I didn't write a long review because I couldn't get into this book. I wrote this on Goodreads:

I had a really hard time getting into this, and I skimmed the last half, so take my rating with a grain of salt.

The description made it sound much more thrillery than it was for me. It's about a teen runaway uncovering a mysterious society, but it doesn't have as much intrigue to keep me interested. I wanted more fast-paced, scared-for-my-life intrigue. At one point it had this. My heart was actually pounding at the beginning when this teen takes shelter in a rundown building with a bunch of other homeless teens and she sneaks up to a floor she's told to avoid. I was scared at that point and expecting much more of that, but then it slowed way down and became more literary. I like literary fiction, but I wasn't expecting it here and it pulled me out of the story a bit too much.

So you can chalk up my dislike for me expecting something completely different.

This was a book. It was not a good book.

The Readymade Thief was a strange amalgamation of of several different genres, and in some places it worked, and in other places it just... didn't.

Without going into too much of the plot, the story centers around a girl who finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy theory wherein she may or may not be a doppleganger of someone from the past and as a result she is *special* to the conspiracy theorists, despite the fact that she spends the entire book saying how invisible she feels. Oh, and she's pregnant and homeless.

The writing is extremely flat. While there are great set-pieces (an abandoned aquarium, a rave in a missile silo), I didn't feel immersed in the world or drawn in by the language; it was like my imagination was reading in the dark - here is an abandoned aquarium; here is a rave. The author also struggles to give the protagonist a consistent voice. We are introduced to her as a shy introvert who is good at shoplifting, but doesn't really rebel much outside of that. Skip ahead a few chapters, and she's having sex with a boy she just met in a museum they broke into to look at an art piece that arouses her so much she doesn't care about the security guards that might catch them. She goes from wild naivety to gun slinging thief and back again in short bursts, and she is always on her guard but also always trusting the first people to be nice to her.

While the premise is intriguing, the plot is clunky and swings from genre to genre with wild abandon. Imagine the Boxcar Children dropping ecstasy in a watered down DaVinci Code. Many aspects of the plot are too convenient (a guardian angel in prison, a new boyfriend who's actually a hacker with links to the dark web, a grumpy man who teaches her how to break into houses and identify valuables), only to find out they were mostly planted in her path intentionally. These realizations feel less like deus ex machina and more like bad writing.

The final reveal, without going into too much detail, involves several pages devoted to one character's speech - a bad guy monologuing to tie together all the lose ends. And even then, the final conclusion is essentially the protagonist just wandering off into the sunset with no real goals, having mostly saved herself, but deciding the leave the rest of the conspiracy's villains and victims behind because... why? I guess she just forgot them? Or the author decided not to wrap up the most glaring conflict?

2 stars. The author can write a coherent story. Just not a good one.

In the opening decades of the twentieth century, artist Marcel Duchamp turned the art world on its ear. Always on the outskirts of popular art movements, he experimented with post-impressionism, cubism, and futurism before leaving traditional artwork behind and almost single-handedly inventing conceptual art. His new work abandoned what he called retinal art, art designed only to please the eye. Instead Duchamp's new work was purely intellectual, designed to make the viewer think. His influence on all art that followed is incalculable.

In August Rose's debut novel, The Readymade Thief, 17-year-old Lee is a sort of artist too. She's a born thief. Stealing comes second nature to her and gives her a way to connect with her classmates. She steals for them and they welcome her into their cliques. But Lee never really fits in. When the police show up at school investigating a larger crime, her friends make her the scapegoat, sending her off to juvenile detention. She doesn't fit in there either and quickly uses her talents to escape.

Now homeless and a fugitive from the police, Lee falls in with a group of runaway teens led by the enigmatic "Station Master" a creepy machiavellian, a drug dealer, and probably a pimp. Oh yeah. He's also a member of the Société Anonyme (a nefarious secret society obsessed with the artwork of Marcel Duchamp) that has sinister plans for Lee.

The Readymade Thief reads like a younger, grimier version of The Da Vinci Code, with Lee analyzing the work and life of a great artist for secrets and clues that will unlock a mystery. There's another mystery in the novel. What does it all mean? As Duchamp said, “The artist performs only one part of the creative process. The onlooker completes it, and it is the onlooker who has the last word.”

This book reminded me a lot of a hipster version of books like The Eight by Katherine Neville, or a less intellectual Foucault’s Pendulum (which was my favorite book in college). I liked the puzzle aspect of it but was a little let down by the end.

This was a really fun read, fast-paced and not at all what I thought it would be when I started. I don't usually like author comparisons but this felt like a combination of Dan Brown and Cory Doctorow, with teen runaways, a secret society, mysteries in the art of Marchel Duchamp, urban explorers, drug culture, and hackers. As in most Dan Brown books, the culminating events feel a little far-fetched, but I liked the character of Lee and how she couldn't easily figure out who was lying, who was dangerous, and I was on her side from the second her friend sold her out.

read about The Readymade Thief, the debut novel from Augustus Rose, and was really excited: an “addictive literary puzzle” with a female teenage protagonist and a “secret society with a dark agenda” – sounded like just my thing. So when I received a copy from Penguin Group/Viking and NetGalley, I could hardly wait to dive in.

I am convinced that sometimes a book that seemingly everyone else on the planet thinks is GREAT gets a resounding “meh” from me because of my mental state. And that may be the case with The Readymade Thief. It just wasn’t the thing for me right now.

I did love the beginning! Lee’s angst and desire for acceptance were so well written, I just totally wanted her to find what she needed/wanted. But I never really cared about any of the other characters, particularly the teenagers/young adults, so it was hard for me to get into the literary puzzle. I just wanted to get through it. And I wasn’t enthralled by the whole “secret society” aspect. Maybe there were just too many things going on? Anyway, I will definitely read the next book from Augustus Rose, because this debut author can WRITE!. Three stars (two for the book, one for the author’s obvious talent

Wow!! I stayed up way into the early morning reading this book. I could not help it, I could not put it down. Well, until, unfortunately, close to the ending. I was simply too tired from lack of sleep to get into all the technical aspects that are presented. It was tedious and very, very descriptive.

However, let me say this the descriptions were an amazing part of this book. I really felt myself "creeping" with Lee and Tomi inside those abandoned buildings. When reading the blurb about the book, I thought it was a post apocalyptic world. I was surprise to find that it was pretty much modern day. So many abandoned buildings!

I loved the characters of Lee and Tomi. The author did a great job with their character development. He also did a great job with Steve and Lee's mother which led me to a "I want to slap the crap out of both those" feeling that lasted throughout the book.

A thoroughly entertaining, unputdownable and amazing read.

Thanks to Penguin Group/Viking and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

A Missed Opportunity

Marcel Duchamp was a fascinating artist, and is of interest even if you just focus on his actual life, or his involvement in the art scene and movements of his time, or critical responses to his work. Whenever this book turns to any of these aspects of Duchamp it comes alive.

But that's only part of the book. Our heroine, Lee, is supposed to be daring and gritty, but most of the time she is passive, mildly angsty, and depressive. She spends a lot of time stumbling around in the dark behind characters who actually are daring and gritty. And she needs to be monologued to a lot in order to keep up with the flow of her own story. If the book slows down every time the central heroine shows up you know you're in for a bumpy ride.

This book has some excellent set pieces, some disturbing and some engaging supporting characters, and fine Philadelphia scene setting. The creeping through abandoned buildings is especially well done. The urban/weird conspiracy plot in which Lee is enmeshed has its moments, (although it's a bit overcooked), as do some of the darknet segments. But, if Lee robs one house, then she has to rob a couple more. If she crashes at one suburban house that's been temporarily vacated by a family, she has to crash at a few more. I lost track of how many urine soaked mattresses she slept on on the floors of abandoned buildings.

So, kudos for doing such interesting things with Duchamp and for taking the reader on a unique journey. This struck me as a "big idea" book. Read it fast, skim some of the bland teen and thief parts if you need to. It doesn't hold up really well under close scrutiny and it isn't exactly chock full of memorable lines, but it's ambitious and different, and that's nothing to dismiss.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Mixing secret societies, art history, puzzles to be solved, and urban exploration, The Readymade Thief is hard to categorize.

I liked this book. The character was very interesting and her story was compelling. I learned quite a bit about Marcel Duchamp, although it became a bit of overkill after awhile.

A wonderful and wonderfully weird debut novel. I saw Augustus Rose speak at ALA and knew this was going on the top of my TBR pile. Mystery, adventure, strange connections to avant garde artists? Count me in!
Lucky for me, it was even better than expected.

I was unaware while reading this that the artwork that is such an important part of this book is from a real-life artist, Michael Duchamp. I liked the book even more once I looked a pictures of pieces that are mentioned in the story. I enjoyed reading this book because the writing kept me turning pages and guessing what was happening. However when I finished, I felt that perhaps the concept was a bit too ambitious. I got bogged down in the details of how the art was connected to abstract concepts in physics and what exactly the secret society was doing. This wasn't the book I was expecting when I picked it up but I think many readers will enjoy this art mystery/thriller.

OMG, this book was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC and it's a debut novel to boot! This reads very much like a Dan Brown book for the younger crowd. Secret societies. Symbolism. Abandoned places. Riddles and codes. Murder and mystery. Art. The Darknet. Science. Twists and Turns. Phenomenal writing. Well paced. An intriguing and unique plot. A cast of interesting and well-developed characters. I am blown away that this is the author's first book.

Not much more to say really. I LOVED every second of this one. I was sucked in and walked around with my nose glued to my tablet. I am hoping there will be more of this story in a second book. My heart hurts over a certain incident, but I am hoping maybe just maybe not all is as it seems. A girl can dream, right? In any case, this one gets two HUGE thumbs up from yours truly.

I requested this book in error. I'm sure it is a very good book but not a genre I can review properly. Apologies and thanks.

My apologies - I tried to get into this book but it was just not my cup of tea.

Great writing and plot pulled me back to this book each time I put it down. I'm not going into plot because that is readily available.

Lee is a bit of a MacGiver as she is fearless in creeping through dark buildings, learns to pick locks, is a 2nd story thief, and can crawl through ducts to escape threats. There were a few moments in the book when I wanted her to choose a different path but she was fending for herself in the best way she could.

One of the greatest aspects of the plot is that the reader doesn't know who to trust until the very end.

The art brings a very interesting dimension and is based upon the work of Duchamp. I had to look it up to get a better perspective.

This was a mind-bending page-turning npn-stop thrill of a read! I was thoroughly engaged from the first page to the last, and the art and metaphysics bent was great. I really grew attached the characters in this book, and the bizarre subplots that all merged into an unexpected ending where is satisfying and and a hopeful beginning . I wish this author and this novel huge success and I look forward to part two!

I had a hard time getting into this book. It just seemed to move so slowly. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

I loved the idea of this book but it ended up being a cluttered overwhelming mess. The author just kept putting ridiculous challenges in the way for Lee that seemed completely out of place and unnecessary.

Teenage Lee Cuddy is caught up in a nightmare as she investigates the disappearances of homeless Philadelphia teens at the hands of a mysterious charity organization. This thriller isn't just for the YA crowd, it's sharp, savvy and knuckle biting suspense