Teen Book Review: Guest blogger Amy returns with a review of Natalie C. Anderson’s City of Saints and Thieves.
Sixteen-year-old Tiny Girl is a self-professed thief. She lives on the streets in a city in Kenya, and she is very good at what she does. There are rules for being a thief, and Tiny Girl follows them all. Or so she would like to believe. Normal thieves hit easy targets. Targets just waiting for a tiny, light-fingered girl who can squeeze into places unnoticed and take things people don’t miss until she is long gone.
But tonight, her target is anything but easy–it is a mansion, but it might as well be a fortress, given how well-protected and guarded it is. It is also personal. She has spent the last five years preparing for this very moment. Preparing for a chance to get revenge for her mother’s murder. And she has a plan, a very good plan, with support behind her, and lots of research and knowledge.
But no matter how good a plan you have, sometimes things go wrong, and that night things go very, very wrong. So wrong, in fact, that she isn’t sure she will escape with her life, let alone the thing she intended to steal! What’s more, she starts to question who her friends and enemies really are, who really killed her mother, and most importantly, why?
To get out with her life, she makes a deal. One that sets her off on a search for answers. A search that has her traveling to a place from her past that may provide her with even more questions before she gets any answers.
City of Saints and Thieves is a fast-paced read with a tough, smart girl protagonist. But it is anything but a light, pleasant read. Africa can be a very beautiful country, but it is also troubled and violent, and Tiny Girl will come face-to-face with that violence firsthand before she finds her answers.
So if you like hard-hitting realistic fiction and fast-paced mystery adventures, this is the book for you. But don’t expect to want to put it down, and do expect to have your eyes opened to some pretty terrible things before you are done!
Greenwich Library is a place for teens in grades 6-12 to find and read books that reflect themselves and their experiences, get college or job ready, tinker with emerging technologies, and ace their next test. Plus, monthly programs and workshops allow teens to develop their skill sets, dive into new hobbies, and make friends with others in the community. Learn more about offerings for Teens at greenwichlibrary.org/teens.
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Questions? Contact:
Amy, Teen Librarian
(203) 625-6549
alaughlin@greenwichlibrary.org