Not sure this is for my middle school kids but I can see some high school kids who enjoy fantasy liking this one. A great way to dive into another world!

This was a dense, rich novel that I really took my time reading and savoring. The language is so intense and multi-layered - I found that I could let it just wash over me and get meaning from context, but I also found that the times I got curious and looked up a word to find its origins I always got involved in looking up more and more words to understand the depths of the word choices.

I enjoyed this one for the dystopian aspect of it and was interested in seeing how the people worked and navigated the life of being in a quarantined city while living on the towers. It was cool that they implemented a system to travel between towers on wires/lines and just the thought of traversing those terrifies me so I lived vicariously through them. I had a hard time connecting with the two perspectives that it was told from. Neither of them really grabbed my attention as a character I wanted to root for. I found some of the side characters to be much more interesting. There were definitely some parts of the book that I was surprised by in a good way (some twists I didn't see coming) and the "magic through objects" (I'm being vague here to avoid spoilers) was a cool touch that I have not seen done before so that was fun. The plot was a bit all over the place and hard to follow at times, especially when it jumps between perspectives with no immediate way to tell who it is until a little bit into the chapter. My favourite part was at the very end of the book and its a very minor part but I was glad it was added because it made the ending way better. A solid fantasy book!

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

This one was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the concept.

Overall it was okay.

I recommend it to fans of YA fantasy.

Love dystopian futures, I will always read them what can I say I’m a sucker. I do agree that the writing style is a bit to chew on but as long as you keep focused it is not hard to get through and was freaking amazing.

This book is really hard to get through, at least for me. There was so much unnecessary info dumping and world building for things that didn’t really affect the story in anyway, it just stopped everything for me.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

16 year olds, Errol and Odd Thebes lie in a city quarantined from the rest of the world. Errol is heroic, talented, and charismatic. Odd is brilliant, lazy, and selfish. Their friend, Jamila Foundling is clever, fearless, and selfless. When they discover a pair of mysterious needles, the trio decide to go an adventure to see why their city is the way it is. They soon uncover dark secrets, artifacts, and interesting legends. Why is their city blocked off from the rest of the world? What do they needles really mean? The plot is complex and intricate. The characters and their dynamics are intriguing. The language of the characters, however, is confusing and may cause some readers to put the novel down. Readers who can get past the language barrier, who like adventure and mystery will enjoy reading this book. Due to some mature content, this book is best suited for older audiences.

The novel is about a quarantined city with different groups of people and the tension between them. There is the narrator, Odd, who is a runner on the roofs, but is also considered a bard who tells stories. When his cousin, Errol, is dropped to the ground, this unleashed certain events that will change the city!
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While I liked the characters of Odd and Errol, I thought the world that was created was quite complex and tough to follow. I did like the concept of life on the roof, and the love Odd had for classic stories, but I found it difficult to follow the story fully. Felt like a lot was happening and it was tough to stay immersed. I did like the parts where Errol was on the ground!

In one word, I would describe this book as Contradictory.
The world building is intricate while also at times feeling tossed together and incomplete. The characters are...fine? I didn't particularly like the ones I was made to like nor hate the ones I was made to hate. The pace is tiresome, and as someone who has trouble focusing on even the most fast-paced books, I honestly could not explain most of the book if I tried.
The conclusion was the best part, but it really wasn't worth the trudge there. Seeing as this was (I think?) based on Greek Mythology, I feel the metaphor is necessary: this felt like I was Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain. I really felt like I was doing more work in my mind to bring the story to life than the book itself was.

My biggest pet peeve is when a book leaves me feeling apathetic, and unfortunately, that is how this book made me feel

This was hard to trudge through. I just couldn’t get into it and was pretty hard to read. I was so close to DNFing it but lushed through and it just seemed to drag on even more. Not a book for me.

While this seemed like an intricate and complex fantasy world, I just couldn’t get into it. The language and vocab was difficult to learn and it really pulled me out of the story. I’m sorry to say this was a DNF.

I really really struggled to get into this story. The entire thing was confusing and didn’t flow together very well. It was a DNF for me

This was a big disappointment for me. The world felt confusing, I didn't feel connected to the characters. The story sadly felt bland to me.

I have tried to read this novel three times bit have not been able to get past 25% of the book. The characters and the setting were not for me; and the writer did not draw me in.

Thank you to Netgalley and PenguinTeen for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

First let me say this is different world building, it's unique in it's own way. It was hard for me to picture these scenes because I just kept getting lost. My little brain couldn't comprehend. Haha
The concept is intriguing which is why I wanted to read it in the first place. I hope this is a win for another reader.

I received an earc of this prior to its release and got about 30% into before I decided to put it to the side. I, like many readers before me, found the world and language to be difficult to understand. I thought if I waited until after release and tried it through audio, I might understand it enough to enjoy it, because while I wasn’t fully grasping the book I was intrigued enough to want to understand.

Waited until after release, picked up the audio- still had difficulty probably more so. So again I put it off to the side. BUT THEN - light bulb moment I decided to read it physically while also listening to the audio and it did wonders because - THIS BOOK WAS INCREDIBLE. It was well worth the struggle of attempting the different formats, it was well worth the time I spent reading it slowly. It was beautiful, thoughtful, and unlike anything I’ve ever read.

The time is an alternate reality or a dystopian future. The place is a walled-off city of 1,000 mile-high towers — fascinating! And also, quarantine?! Each tower belongs to a guild, and the guilds run the city — some extracting more influence than others. At ground level live the guild-less, who are exceedingly poor, creating a harsh divide in society. On the rooftops live teenage runners who (precariously) race the tightrope-like structures between buildings. Our hero (Errol Thebes) is one of these runners, and it’s his (illicit and quite accidental) acquisition of what looks to be a pair of standard iron needles from another guild tower that kicks lose a series of events that forever alter the course of history.

The world-building is impossibly intricate, making City of the Uncommon Thief a book you need to be willing to settle into. If that’s what you do, then this story will open up before you, slowly yes, but beautifully so. The characters are exquisitely crafted. As is the relationship between Errol and societal outcast Jamila Foundling. I’ve seen this book get low ratings, but can only say that in a world where we want everything to be instantly and readily available, some things are worth the time and discovery. This is one of them. A rare gem.

DNF @ 13%

I don't DNF books but I just can't finish this book. It has a few really cool aspects, like a walled in forgotten city, this said city having dozens of different languages for each guild, etc.. But these aspects weren't rewarding enough to keep me invested.

The writing style is what initially had me contemplating DNFing this book during the first chapter, but I really wanted to give it a chance. Thus, I read 12% more. But then I found myself skimming and knew I had to put this book down.

The writing is complicated and choppy, making the plot, setting and characters disconnected from each other. The worldbuilding isn't too bad despite the complexity of it and the lack of easy to understand explanations of how it works and is set up. The characters feel flat and even when they're interacting with each other I feel like they are extremely two dimensional and at times they feel awkward.

They mystery/conflict aspect of this book is written like it was supposed to be the main plot of the book but it felt again, flat and two-dimensional. Should we care about these mysterious iron spikes? Is this supposed to be something that feels high stakes for the characters in question? The characters definitely don't seem to care much about them, almost like an afterthought, and thus neither did I. But I felt like I should? I don't even know. It was all so confusing and all over the place.

With all this being said this may be a book for readers who don't care anything about the characters and are worldbuilding/setting type readers. But that just isn't me.