Shannon Costello

The Thief (a Newbury Honor book) is the best YA novel I have read all year, closely followed by The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia, all novels by Megan Whalen Turner.  The fourth one in the series A Conspiracy of Kings just came out last week…I’m ninth on in the library’s request queue.

When I think a book is good enough, I tend to look for the author’s website.  When a book has totally fascinated me, I immediately read it again.  I read this one four times.  I dreaded starting the next two because I was sure they couldn’t possibly be as good, but I have read each of them twice as well- so far.

The plots are cleverly worked and the characters and the way their relationships with one another develop are compelling.  The author does a fabulous job of telling just enough to keep me interested.  An important event only comes to light because a character is dropping hints about it- Turner doesn’t sit down and describe the whole thing in chronological order.  I’m always curious about the characters and events in the story.

These are fantasy novels, of course, since I’m reading them (though I have recently discovered an exciting new sub-genre:  gardening mysteries.  Please don’t laugh too loud).  I was going to try to summarize the plot, but it is too easy to spoil the story, so I won’t.  I think I saw them described somewhere as stories of political intrigue.  Highly recommend- ages 12 & up.