Holy Terrors is the final book in the Little Thieves trilogy and it picks up well over a year after Vanja dismantled (sort of) the cult she managed to accidentally create after a drunken night out. And this being Vanja, she’s still completely unable to keep herself out of trouble. There ’s not a lot of detail as to what Vanja has been up to since the last book, but we’re given some hints to it being a bit messy—not out of character for her. But currently, Vanja is working hard to bring the legend of the Pfennigeist to life. (Metaphorically. This is still meant to be a ghost-persona, after all.) And this time around, she seems to have truly embraced the idea of acting as a Robin Hood-style figure. Rather than the self-serving one she was in Little Theives.
She is also currently single; what happened there? An act of self-sabotage? Again, would’t be out of character.
But there is a killer on the loose, and not only are they picking off royalty, they’re leaving little hints that these murders are linked to the Pfennigeist, meaning Vanja is about to find herself in some very hot water; without it actually being her fault this time! So this of course means the Prefects are being called in to investigate, and with that comes Emeric Conrad and a reunion that Vanja is probably not really ready for.
But something very strange is going on; something that started when the Pfennigeist embraced her love of performing good deeds, and it revolves around belief. Vanja has done so much sneaky good. recently that the general public has started to think that the Pfennigeist is an actual ghost, and with the power of belief comes a source of actual power, leading to Vanja accidentally pulling off some supernatural feats.
But there is a flip side to this; the increasingly scared nobility are starting to suspect that the Pfennigeist might be a magical serial killer. And whoever committed those initial murders? They’ve done so under some really locked-room kinds of scenarios. So they too may be assisted by a touch of the supernatural, just like Vanja. Which is going to make the hunt for their real identity all the harder.
Then, to make matters worse, the Blessed Empress is murdered, and everything is thrown into chaos.
I can’t say too much more without spoilers, but Margaret Owen has chosen a very ambitious direction to take Holy Terrors that put a lot of focus on the choices young people make as they grow up. And we are repeatedly asked the question: can you be forgiven for bad choices? Some of this works quite well, but other parts fall a little flat; in particular, some of the revelations made in Painted Devils felt a little underutilized. Which is a little frustrating, as I see where they could have been pulled in here.
And then there is the love triangle, which just goes to reinforce the fact that I am not really the target audience here—I don’t really fit into the ‘young’ part of the Young Adult. And this is why I was not at fussed with what was going on. All three characters involved are lovable enough, but it is still clear that everyone involved is still very, very immature. And at least two of the three are carting around so much emotional baggage with them that QANTAS is frantically issuing excess luggage charges left, right and centre.
If you’re willing to dive into some spoilers, I’ll make a quick aside here about the restraints of writing under the Young Adult umbrella:
Oh gods, I knew it wasn’t ever going to happen but I was really hoping that Emeric and Lilje did not break up over Vanja? I know that she is meant to be our lovable protagonist, and she and Emeric had had what seemed a good relationship, but even lovable main characters should probably resolve their shit before it spreads even further over everyone else. And I would have loved the subversion; you could still have a good relationship with your first love, but your first love needn’t be your only one.
Also I really vibed with Lilje right from her introduction and feel she really deserved better.
But this is YA! Which is known for its somewhat virulent online culture. Could you imagine the fall out if Owen had gone and done that? She would never hear the end of it.
And while I’m hiding under the white out—I wasn’t buying Ozkar’s motivations here at all. I also couldn’t quite understand why we saw so little of the rest of the family? I feel there is too much left unsaid here.
I do think the end ties up quite well here for the end of the trilogy, but of all three books, I think the first one, Little Thieves, still comes out on top. The plot is just so much tighter in the first book than the subsequent two.
For cbr18bingo, this one is Steal. Why? Because someone’s trying to steal the Blessed Empire of Almandy
