Story Thieves
The Story Thieves series, Book 1
James Riley
Simon & Schuster
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Humor
Themes: Books, Creative Power, Cross-Genre, Cyborgs, Girl Power, Magic Workers, Portal Adventures, Thieves
****+
Description
The real world is boring. That's why Owen prefers books, tales of magic and adventure that let him live other
lives and imagine what it must be like to be a hero himself. His favorite, of course, is the popular Kiel
Gnomenfoot fantasy series. The final book is due out soon, and he just can't wait to see how it all ends -
especially after that terrible cliffhanger at the end of the sixth book, where the wise mentor Magister was
killed by his arch-enemy Dr. Verity. If only he could step into Gnomenfoot's world, help the now-mentorless
apprentice save the day... but it's just a book, and he's just a boy, and nothing interesting or adventurous,
let alone heroic, ever happens to him.
Then he sees his odd classmate Bethany step out of a library book.
Bethany lets him in on a secret: she's half-fictional, giving her the ability to step into any printed page.
Her father was actually from a storybook, but he disappeared when she was young, and though her mother has
forbidden her, Bethany's been searching the fictional worlds for him ever since. She swears Owen to silence,
and insists they never speak, of this or anything else, ever again.
But Owen's not about to let this chance go. Now he can finally live his fantasy of being in a story... and
maybe changing it, so the Magister doesn't have to die (and he can be a hero, one that millions of people will
read about). Though Bethany warns him of the dangers of interacting with fictional characters, or changing
stories in any way, Owen is determined... until everything goes wrong, endangering not only Kiel Gnomenfoot's
world, but Owen's Earth as well.
Review
Story Thieves is far from the first book to explore the idea of worlds within books, how real a
story can seem when it comes alive in our minds, how it feels like we actually get to know the places and the
people. I think most of us have wanted to disappear into an imaginary world at some point (just as most of us
may have fantasized about being heroes or heroines, or simply being friends with the cool characters we read
about). Yet there's more to this book than simple wish fulfillment.
Owen, as average a boy as one can imagine, becomes singularly obsessed with the idea of entering his favorite
fantasy world from the moment he realizes it's possible - not just to see all the awesome stuff, but to get
everything he feels deprived of in reality: adventure, excitement, recognition, even a cool best friend like
Kiel Gnomenfoot. He seems just a trifle old to cling to some of his ideas as long and as hard as he does; one
might think a boy who has read as much as he has understands that sometimes characters need to go through dark
times and low points to earn their victories. But daydreams can be powerful stuff, and it takes some truly
hard knocks to shake loose their grip even after he messes up. Bethany, meanwhile, has a somewhat ambivalent
relationship with books, understandable given that her father came from them and seems to have abandoned her
and the real world to return to them; he willed himself out of a story to meet her mother, or so she's heard
all her life, so why can't he will himself back to visit his daughter? Still, she searches everywhere for him,
through every story, and in doing so has become exceptionally cautious lest she change anything or be noticed,
by characters or readers. When Owen completely ignores her rules, she has to learn to start taking some risks
herself - especially when his screw-up leaves a dangerous wizard on Earth, one who is very upset about the
idea that not only might he not truly exist, but that some mysterious "writer" has organizing his many
tragedies merely to entertain others. Thus begins the adventure, which becomes two adventures running in
parallel: as Owen must try to fix his mistakes in Kiel's world, Bethany's on Earth trying to stop a man
wielding impossible powers.
A strong vein of humor runs throughout, with numerous self-aware moments and winks and nods to plot tropes,
yet underneath that runs real emotion and some unexpected depth. By the end, everyone has changed to some
degree - even fictional characters (and writers). This is a story that avoids the simple or obvious and
generally reaches a few branches beyond the low-hanging fruit, in a way that ultimately earned it a half-mark
above a Good rating.