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A review by watermelleon
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
5.0
fourth time reading this, first time as an adult: yet still wholeheartedly enjoyable.
In a way, I was really hoping this book didn't feel like a five stars so this review didn't appear to be so nostalgia driven. However, as I sank into these pages and rediscovered what this book does there was only one option, so I hereby present to you an extremely glowing five star review.
Rereading the thief lord after so many years had many expectations; possibly I had grown up too much for this book, the story wouldn't impact me the same, maybe the characters would come across as somewhat irritating and the passion for the book would not be there anymore. It was terrifying. What I received however was something that I could not anticipate: I had somehow forgotten, or maybe never even realised what the true message of this book was.
This book is dark at times. It tackles political and social issues, child homelessness and terribly cruel adults taking advantage of them. The protagonist characters are in realistically horrifying conditions, yet through a child focused lens you as a reader still see their fascination of living in a setting that feels magical despite their circumstances, and feel the safety they all feel living as a family unit under the roof of a dilapidated movie cinema. Every item of food they discover is described to you in vivid hunger, every stone statue feels so real that it could indeed move if you stood next to it. Although many have found the plot to be somewhat deceptive in terms of genre, in some ways this is a fantasy from the start.
The characters are all so fully fleshed out and so incredibly vivid. Many also are very polarising:
- The greedy money grabbing and pirate like Barbarossa and the rich yet giving Ida Spavento;
- The boy Scipio who wants to be an adult because it looks better and the runaway prosper that is forced into the grittiness of adulthood;
- The child who just wants a home and the one who is suited to living on the streets.
When I was younger, Scipio by far was my favourite character, but it's interesting to see that change only upon reading as an adult: Scipio offers a make-believe adventure but because of this he is an idiot! His perspective on the world is naive and he doesn't think through anything! Prosper however is very much an adult, not by choice but by circumstance: he doesn't have time to play along or he could put his young brother in danger. In childhood, I was taken by the adventure and the make believe, whereas this time around I just feel like he did not think a lot of things through well at all and is a bit of a brat. I mention this here because this plays out incredibly in the book!
I could write a whole book on this novel honestly. Few more pointers before this lengthy review ends:
-all of the street characters seem to be representatives of the types of kids that can be orphaned/homeless (the runaway child, the young adoptable child, the child of colour, homeless girl representing girls on the streets)
- to get a grip on how dark this gets, Hornet (the homeless girl character) at one point cries that she is being attacked by an older man on the street as a front for her friends to run away from an adult who is posing as a threat to them (like seriously jesus christ these characters are between 8-12)
- this book is seriously a modern day peter pan with a twist AND it references the book at a point which made me die inside so anyone who loves the book of peter pan should definitely enjoy this.
- the book title is extremely clever if you think about it after you read the book
- SO MANY TWISTS AND TURNS I DIE
- haven't even touched on victor yet but his pet tortoises and his bumblyness offered such a good amount of comedy relief that was much needed
- THERE WASN'T A ROMANCE PLOT. I was reading it and for some reason thought I remembered certain characters getting together but THANK GOD I prefer how everything happens so much more. it wasn't needed and works so incredibly well and while staying spoiler free the line (four is a great number don't you think) really felt like a nod to that and omygod feels
- the ending is SO GOOD. people get mostly what they want, but it is incredibly bittersweet as funke reminds us that in life sometimes when we get what we want it doesn't necessarily mean that everything will end up how we imagine.
Okay i'm done now. but please tho, the book. read it.
In a way, I was really hoping this book didn't feel like a five stars so this review didn't appear to be so nostalgia driven. However, as I sank into these pages and rediscovered what this book does there was only one option, so I hereby present to you an extremely glowing five star review.
Rereading the thief lord after so many years had many expectations; possibly I had grown up too much for this book, the story wouldn't impact me the same, maybe the characters would come across as somewhat irritating and the passion for the book would not be there anymore. It was terrifying. What I received however was something that I could not anticipate: I had somehow forgotten, or maybe never even realised what the true message of this book was.
This book is dark at times. It tackles political and social issues, child homelessness and terribly cruel adults taking advantage of them. The protagonist characters are in realistically horrifying conditions, yet through a child focused lens you as a reader still see their fascination of living in a setting that feels magical despite their circumstances, and feel the safety they all feel living as a family unit under the roof of a dilapidated movie cinema. Every item of food they discover is described to you in vivid hunger, every stone statue feels so real that it could indeed move if you stood next to it. Although many have found the plot to be somewhat deceptive in terms of genre, in some ways this is a fantasy from the start.
The characters are all so fully fleshed out and so incredibly vivid. Many also are very polarising:
- The greedy money grabbing and pirate like Barbarossa and the rich yet giving Ida Spavento;
- The boy Scipio who wants to be an adult because it looks better and the runaway prosper that is forced into the grittiness of adulthood;
- The child who just wants a home and the one who is suited to living on the streets.
When I was younger, Scipio by far was my favourite character, but it's interesting to see that change only upon reading as an adult: Scipio offers a make-believe adventure but because of this he is an idiot! His perspective on the world is naive and he doesn't think through anything! Prosper however is very much an adult, not by choice but by circumstance: he doesn't have time to play along or he could put his young brother in danger. In childhood, I was taken by the adventure and the make believe, whereas this time around I just feel like he did not think a lot of things through well at all and is a bit of a brat. I mention this here because this plays out incredibly in the book!
I could write a whole book on this novel honestly. Few more pointers before this lengthy review ends:
-all of the street characters seem to be representatives of the types of kids that can be orphaned/homeless (the runaway child, the young adoptable child, the child of colour, homeless girl representing girls on the streets)
- to get a grip on how dark this gets, Hornet (the homeless girl character) at one point cries that she is being attacked by an older man on the street as a front for her friends to run away from an adult who is posing as a threat to them (like seriously jesus christ these characters are between 8-12)
- this book is seriously a modern day peter pan with a twist AND it references the book at a point which made me die inside so anyone who loves the book of peter pan should definitely enjoy this.
- the book title is extremely clever if you think about it after you read the book
- SO MANY TWISTS AND TURNS I DIE
- haven't even touched on victor yet but his pet tortoises and his bumblyness offered such a good amount of comedy relief that was much needed
- THERE WASN'T A ROMANCE PLOT. I was reading it and for some reason thought I remembered certain characters getting together but THANK GOD I prefer how everything happens so much more. it wasn't needed and works so incredibly well and while staying spoiler free the line (four is a great number don't you think) really felt like a nod to that and omygod feels
- the ending is SO GOOD. people get mostly what they want, but it is incredibly bittersweet as funke reminds us that in life sometimes when we get what we want it doesn't necessarily mean that everything will end up how we imagine.
Okay i'm done now. but please tho, the book. read it.