Book Review | The Thief of Farrowfell

Welcome to a fantasy world where edible magic is the hottest commodity, traded between those who can pay or – in the case of Jude Ripon, the youngest thief in Farrowfell – those who can steal it!

An epic debut series from a FAB Prize winner. Twelve-year-old Jude Ripon has never been taken seriously by her family of magic-stealing masterminds. To them, she’s just the youngest, only good for keeping watch while they carry out daring heists. Desperate to prove her worth, Jude decides to steal valuable magic from the fanciest house in town . . . But Jude’s stolen prize was protected by a curse which threatens to wreak havoc on the family business.

While attempting to untangle the mess she’s made (and wondering why anyone would want to curse an honest thief trying to earn a living), Jude discovers just how far her family will go to stay at the top of the criminal world. Suddenly, her quest to become a true Ripon isn’t straightforward any more . . . -Waterstones

Huge thank you to Faber & Faber for sending me a proof copy of this novel! I love the beginning of new middle grade fantasy series, so I was very keen to jump into this new world.

The magical world-building that Ravena has done in this novel is excellent. This is a unique form of magic where you have to ingest the magic for it to do anything, which is not something I have come across before, either in adult or children’s novels.

In this novel we follow Jude, who is the youngest member of the Ripon family, who are basically a mafia-style family that steal and deal magic. She doesn’t feel that she is taken seriously by any of them, so to prove her metal she decides to steal some rare magic from another magical family. Little does she know that the magic she has stolen comes with a curse upon it!

I think what let this novel down for me was the characters themselves. I couldn’t really warm to Jude, she seemed very two dimensional at times, and very whiney! However this is just personal preference, others may enjoy her voice!

The other characters could’ve done with a little more developing too, Jude’s sister is a fascinating character who we only scratch the surface of. Jude pairs up with Fin and Eri, siblings from a rival family. Again I would’ve liked a little more development of their characters and backstories, but it’s a short novel!

The plot flies along at a very fast pace, the action just keeps coming! I enjoyed this element, it made the novel a very quick read. It seems the narrative takes place over just a couple of days, which is definitely a strength of Ravena’s writing, this novel is full of action. The humour Ravena threads through the novel is perfectly pitched, keeping the novel light in serious moments.

I think the novel starts slow, the ending didn’t fill me with enthusiasm to continue reading but the novel definitely improves as it goes on. I enjoyed the novel and I am interested to see where Ravena takes the series from here.

Thank you for reading my Book Review of The Thief of Farrowfell. Have you read it? Is it on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

Buy The Thief of Farrowfell from Waterstones or Bookshop.org

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