This is exactly what a fairytale retelling should be. Little Thieves takes a lesser known fable, The Goose Girl, and picks it apart at the seams, only to refashion it into something far grander than you may have thought you could get from the original material. All the initial elements are present, the same characters follow familiar beats at first, only to eventually diverge. The story’s themes are turned on their heads, and the end result is just as much a reaffirmation of the source material as it is a challenge to it.
“Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl…”
I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to read a book with that introduction?
This retelling, like many popular ones now, focuses on the antagonist of the original story. Vanja is the disloyal maid who abandons her princess and steals her life for her own. In the year since that faithful day on the road, Vanja has more than settled into her life as ‘Prinzessin Gisele’, now not only living a luxurious life but boldly robbing the nobility she’s met through her newly acquired status. It’s after one of these robberies where things begin to go wrong for her, though, as she finds herself cursed by a Low God offended by her thievery. Vanja will have to break the curse by ‘making amends’ or slowly succumb to her greed by becoming the very stones she’s stolen.
Or…….she could just ask her godmothers for help. After being forfeited by her birth mother, Vanja was taken in by Death and Fortune, who have made her an offer: their assistance for her servitude. But after years as a servant for the lost princess and her family, Vanja would rather fall to the curse than fall in debt to her overbearing godmothers, which is not as unreasonable as it sounds to those of us with mother figures like this in our lives.
Despite Vanja’s general demeanor and attitude, she actually manages to make some friends that will try to help her break this curse. The characters in Little Thieves will delight anyone who loves a good ensemble cast. And while probably not technically a heist, there’s definitely a heist-type feel to a lot of the scheming Vanja and her gang partake in.
I know this probably sounds like a lot so far, and that’s because it is. There’s also a ton more than I’m not going to get into so readers can experience it for themselves, but it’s really impressive the way Owens is able to juggle so many different plot lines at once, especially in a standalone fantasy like this. And it’s not all action and plot, there’s some really immense personal struggles that the characters experience along the way. Within the 500+ pages of this novel are seven ‘Tales’ recounting important backstory to the current timeline. Several are intense gut-punches and give so much context as to why the characters make the choices they do.
I think what I liked best, though, is how well-structured this book was. It would have been so easy for something like this to go off the rails, but Owens felt fully in control of the narrative at every twist and turn. The way she confronts traditional lessons in morality, what we as an audience equate with goodness and evil, is so smart. I don’t think it’s possible to rave too much about Little Thieves, but in the interest of not overhyping too much I will stop here. Still, please don’t sleep on this gorgeous, germanic fantasy retelling.
“Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl…”
I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to read a book with that introduction?
This retelling, like many popular ones now, focuses on the antagonist of the original story. Vanja is the disloyal maid who abandons her princess and steals her life for her own. In the year since that faithful day on the road, Vanja has more than settled into her life as ‘Prinzessin Gisele’, now not only living a luxurious life but boldly robbing the nobility she’s met through her newly acquired status. It’s after one of these robberies where things begin to go wrong for her, though, as she finds herself cursed by a Low God offended by her thievery. Vanja will have to break the curse by ‘making amends’ or slowly succumb to her greed by becoming the very stones she’s stolen.
Or…….she could just ask her godmothers for help. After being forfeited by her birth mother, Vanja was taken in by Death and Fortune, who have made her an offer: their assistance for her servitude. But after years as a servant for the lost princess and her family, Vanja would rather fall to the curse than fall in debt to her overbearing godmothers, which is not as unreasonable as it sounds to those of us with mother figures like this in our lives.
Despite Vanja’s general demeanor and attitude, she actually manages to make some friends that will try to help her break this curse. The characters in Little Thieves will delight anyone who loves a good ensemble cast. And while probably not technically a heist, there’s definitely a heist-type feel to a lot of the scheming Vanja and her gang partake in.
I know this probably sounds like a lot so far, and that’s because it is. There’s also a ton more than I’m not going to get into so readers can experience it for themselves, but it’s really impressive the way Owens is able to juggle so many different plot lines at once, especially in a standalone fantasy like this. And it’s not all action and plot, there’s some really immense personal struggles that the characters experience along the way. Within the 500+ pages of this novel are seven ‘Tales’ recounting important backstory to the current timeline. Several are intense gut-punches and give so much context as to why the characters make the choices they do.
I think what I liked best, though, is how well-structured this book was. It would have been so easy for something like this to go off the rails, but Owens felt fully in control of the narrative at every twist and turn. The way she confronts traditional lessons in morality, what we as an audience equate with goodness and evil, is so smart. I don’t think it’s possible to rave too much about Little Thieves, but in the interest of not overhyping too much I will stop here. Still, please don’t sleep on this gorgeous, germanic fantasy retelling.