The Thief Anniversary Read-Along Chapters 7-9

[an_english_girl]

For the third week of The Thief read-along, we’re covering chapters 7 to 9, from “Good feelings persisted between myself and the Magus until the next morning...” to “Darkness that was deeper than the river swallowed me up.”They’re some pretty exciting chapters, as we finally get to see Gen ‘in action’ professionally, as it were, rather than just

Comments

[sunsethill]

You have done a fabulous job with these three chapters, hitting most of the things that just jumped out to me. I especially appreciated the comment about how wonderful the description of the temple was. I noted when reading just how simply it was described, but I could still completely picture in my mind what it must have looked like. Megan used such economy of words to bring to life something that was probably pretty hard to describe. I wonder how many edits this section took? And somehow she managed to do all this description and still make this a very tense, suspenseful section, when all Gen is doing is exploring a (dangerous) temple complex. Thanks for pointing out how much suspense and action was packed in this section as I hadn't really noted that in my reading, although my enjoyment of the book really picked up when we hit these scenes. This is where the book became a page turner for me

[an_english_girl]

I think the short words in the description probably add to the suspense while Gen's in the temple. They are like the short, terse way one's mind runs when under stress, and also a good "time passing" device. It's like a clock ticking -- tick tick tick...
Regarding the ending, I knew MWT was, as she notes at the end, a fan of Rosemary Sutcliff's novels -- a couple of which do actually have the chief character meeting nasty ends in the story :/ So I was truly worried about Gen... :)
As for children -- any Sounisians here who read it when it actually came out? Or have passed it to younger siblings/friends/own children? I've a friend whose little (14) brother is now crazy about QT, but I don't know if you'd count him in the YA age-bracket?

[sunsethill]

Yes, I would put a 14 year old in the YA bracket. I'm not exactly sure how old the target range for "children's lit" goes, but I really do wonder if children actually appreciate this story. I won't suggest it to my grandchildren until they reach high school, but maybe I'm missing something.

[live_momma]

I have been torn about reading it to my 9 yo. I definitely think she would enjoy it now, and the content isn't inappropriate or anything, but she might enjoy it more if she reads it to herself later. You only get to be surprised by the twist once. I don't want to spoil that for her!

(Also, Queen of Attolia is much less kid-friendly.)

[sunsethill]

I agree there is no inappropriate content, but you're right. You only get to be surprised by the twist once. I was a voracious reader when I was young and read several books before I could really appreciate them. I tried to keep books for my children to the point that they could really understand not just the words, but also the concepts and themes of a book. In that regard, I think The Thief is more of a YA book.