This concept was such an interesting one that called to me but it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Unfortunately, I found myself confused in several parts and had a little bit of a difficult time keeping up with what was happening. I thought the world-building was a bit complicated but overall pretty good. I could place myself in the world but, again, I think if I was in the world I would be completely lost as to what was going on and why I should care.

I didn't really connect with any of the characters that well either. I wanted to, as I always do when I read something, but it was just difficult.

Overall I think this had such a cool premise but the execution wasn't quite there. There are a lot of references to various greek myths, which I am very familiar with, so that helped a bit but someone not familiar might be even more confused.

E-arc was received by Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Penguin Teen!

I think my rating for this book is an unfortunate matter of my taste not lining up with what the book has to offer. While the writing was beautiful in many places, I unfortunately found it hard to tell what was going on, and I didn't connect to the characters much. The world and atmosphere felt cool -- however, I'm not the kind of reader who can enjoy worldbuilding if I'm not vibing with the characters who live in the world.

My preference is usually for high-concept, fast-paced fantasy that favors direct writing over lyrical prose, so I think I struck out by taking a chance on a more experimental YA fantasy that unfortunately wasn't for me. People who prefer digesting prose and classic-style references will probably enjoy this story.

2/5 stars!

I was really intrigued by this book's synopsis, however, I just could not get into the story and I didn't like the writing that much. I didn't feel connected with the characters enough, and I just don't see myself finishing this book.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you to Penguins for the advanced copy for my honest review*

Well this was definitely an interesting read. A fantasy inspired by Ancient Greece steeped in myths and legends. My only complaint is that it’s extremely tedious. From the get-go I have no clue who’s talking. Then context was a bit muddled. I get it’s an advanced copy so there’s going to be imperfections, but some sentence ended in weird spots or with a letter and I was like wait what does it say. There’s also, what I’m assuming, Latin words and I have no clue what they mean. So in a while it was a hard book to grasp. The world building was nice and the adventure was there for the fantasy aspect, but honestly it felt rushed and randomly thrown together.

DNF at 10%

Unfortunately the writing style of this book was really not working for me. It seems confusing and needlessly complicated, at least in the first part of the book. It's unclear what is happening, who exactly this main character is, or why we should care about any of it, although the writing does become more understandable a chapter or so in. There are frequent references to Greek mythology, but without much context or established world-building which feels a bit pedantic. I like Greek mythology, but the way this is being done I find off-putting. I also wasn't loving the crudeness of the character dialogue. I can deal with some of that if I'm invested in who the characters are, but it's never my favorite thing and this didn't hit well for me. I think if you can get on with the writing style and are really into stories about rough and tumble thieves, you might get on better with this than I did.

I received an advance copy of this book for review via netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Take this review as you will considered I decided *NOT* to finish the book. But after getting to around the 40% mark, I realized I can't continue with a book when I have no idea what's going on, who's actually telling the story, or what even the main plot of the story is. I am generally as confused as all get out and do not want to continue to waste my time reading this.

I had generally hoped if I continued to stick with it I would at least comprehend the basic plot. So there's some "uncommon" (i.e. very special??) knotting spikes, but... Why? The world-building is actually really good, but it's also complex and thank God for that index in the beginning because... Wow. But I think it's this very complex world-building that makes this book difficult to comprehend and follow. In this book, the characters live together in "guilds" and on extremely tall towers--we're talking hundreds of floors, or "stratas" as the characters say. There are no animals whatsoever and the people survive by storing the food and supplies that arrive once a year on multiple massive ships. But... why? Why is it this way? We've got a dialect with words and terms that I continue to struggle to understand, making this an overall unpleasant read.

Thank you NetGalley and penguin teen for this arc!

I was super excited for this arc, because I love green mythology, and I thought the premise sounded super exciting. Unfortunately I didn’t really find myself connecting super closely to the characters, which makes it harder for me to enjoy the story. The world building was super rich and beautiful, but also a little confusing, which took me out a bit.

Overall enjoyable, but didn’t fall completely in love.

I just put down my kindle and I have so many thoughts! Starting this book I was thrown in and honestly just confused. As much as I ended up enjoying the complexity of the world-building, the initial few chapters were hard to follow. Ultimately, the complexity of this story is both the best and worst parts of the story. So if you're willing to push through the initial confusions, be prepared for an action-packed, adventurous, and thought-provoking story that lies on top of a message about societal differences and how privilege affects society.

Once the world forms a clearer picture in your mind, and the characters become more and more familiar, there is so much to explore! There is a variety of relationships (friendships, familial, romantic, etc.) portrayed, and following the plot of these characters is truly both so frustrating, but I could not look away. I don't want to give anything away so I won't disclose the characters I grew to love, but there was certainly an interesting handful!

The conclusion of this story was both realistic, needed, and yet somewhat disappointing. I only say this because I was left somewhat confused, yet the ending brought clarity to other aspects of this story.

If you're looking for a story with plenty of twists and turns and a new world to explore, be sure to pick this one up!

While the world building was intrinsic and inventive, there were too many things going on that felt disconnected in this book. I went through so much of it confused and having to go back and reread passages.

I liked the idea of this book: a group of teens living on rooftops and the intensity of their lifestyle. There was some romance and a lot of suspense. But there were too many characters referenced and they did not seem to be complete persons. It was more like just ideas of people and a shadowed silhouette as opposed to detailed, fleshed-out characters.

It is hard to summarize a book like this when I feel like I did not quite understand what was happening some of the time. And the length did not lend to that affect.

While this book did not work for me, I would recommend it to others who are more versed in the high fantasy genre who have the patience to really dissect a book like this.

This book was STRANGE. It dropped me into the world and I really had no clue why the characters lived on roofs, why there were guilds, it was just wow strange. I honestly struggled following the story arc and the e arc had strange breaks that made it harder to follow I think. Ultimately, this book wasn’t for me.

This book is a conundrum. I went into it slightly confused, and came out of it even more confused. The thing is, this book features some of the richest worldbuilding I’ve read in a YA book. This is a story brimming with mythology, lore, and history. There’s so much built into this world the author has created, and people who enjoy deep, inspired worlds would definitely appreciate this.

As incredible as the world was, I never felt like I could even begin to grasp the basics of it, let alone the intricacies. Terms, locations, jobs, guilds, creatures, events…they were just thrown out without much explanation. It was all very cool to read, but nearly impossible to understand. It’s sorta like starting a movie such as Avengers: Endgame right in the middle, without any prior Marvel experience. It looks and feels interesting, but you have no idea what’s happening. At all.

City of an Uncommon Thief is told from the perspective of Odd Thebes, a teenage boy who runs lines at the top of guildtowers. He’s also the self-proclaimed bard of Thebes Tower. However, the story is actually about his cousin Errol Thebes. Odd tells the story either from his own first-person perspective, or as a bard telling the third person perspective of Errol Thebes. Yes, it’s about as confusing as it sounds. While I appreciate the unique take on storytelling, it really only hindered the connections I felt to the characters, and their development.

The biggest issue with this book is how the plot is slow enough to feel like a first book, but the amount of unexplained aspects make it feel like a third installment in a series. I can’t properly review the plot, considering it relies on a deep knowledge of the world the author created. As it was, I was half-entertained, half-bored, and thoroughly lost.

There is definitely a lot of potential to be had with this author, considering the depth of the world created, and her captivating writing style.

First of all, I would like to thank Penguinteen for sending me an ARC through NetGalley!

I think what I really liked about this book was the writing and the world-building. It was rich in detail, and I felt that I could imagine every scene that was told in the book. The only thing that I wasn’t a big fan of was it got a little confusing at times, and I would find myself going back a few pages because I felt that I was missing something that was going on. Also, I would find that I would get a little bored during during some scenes. But other than that, I really liked the concept of this book, and the whole system. I feel that this is a book that I would like to revisit one day, and maybe it would make more sense.

This book comes out February 9, 2021 so mark your calendars! It was truly an interesting fantasy, and I can’t wait to revisit it in the future!

Final Rating: 3/5 Stars ⭐️

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

Unfortunately, I didn't particularly like it, mainly because it is extremely convoluted. I don't mind a story that is written in a fractured way, and that takes some thinking in order to fully grasp what is going on, but I felt that this one is unnecessarily convoluted. Even the world-building is a bit unclear. There's a city where people live in towers organized by some kind of craft guilds. There are some kind of orphan people called foundlings who live in the guild towers but also don't really belong to the guilds. And there is also a seedy underbelly of the city down on the streets that exists outside the guilds (sort of). It is very unclear exactly why anyone is doing what they are doing, and then at some point in the middle of the book, animals start coming out of people's chests. Once that started happening, I completely lost the thread of what had been happening in the first half, and the rest completely fell apart for me. In addition to the extremely convoluted plot, the characters really didn't do much for me either. I struggled the whole time to figure out what anyone's motivation was and how the characters fit together, and I don't think the resolution particularly made sense either, probably because the whole build-up didn't really make sense. I think there may have been some flashes of something interesting here and there, but it was lost in the convoluted story-telling and the haphazard character development.

I was really excited for this one but it didn’t deliver like i was expecting but overall a good read and still recommend.

It was a little confusing at times (it was hard to envision some things) but i enjoyed the world building a lot along with the prose.

Thanks penguin teen for allowing me to read this one!

DNF at 37%

Thank you to Penguin Teen for allowing me to have an advanced digital copy of this book. Unfortunately, it was just not for me. I tried to push through but I was supremely bored while reading. At one point everyone almost starves to death and I was actually rooting for that to happen so this book could be done.

The concept seems really cool but just not enough substance was there to keep me invested in the story. I also found all the characters to be extremely dull and self-centred which made it hard to root for them or read about them.

I tried to read this but just the first couple pages with all the different words for times of day, months, and guilds made this book waaay too confusing and hard to get into. Otherwise the premise sounded interesting, but it wasn't executed well Did not finish

This is such an enjoyable fantasy; I thought the inclusion of Norse and Greek myths were amazing, especially if you are already familiar with them. The characters are fascinating, and I think they were the strongest element of the book. The plot and world-building were fun to imagine and really set the mood for the beautiful fantasy setting.

I couldn't get into this book. I'm getting a Six of Crows vibe from it but I just can't seem to stay interested in it

A city is completely walled from the outlying world. Within the city, mile high towers are built for each guild. Each tower ships their product out to the greater land. Teens are the runners between these towers and live a highly dangerous and precarious life around these towers.
While the characters were interesting, I didn’t feel connected to any which made me care less for the story. A lot of time went into describing life on the towers for the runners and I feel a lot of it could’ve been cut out. It was much longer than necessary.
The writing was difficult to understand. It didn’t flow well and I had to reread many times to understand. The world building is rich and intricate but very difficult to imagine.
Thank you to Penguin Young Readers and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I just wasn’t the biggest fan of this one. It felt flat and I was a little let down. I’m
Hoping as the series goes on that it gets more fleshed out and can pick up.