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?...

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...

Somewhere in the 1800’s in New England, a monastery was established with a statue on the grounds of St. Anthony, the patron saint of the recovery of anything lost. The monastery became an orphanage and also a winery. Some of the ‘lost’ children may have been recovered by family, but some were adopted, and others who were deemed too old for adoption were conscripted into the army.Ren is one of the many orphans or unwanted babies who are passed through the small door affixed to the main entrance a...

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book. Set in New England in the late 1800s, Ren is a 12 year old boy who was left in an orphanage when he was an infant and is missing his left hand. One day a man named Benjamin Nab comes to claim him telling a wild tale about how Ren is his long, lost brother. The friars have no idea if the story is true, but they don't mind getting rid of one more orphan - so Ren is out the door with Benjamin Nab. Benjamin and his partner Tom are pretty much...

A recent piece in the New York Times asked whether adult women could ever read like girls: fully immersed, draped over any convenient surface, oblivious to the outside world, glued to the book in hand. This is a book that made me read like a girl. I haven't enjoyed a book so fully since I was about 12.

A wonderful tale with beautifully crafted characters. Just plain wonderful

I was not sure about this book, but I did enjoy it. I liked the rough around the edges characters, the genuine friendships, the false appearing friendships. It was a story that never seemed to falter following the hard lives of the times. It was not totally predictable and kept my interest until the end.

This was a book I saw Richard Russo recommend in an interview. I’m glad I made a note of it. How can you not like a story about a smart, one-handed orphan kid and his adventures with a cast of mysterious lowlifes in the 1800’s? Tinti tells it well. She managed to sneak in some thoughts on loyalty, commitment and morality, too. The pages turned all too well, even as I was dodging fellow commuters on my walk to work.

Don't believe anyone who tells you anything good about this book. The reviews on the back cover will be the first lies you'll have to ignore. This book belongs in a trash can. You should thank me, because I've done the hard work of reading it so you don't have to.The Good Thief (aka, The Bad Book) is meant to be a historical fiction novel for adults that tells the coming-of-age story of a 12 year-old orphan boy who learns to live with a pair of rough and tumble thieves in early 1800s America. So...

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 Ren’s older b...

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, one

Twelve-year-old Ren is an orphan with a missing hand. How he lost that hand is a mystery, as he was abandoned at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys when he was an infant, without any note or identifying marks, save for embroidered REN inside the gown he was wearing. Occasionally a man will come to choose a boy, but Ren is never chosen. Until one day when a man appears, claiming to be Ren’s brother. Benjamin’s plausible story of how Ren lost his hand convinces Father John and Ren leaves the orpha...

The Good Thief was an excellent read. In it a boy of just a few weeks of age was brought to an orphanage called ST. Anthony's. Here he grew up being badly abused by the Father and dreaming of the day he would be adopted. This young man was deformed, however. His Mother had cut his hand off so it made it almost impossible for him to be adopted. Finally he was adopted and lived a crazy dangerous life style as a thief and grave robber. I will not tell the ending but it was amazing. I recommend all

Jaline's wonderful reiview of this book reminded me that I had read it when first published and before I set up my GR account. Copletely agree with Jaline. It has an amazing Dickensian narrative and feel to it. I must read this again! 5 stars.

I can not believe that this book was even published let alone that it won an award that gained the author ten grand. I think it may be the worst book I have ever read.The writing was sophomoric, if that advanced. There was no character development there was no logic, and there was no context to the ridiculous and absurd story. There is nothing in this tale that makes any sense whatsoever.The author has failed to create anything realistic in this story. She offers details that might give the read...

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 volume, even whe...

It is New England sometime in the 1800’s. St. Anthony’s monastery is a de facto orphanage for lost boys. It smells of boiled fish, and the orphaned boys who live there are lice ridden and perpetually hungry. Ren was left on the grounds there as a wee baby, found wrapped in a blanket and missing his left hand. Now a young lad of ten or so, he and his fellow orphans have been raised after a fashion by Brother Joseph, who direly portends that bad luck always follows anything that’s good, bad things...

many thanks to the gr giveaways program for this free book.let me just say that i don't read historical adventures. like, ever. i just don't. so you see, this is very anomalous for me. when i entered the giveaway i must have heard terrific things about this book because i don't read historical adventures. petty thieves, highwaymen, hardscrabble robbers, little orphans, and horse and carriages are simply not in my libidinal purview. but then....then, i started this book and finished it in like tw...

Ren is 12, lives in an orphanage and is missing one hand. He has no hope for leaving the orphanage until he is enlisted in the military. Until a man who claims to be his brother comes for him. Chaos and adventures ensue. It was a very satisfying read.

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 a s...