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Aug 07, 2008

Laura rated it:

Hannah Tinti’s The Good Thief well deserves (and even invites) comparison with classic riproaring nineteenth-century adventure tales and orphan narratives. With an action-packed plot and a skillfully created universe, Tinti pulls her readers in to a story about stories—a tale in which the tale-tellers have power to create and re-create the past, all the while manipulating their futures.

Ren, missing a hand and a history, falls swiftly into the world of Benjamin Nab, who claims to be R More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2008

Elaine rated it:

Ren had no memory of his life before St. Anthony's. The only clues to his past is the initials REN sewn into the collar of his nightshirt and his missing left hand. One day a stranger, Benjamin Nab, comes to St. Anthony's looking for him, claiming to be his older brother, and reeling off a story of high adventure that explains both how Ren lost his hand and the reason he was left at St. Anthony's. However, Ren soon discovers that Benjamin Nab is not at all who he claims to be, but instead is More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Definitely a young adult novel, although not billed as such.
This is like a cross between a Charles Dickens hard luck tale and a Stephen King creepfest. There's a chunk in the middle where it dwells too long on the grave-robbing antics, but otherwise it's quite entertaining.
Worth reading just for the weird characters. There's Dolly(man with woman's name), the giant murderer who sleeps underneath the mattress. And Mrs. Sands, the very tall landlady who says everything at maximum v More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Betsy rated it:

This has lots of memorable characters and is chock full of violent and horrific plot points. Ultimately, I didn't feel that the narrative held together cohesively enough for me to highly recommend the book to other readers. I wanted to understand better why the main character Ren was so drawn to Dolly, the giant murderer or to Mrs. Sands. Why wasn't Mrs. Sands' dwarf brother's character more developed? What was the motivation behind the mousetrap girl known as Harelip's helping Benjamin and Ren? More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Margaret rated it:

A very enjoyable, almost pseudo-fantasy, kinda-sorta YA book. I avoided reading the inside cover and just dove into the book, not knowing a thing about it. This is an orphan escapes from his parentless, loveless world and lands amongst thieves, possibly with hearts of gold but likely not, sort of book. Definitely thinner than Dickens, but almost similar in feel. The time is ambiguous, but likely ~1800's, and the place is New England. The main character, the orphan boy, is appealing, and the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2008

Maren rated it:

This is a book that was almost oversold by the incredible praise on the cover. With comparisons to Dickens and Twain in the same breath, I was prepared to be disappointed by Hannah Tinti's debut novel, The Good Thief. However, I found that the characters and plot were compelling and she merits some of the comparison. The book feels Dickensian with it's one-handed, orphan hero, Ren who is whisked away from the monastic orphanage into a life of grave-robbing and thievery all while attempting to do More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

This Dickensian adventure story of an orphan boy who makes good by teaming up with a pair of grave robbers is a bit bleak in the telling, but more than makes up for it in the happily-ever-after ending (which is still realistic). Colorful characters enliven the 18th century setting and help the small bedraggled hero make his way in a confusing adult world. Accessible prose and a good eye for historical detail made the pages fly!

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Danaca rated it:

I had read a couple of good reviews about this book but it didn't live up to my expectations. I almost abandoned it when it didn't draw me in during the first chapters. I did complete it and I did become more interested in the story as it went on. It has an assortment of colorful characters and I was rooting for the main character by the end.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2008

Terrill rated it:

The reviews on the back all compare this to books by Robert Louis Stevenson or Charles Dickens. It does have that epic adventure story feel about it, but in only 200 pages it can't quite attain the scope of, say, Great Expectations. An enjoyable book, though.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

karen rated it:

I finished (an ARC copy of) The Good Thief three days ago, and have been struggling with the review. Objectively I know there's nothing new here, but the writing is so up my alley and the atmosphere of the novel is so well put-together that I want to rave and rave over it.

Tinti's main character is an orphan named Ren. It's not giving too much away to say he's a minor thief, and he's adopted early on in the book by a man whose motives are unclear at first, but quickly show themselves to More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Jane rated it:

Wow. I found this to be a real page-turner--just had to find out what would happen next to Ren. I fully agreed with the "back-cover" reviewers who compared Tinti's work here to Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson; reminiscent of that type of thing (and a little bit so of, say, "Tom Jones" and "Tristram Shandy") but still with its own tone and viewpoint. I loved the twists and turns in this, and could really picture the various characters quite vividly. Co More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

Gail rated it:

Despite all the rave reviews, I found this book to be only so-so. Hannah Tinti's prose is excellent, and she certainly paints vivid scenes and characters. However, we've seen a good many of these characters before, in other books: the innocent Oliver Twist like orphan taken in by thieves; the wiley, intelligent, and good-looking thief/con-man and his drunken sidekick; the giant with the deadly hands and the heart/mind of a child, fiercely loyal to the boy who has befriended him; the motherly inn More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2008

Barbara rated it:

This story had such promise. From the back cover: “Bejamin Nab appears one day at the orphanage where Ren has spent the 11 years of his young life. Convincing the monks he is Ren’s long-lost brother, Benjamin sweeps the boy away into a vibrant world of adventures, filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves. But is Benjamin Nab really who he claims to be? As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage, he comes to suspect that Benjamin holds the key not only to More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Dennis rated it:

To seriously compare this to Dickens, Twain or Stevenson is like saying Taco Bell is great Mexican food. Dickensian in that there are unexpected, hidden benefactors and dangerous, illegal undertakings by a young orphan but it's shallow as a dishpan, don't expect any scope or depth. I found this in the new book section of my library, maybe it should have been in the teens or kids section. (I would say it was written to a junior high level) Never could figure out what the era of the book was, o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 04, 2009

Teen rated it:

A dark, atmospheric adventure yarn in the style of Robert Lewis Stevenson and Mark Twain. Ren is a 12 year-old orphan who arrived at St. Anthony's Orphanage for boys as a young child and missing his left hand. He's been trying to solve the mystery of its loss and his parentage ever since. When Benjamin Nab arrives at the orphanage and claims Ren as his younger brother, Ren thinks he might start to learn some answers about his past. But Benjamin is not who he seems, and Ren has many adventures, s More...

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Feb 12, 2009

Schuyler rated it:

Another book I was forced to read because of a book club. If I read one more review that compares Tinti to Charles Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson, I'm gonna...well, I guess I just mentioned them too. I agree with one reviewer who said that it seems that Tinti couldn't decide whether to make this a young adult or adult novel. It feels more adult than young adult, but doesn't go far enough to shed that young adult audience. It was a fairly dark book, all things considered, but remained ligh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Banafsheh rated it:

Set in New England in the 19th century, ‘The Good Thief’ is the story of a twelve year old, one-handed orphan, Ren.
Ren has been an orphan at the Saint Anthony’s Monastery as long as he remembers. His parentage and his missing hand had always remained a mystery which Ren struggled to solve. He dreamt of a day that he would one day be part of a loving family.
Ren’s dreams appeared to have come truewith the arrival of a stranger, Benjamin Nab who claims to be his older brother but turns More...

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Dec 19, 2008

Rossrn rated it:

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti has some very interesting characters, and it was a pretty decent read, but I felt the ending left something to be desired.

The story is about an orphan Ren, who longs to know his history. One day Benjamin comes to the orphanage and claims the boy as his long lost younger brother.

It turns out Benjamin is a thief and soon Ren is taught how to be a thief as well.

The pair join Benjamin's regular partner Tom. While robbing a grave, o More...

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Oct 21, 2011

David rated it:

Rarely have I read a book that was so magical without any actual magic or fantasy in it. In fact, rarely have I read a book that was as intriguing as this one. I cannot remember giving a book a rating of five stars, though I may have, it is that rare. This book truly deserves the high rating I granted it.

Ren is an orphan being raised in a poor Catholic orphanage for boys in New England in the nineteenth century. (I was unable to pin the actual decade down, but it was after 1818 w More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Geenyas rated it:

A passable first attempt at a YA book, perhaps, but I'm listening to the audio version and I can't get around the atrocious reader. The reader's attempt at "voices" is uneven at best, over-the-top and cartoonish most of the time. A closer inspection of the liner notes indicates that his previous experience includes supplying the voice of "Builder Bob" for the animated children's series -- I think he has confused the two efforts. The voice talent aside, the story didn't grab m More...

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Jun 29, 2011

Mitch rated it:

When I began "The Good Thief" by Hannah Tinti I expected it to live up to the rave reviews and was hoping for a comeback of the Dickens style of novel. And because this book didn't live up to those expectations I was forced to give it a basic 3 stars.

The following may or may not contain spoilers.

The story is about a one-handed boy named Ren who has lived his life in an orphan home for boys wondering about his origins. Then one day a handsome stranger named Benj More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Lauren rated it:

I’d heard good things about this tale of a one-armed orphan adopted by a man claiming to be his brother. I’ve read two similar books in the past year – orphan adopted by ne’er do wells for nefarious schemes, although both of those were targeted to children – and this one paled in comparison to those, which both had their faults but were charming. This plot is engaging (if predictable) and some of the characters are fun, but that’s true of many books. Here, the violence was unnecessarily graphic More...

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May 31, 2011

Alvi rated it:

Several reviewers refer to this tale as "Dickensian" and I have to agree. It stars a young boy, Ren, an orphan who is adopted by a con man, Benjamin, because Ren is missing one hand. Benjamin makes up any number of stories about the missing hand, and uses the sympathy of others to take their money. He soon learns that Ren has a way with stealing in any case, and is glad he doesn't have to teach him that particular skill.

So we start to think of Oliver Twist and others. This st More...

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May 18, 2011

John rated it:

I'm a fan of the old-fashioned picaresque novel -- the kind of tale in which, as in (say) most of Dickens's early stuff, the end doesn't depend too much on the beginning, even though the course from beginning to end is a logical or at least comprehensible one. (Most of our lives are picaresque in structure.) Recently a few authors seem to have rediscovered the picaresque mode, and one of these is Hannah Tinti.

Ren's stuck in a late-19th-century northeastern orphanage and unlikely ever More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Paul rated it:

If you are looking for something different to read that has everything in it that you could possibly want, pick up this book.

A young boy named Ren is left at a monastery as a baby. He is missing one of his hands and finds that he is not suitable for adoption. Well, that is until a man by the name of Benjamin comes to the monastery and claims him as his brother.

Benjamin takes him frokm the monastery and immediately introduces him to the world of liars and thieves. Benja More...

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Jan 10, 2011

Wendy rated it:

Wow, what a mistake I made, picking up this book as a "fun" read between semesters. I read it on the plane, and worked hard to suspend my mounting suspicion that this was a dreadful excuse for literature, "Dickensian" literature no less. I mean, according to the cover, this is a "New York Times Notable Book of the Year". It even won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize and the Alex Award. The most obvious explanation for my disappointment? I am a huge snob.
More...

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Sep 07, 2010

Sydney Y. rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 19, 2010

Rebekah rated it:

Baby Ren is left at an orphanage in New England with one shirt to his name and a missing arm; the true origins of all three are a complete mystery. With impending military conscription on the horizon, Ren is adopted one day by Benjamin Nab, a man claiming to be his long-lost brother. Though the situation seems questionable, Ren is released to Nab’s custody. Almost immediately, Ren realizes that Nab is not what he seems.

Although Ren has misgivings about the lying and thievery under More...

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May 12, 2010

Paula rated it:

‘The Good Thief’ tells the story of Ren, abandoned as a baby and left at the gates of St. Anthony’s orphanage. Ren’s left hand is missing and the only thing that remains is a scar where the flesh was turned over and sewn, an act of kindness that Ren does not remember. The only item that Ren owns from his past is a piece of collar from the night-shirt he was wearing when he was abandoned, sewn on the collar in dark blue thread is simply his name, ‘Ren’

Ren lives his life the best way h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Diana rated it:

Fun, quick read that I enjoyed at the time but had forgotten I'd read two weeks later – that may say more about my memory than the book, but...

An engaging story about a one-armed boy raised in a Catholic orphanage in New England in, um, some time in the past? Adopted by a man who claims to be his brother, he is taken under the wing of two con-artist grave-robbers. The main action takes place in a spooky town where all the men have been buried underground as part of a mining accident More...

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