I did not like this book. I could not stay interested in it. I am usually a fan of science fiction an fantasy, however this book was nonsense. I would read twenty pages and then have to reread them because I would be confused and have no idea what it was talking about. I still have no idea what the plot of the book was. Rubbish.

Unfortunately I DNF at 38%. I really tried since the premise sounded really interesting but it just wasn’t for me apparently.

I really wanted to love this book. However, I found the writing style to be rather confusing throughout.
A shame because I thought that the story had some real potential!

DNF at 25%.

I wanted so much to like this book. The setting is extraordinary, and there's clearly so much going on beneath the surface. Unfortunately, I struggled from the start to get through the dialects, strange vocabulary, and literary references to find out what was going on. I've been a fantasy reader my whole life, and consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to navigating new worlds, cultures, and even languages in fiction. I actually thought I was doing well for myself until I reached the dramatic conclusion of Part 1... and realized I had no idea what was going on.

I hate giving up on books, especially galleys, but I just couldn't do it. There are probably people out there who would really love this book, but I don't have the budget at my public library to buy it on the off chance that those people find it on the shelf.

After trying to read this one twice, I decided to DNF it. The writing style of this book really isn’t working for me - it’s incomprehensible and the world-building/story is beyond confusing. And I say this as some who has been reading high fantasy novels for over twenty years. If you’re willing to put in an inordinate amount of work, you might be able to understand what is going and get into the book (which, quite frankly, should never be necessary for a good book). However, there are so many other beautifully complex fantasy novels where reaching a baseline understanding of the world isn’t a complete slog that I’m not going to give myself a headache trying to read this one.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Full transparency- I ended up having to DNF this one at 37%. I very rarely DNF advance reader copies because I want to be able to provide a full and honest review, but unfortunately this one was just too much for me.

I was very intrigued by the description of this one. A quarantined city, teenagers confined on the city roofs for years, and mysterious black spikes with untold power? Add to that a mother who breaks the rules to save her son? It was an enticing description. Unfortunately I quickly got bogged down and it took me nearly three weeks to get less than halfway through the book. I really tried, but in the end just wasn’t able to get lost in it the way that was required for such a story and had to put it down.

I will say that I liked some aspects of the author’s writing style, and if it was edited down a bit, it might work better for me.

City of the Uncommon Thief
DNF @ 10%
1 star
I really wanted to love this book but the writing style was just so hard for me. It was confusing and complicated. It was unclear what was happening or who the main character was. Maybe it will become clearer as you go on but I just couldn’t do it

I ended up having to DNF this one. While the concept of the world seemed interesting, the writing felt super unfocused and I couldn't get a feel for what was going on or how the world worked. It just wasn't for me.

I tried reading this one just through e-book at first but I just couldn't understand what was going on and the maps just wouldn't load. I then tried waiting and listening to it on audio thinking that would be better for me but that wasn't much help at all. There was no plot to this story and I had a hard time following along. I winded up dnfing this book at 11%

I struggled with this review a lot because I did not hate the book, but certain niggling things hindered my experience. One was that I did not connect with any of the characters. They all felt one dimensional, and honestly, I could not tell them apart if I happened to miss the chapter title. They seemed to lack depth. Maybe I wanted more of a backstory for them all so I know who I'm rooting for, but what you see is what you get and I had a hard time.

The plot mostly moves along at a very fast pace, but not much happens to teach our characters a lesson. Things just happen and that's it. The premise is good, but I did not see a true antagonist until the last quarter of the book.

The world-building was stellar but was not a driver to this story. Lack of clear motivations, poor execution, and unclear character arcs really didn't help the slow pacing by the midpoint part of the book to the point where I almost marked this as a DNF. But determined to get through 2020 with only a handful of DNF's I trudged on.

I'm really sad that I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped I would, but I know a lot of people will love it. But I was not one of them and I probably won't continue the series.

Big thanks to the publisher and to Lynne Bertrand for allowing me access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

At first the synopsis really called to me, a dark quarantined city? Count me in! But there were many parts that I felt like I was connecting dots due to confusion when I personally don't enjoy doing that when I read. I think the world building was complex and interesting, the character development was there, but I felt a lack of motivation to really get to know the characters and the storyline overall. I definitely think that this book may be suited to younger YA and that may be a reason why I had a hard time connecting, nothing was problematic but it just didn't seem like the type of book for me once I got going. I also have a hard time with greek mythology and that's completely on my end and not the authors or this book. Overall rating is a 3.5 - maybe a 4 if I dig down and rate it as a 13/14 year old!

**Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin/Dutton Books for Young Readers for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my rating for this title**

I consider myself a fairly well-read person in terms of High Fantasy books. I've read the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I've read ACOTAR multiple times. I've read Game of Thrones. I do not give up easily when the world building is complex. This is a new level of nightmarish "world building" and for that reason, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. It was taking me an hour to read about 20 pages (that is very slow for me).

From what I've gathered, our hero, Odd Thebes, accidentally stumbles upon a weird weapon with his cousin, Errol, that makes Errol a fugitive and puts them in danger from a rival guild. I made it about 100 pages in and there have been so many characters and so many guilds that Odd does not belong to that it's difficult to keep the plot straight.

Bertrand front loads ALL of her world building onto the reader in the first 4 pages. There is a map of 50 guilds (which was drawn beautifully, but difficult to understand). In looking at a finished copy, they've included the rival guild that was not on the map in my ARC, so I had no idea why this VERY important guild was missing from the map of 50 other guilds. I had to redraw the map myself to understand how all the rooftops are connected. I also combined the page listing all the exports of the guilds onto the map so I didn't have to keep flipping between those pages to get all the information. Additionally, there is another page with slang terms used in the book. For example, there are different words for all 24 hours of the day (i.e. 7 AM has a different word than 7 PM), the days of the weeks, and the months. There are also slang terms that are not included in this semi-glossary, leaving the reader to intuit what they mean on their own. This made it INCREDIBLY difficult to stay in the story instead of feeling like I was studying for a college lecture. I'm okay with front loading the world building and explaining the rules outright at the beginning, but being given essentially an info dump in the form of four pages of notes and being expected to remember that information to proceed with the book is inexcusable.

I honestly just felt barraged with information and it was written in such a way that you are almost constantly out of the action and puts all of the work on the reader. I feel like it's the author's job to explain the world and make me invested in it, not the reader's job to essentially force themselves into the world. I don't usually give a rating to books I DNF'd because I feel it's unfair, but because I'm DNF-ing SOLELY based on the insane world building issues which are keeping me from getting into the book at all, I feel okay rating this book a 1. There are so many problems with the way this is written that it will be a very persistent reader who refuses to DNF that will read this. Others will most likely be scared off by it.

I won't be rating this book as I did not finish it. The writing style, the language, everything just didn't work for me. Major info dump and just general confusion.

Based on other reviewers, I'm not the only one who thought this once starting this book.

I was so excited for this book. I loved the cover, I loved the synopsis, but I did not love this book. Jumping in, I was immediately confused. And not the confused of "it's a new book, I wonder what's going on" but "I have no understanding of anything and I don't think the author does either". Which is not great for the beginning. 

As I struggled to read along, about 20% in, I stopped, and was thinking what did I just read? I could not tell you a single thing that happened in the beginning. Not because I wasn't paying attention, but because it is so jumbled that trying to iron out the details and the emerging plot line is almost impossible. 

The main character is a mystery to me. I don't know their name or their gender. I thought I knew their personality, but they seemed to switch personalities to match the scene the author is throwing them into. In the beginning they were quiet and demure, not wanting to cause trouble or be called out. But in the last scene I finished they were raunchy and over the top - the complete opposite of how we saw them in the beginning, and not as an act. They were also coming across as someone kind and respectful, but then completely objectified this woman they were dancing with and forced her to kiss them before even knowing if that's what the person wanted. Plus, they were awful to their "cousin" or whoever Jamila is to them, and it was a complete 180 from a few chapters before. 

I didn't get too far in to see where the plot was going, but from what I gathered - nowhere. Errol was the symbol of this groups heroism, but he's thrown off a cliff and left there until I guess they find out he's alive? Everyone doesn't seem to care that Errol is basically dead, even though they were discussing hiding him for as long as possible. Not letting him get caught, but also asking him to turn himself in. And then the few details we got about these iron spikes was vague and strange. It sounded like they came from the city itself and that Errol found them, but then it's also said that his mother gave them to him? So which is it? I couldn't tell you.

I also could not tell you any strong details about this book. It's so unfortunate because I was so excited for this story and I just can't bring myself to continue when I have no idea what the heck happened in the first 25%. The writing and the characters are too scrambled for my taste. Did not finish and won't be finishing any time soon.

DNF 42%

Part of me had almost wondered if the e-galley I received of this book was mistakenly ordered, but upon reading other reviews, I realized other readers had just as much difficulty comprehending the story as I did. We are tossed into an incredibly complex and high-fantasy world with no exposition, and right off the bat, characters' identities are difficult to distinguish and even harder to grow attached to due to how haphazardly they are thrown into a plot that is never fully explained. Though there is potential in the author's lush prose, this story just could not hold my attention.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for early access to the egalley for City of the Uncommon Thief by Lynne Bertrand.
I’m very sad to say that I chose to DNF this book. The writing wasn’t bad, and I can tell the author put a lot of time & thought into building the world for this book, but I honestly felt like I was slogging through the story while hardly retaining anything. It may have been the very dense writing style & chosen perspective of the book, but I wasn’t able to connect with the characters or care about the world, I found that the way we were introduced to the characters & this “City of the Uncommon Thief” in combination with the dense prose left me feeling lost, confused, and unable to keep the characters straight in my head. If you are excited about reading this book, please don’t let my review discourage you from reading it, as this writing & storytelling style may be very well suited to a different reader.

*I will not be leaving a star rating for this book as I did not read the book in its entirety.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In a walled-off city, people live in tall iron towers, each organized by a trade or craft guild. Once a year, the city’s gates are opened to receive a shipment of food and other essentials, and also ship out the products the guilds make to the world outside. Teenagers can opt to become runners between the towers and spend a few years on the rooftops before taking up an apprenticeship with one of the guilds. New runners often play pranks and dare each other to complete tasks. When, during one of these dares, what looks like a pair of iron knitting needles are stolen, it quickly becomes clear there is something special about them as the regnat, the main administrator of the city, is willing to do anything it takes to get them back.

Plainly put, this book is confusing. The premise sounded really fascinating, and the setting even more so. I have to compliment the world building in this book. It’s really creative and the amount of mythology, lore and history make it obvious how much effort has gone into it. However, as intriguing as the world was, it was nearly impossible to understand. There are a multitude of references to epics and legends – particularly Shakespeare and Greek mythology, and several languages like French, Latin and English, but none of it seemed to tie into either the plot or world building in any relevant manner. It’s never made clear if this book is set in an alternate reality or how exactly it lines up with our own – if at all. There is just way too much going on with barely any explanation and it felt like being tossed into the middle of a series without any context whatsoever. Of course this could be just because I was reading an eARC, but right at the very beginning there are several pages of very confusing terminology that are used liberally in the book right from page one – and there was no way I was going to remember that much information which makes it rather redundant.

City of the Uncommon Thief is about Errol Thebes, narrated from the perspective of his cousin, Odd Thebes, a runner for Thebes Tower, as Errol gets caught up in the aftermath of the theft and goes on the run from the authorities. Now if the story had just focused on these two and the real plot, I could see this being a lot more interesting. While the theft of the mysterious knitting needle like objects is what the story starts with, it deviates unnecessarily (and lengthily) to other things such as what life is like for the runners, guild shipments and introduces a whole host of other characters. Secondary characters can be great for a story, but none of them felt substantially developed. The pacing was also too slow for my taste, and honestly, a book this heavy is what I might expect of the middle book in a series. Ultimately, it was the pacing and narration that caused me to lose interest before the quarter mark.

I’ve spoken very little of the actual plot in this review, and that was intentional, because I’m not certain I’ve grasped the entirety of it myself – in fact, I felt lost for most of the book. Though this book did have a lot of potential, especially given how rich the world building is, it was far too confusing and complicated for me to fully enjoy and it just didn’t work out for me.

I had a hard time focusing through this book. The world building could have used a bit more work to make the story-line easier to follow.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes included in this review are from an unfinished copy of the book.

“But the runner would have none of that. He clung to Errol, too terrified of life, death, and everything in between, to let go.” City of the Uncommon Thief has beautiful narration, but I often found myself confused on what was happening in the story. In addition, the worldbuilding- with heavy Greek and Norse influence- was so intricate that it was hard to understand and process.

One of my reading goals for this year is not to read anything I don’t enjoy, so I ultimately decided to DNF this book.

While drawn in by the synopsis, this was not the book for me. I did appreciate the world building and rough atmosphere, but ultimately struggled to attach to the characters and and struggled even more to finish this book.