It's been nearly two years since Vanja brought down the cult she started, and she’s still paying the price. As the Pfennigeist, she bucks the law in order to help the desperate and haunt the corrupt all across the empire—and no matter what, she works alone.
But an impossible killer is tearing through royalty, and leaving Vanja’s signature red penny on every victim. Suddenly the Pfennigeist is no longer a folk hero but a nightmare. When even the Blessed Empress falls, the empire’s seven royal families must gather to elect her successor within a matter of weeks, or risk the collapse of reality itself… even though it puts every house in the killer’s sights.
Vanja tells herself she’s wading into the royalty’s vicious games only to save the name she made, and the loved ones also in jeopardy. But the Order of Prefects has also put their sharpest official on the case, the one who swore he’d always find Vanja—until she broke his heart. Journeyman Prefect Emeric Conrad may no longer be the boy Vanja knew, but they’ll have to work together one last time to have any chance of surviving the deadly catastrophe coming for them all.
With bloody conspiracy, sinister magic, and old adversaries closing in, it will take everything Vanja has to save not just the people she loves, but the future she’s fought for. In this thrilling final chapter of the Indie Next series Little Thieves, New York Times-bestselling author Margaret Owen shows us the pain and beauty of choosing which demons to face, and which to forgive.
Oh, how badly I wanted to enjoy this one! I love fairytale retellings, and Margaret has used the Goose Girl tale to build her own universe on. These are complex characters with real lives in a world that feels complete, and that clearly a lot of work has gone into.
Here's where all my problems start. Little Thieves, the first one, came out in October 2021. Painted Devils was May 2023. That's a year and a half between those, and nearly two between Devils and this current one. I don't remember anything that happened! I had a general idea of the two main characters, and I read the blurb. In story, there's also a gap of eighteen months between Devils and Thieves, and I couldn't figure out whether things referred to in the past tense happened in that gap, or if I just didn't remember them happening. Vanja has a blood family now? She had a relationship with Benno? I really wish that recaps were more common in fantasy fiction - I've never met a reader who wouldn't give their left arm for them to be accepted, but the writers and publishers won't do it!
I kept reading because I love the writing style and the way German folklore is woven into the high fantasy setting - we have kobolds in this one! (Though maybe we already did before - I honestly don’t remember.) I also wanted to see Vanja get her (hopefully happy) ending. The length, combined with what seems to be a newly introduced multiverse (unless I just forgot it from the earlier books), nearly defeated me. That said, I really enjoyed the idea of Vanja’s alternate selves helping her in the end, and I’m glad I stuck with it - the clever tricks and engaging storytelling made it worth the effort.
I love the cover, which matches beautifully with the rest of the series, and the chapter headings, which had small, stained-glass style illustrations. I'd love to see those reproduced in colour at some point, as they really are beautiful.
Do I recommend this? Absolutely - it's well worth a read. Just, by all the low gods and high, read all three in sequence - don't let too long go by inbetween them!
Book Recommendation: The gold standard of Goose Girl retellings is The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, but my recommendation is another of her novels - The Book of a Thousand Days. Based on the obscure folktale Maid Maleen, this is a wonderful, vaguely Mongolian-flavoured story of love and redemption.
TV Recommendation: A lesser known series, but universally beloved, Jim Henson's Storyteller. The Muppet creator brings all his talent and a who's who of British acting at the time to recreate lesser known folktales, mostly from the Germanic regions. It's a wonderful series, and you'll enjoy recognising people before they were famous. The second series, covering Greek mythology, is shorter but still features that Henson magic.
Note: Some stories covering the 18-month gap were posted on AO3, though there’s no mention of them in the book itself. If you’re feeling lost, it might be worth seeking them out!
Holy Terrors publishes on the 1st of April, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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