were some mildly interesting minor characters, but those couldn't keep me reading. As a disclaimer, I haven't currently finished this book. Maybe it all comes together beautifully in the end. But, even though I don't know who Ren's parent's are, I don't really want to spend the time reading the last hundred pages to find out.

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