Review: Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson
Overview:
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
I read Dance of Thieves a month ago and am just now getting to the review! Whoops! From what I can remember, this book had pretty stereotypical characters and some wonky past-tense narration. It also heavily relies on the reader having information from the author’s other series (information which I did not have), so it was harder to get through. The suspense at the end was pretty decent, though.
Content Warning:
Dance of Thieves contains familial death/loss, gore, violence, profanity, war, sexual content, child abuse, and poverty.
Book Description:
Dance of Thieves is a young adult fantasy. Jase is the new leader of the small but ancient land of Tor’s Watch. Kazi is an elite warrior sent by one of the larger kingdoms to investigate treaty violations in Jase’s territory. Each has their own missions, often at odds from one another. Unexpected events force them into close quarters with one another, and they must decide whether or not they want to join forces or keep serving their own interests.
On the World-Building:
This book takes place on a continent with multiple kingdoms. It’s obvious that the author has the beginnings of rich world-building with them, but she only references each one’s peoples, practices, and politics in passing. This may be because the Dance of Thieves Duology technically takes place in the same world as Pearson’s Remnant Chronicles. However, I feel that she relies too much on the reader will having prior knowledge from this other series. For someone like me who HASN’T read any of her other works, I struggled to keep up without the political and historical context that plays SUCH a heavy role in the characters’ lives.
On the Characters:
The main characters, Jase and Kazi, are incredibly one-dimensional. Jase is defined by his loyalty to his Kingdom and his family, while Kazi is singularly focused on avenging the ghosts of her past. I would have loved to see the main conflict of the story complicate these identities more, but they remained relatively stagnant even at the most climactic moments of the book.
On the Narration:
The narration of this book often defaults to the past tense while explaining important developments in the story. This had the overall effect of removing tension and action that would have been enjoyable to read.
On the Building of Suspense:
Out of the 500 pages in this book, the story remains slow for about 350 of them. Only towards the end of the novel does the plot’s pace really pick up, but when it does it’s hard to put down. The development in the final chapters introduce bucketfuls of new conflict and ends on a nail-biting cliff hanger. The overall suspense in the final moments of the book has convinced me to read the next book when I was originally considering not doing so.
On Who Might Enjoy Dance of Thieves (an incomplete list):
I recommend you read Dance of Thieves if you:
Are looking for a typical YA book with stereotypical tropes
Enjoy Enemies-to-Lovers
Have read Pearson’s Remnant Chronicles
Appreciate books with political intrigue
PLEASE NOTE: Image sources for the photo edit on this post can be found here.