The Thief Lord

Next on the Novel Predictions list was The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, which is a middle grade book about two young boys who run away from their aunt to hide in Venice. Tonally and atmospherically, it was difficult to get a handle on. It felt very old-fashioned and I originally thought it was set in the 1800s, so I was surprised when the tourists in Venice had mobile phones and cameras. It had a good range of characters and a reasonably intriguing plot, but the adults didn't act like adults and the ways in which things got resolved seemed unbelievable for a modern setting. The one girl in the gang was always given the caretaking role and was very much marginalised towards the end. The story also took quite a shift, with the magical element not being even mentioned until halfway through and then not actually manifesting until about 80 pages before the end. Then the ways in which everything got wrapped up were very silly. So, not a massive success compared to my other recent reading experiences, but then I'm 30 years older than the target audience, so I guess I shouldn't expect the book to work that well for me.