Book Review - The Thief Knot

This is the third book in the popular Greenglass House series.  In this one, we're following Marzana, who is introduced to us in book 2, The Ghost Of Greenglass House.   Marzana lives in a section of the city of Nagspeake called The Liberty of Gammerbund, which functions as a self-ruling sanctuary, and is populated by thieves and criminals of the more Robin Hood type.  Good thieves, you know.  Fighting against the tyranny of customs agents Deacon  and Morvengarde.  Smugglers,  dealers in information,  forgers, magicians,  sneaks.

Marzana, however, seems to think nothing interesting ever happens to HER in the Liberty, and so when a girl from Nagspeake is kidnapped and rumors start that she's been hidden in the Liberty,  Marzana disobeys her parents instructions to stay safe, and puts together a crack crew of friends to find her.  They call themselves The Thief Knot.

This was probably my favourite of the Greenglass House books so far.  The Liberty is wonderfully magical and bizarre and the storyline is fantastic.   There is more language in this one than the other two, and also a kiss on the cheek, but nothing that couldn't be edited if you needed it to be.

In the previous two books in this series we've read a lot about Milo's struggles with his adoption and his panic attacks.  In this book, we get the interior life of Marzana,  who feels left out from her parents' other lives as smugglers and underground agents, and who also has social anxiety and a fear of saying the wrong thing.   The author never gives us pat answers about these mental health issues or relationship complications,  but somehow still keeps the stories moving forward and the characters showing growth. 

My only real issue with this story focuses on a scene where Marzana expresses herself to the rest of the Thief Knot, in a totally justified way, and yet the other characters end up 'trumping' her painful outburst with issues of their own.  It struck me as a little thoughtless. 

In short, we loved it!