Remember in college when you heard that song from Gypsy Kings? Maybe it was later in life when you discovered that 99 Luftballons was just the tip of Nena’s catchy rock/pop German catalogue. Your kids are into KPOP or J-rock and you probably don’t understand any of those lyrics. The comprehension is low to none, but you can enjoy it just the same. The Underwild: Relic of Thieves has something in common with all of that music for the uninitiated reader.
Making things more complicated is the fact that Relic of Thieves is the second book in The Underworld series. The uninitiated, in this case are those who know very little about Greek Gods. Lots of upper-elementary and middle school readers are not in that camp. If anything, they don’t need the trading cards or the family flow chart. They know who was spurned by whom, their siblings, the strained family relationships and hierarchy of each. And if they don’t know it by memory, it surely won’t be the first time that they’ve heard of them.
Even for the uninitiated, author Shana Targosz does a fine job of laying down context clues for those might’ve missed or been asleep during Greek Gods 101. The Graeae is mentioned several times in Relic of Thieves. The book let me know what their role in the story is so that I completely understood it. However, it was only when I researched them separately that I put together more allusions. The three witches, or sisters as they were sometimes called in Macbeth share a lot in common with the Graeae. They weren’t Graeae in reality, but they were commonly associated with them.
Relic of Thieves is a very fast moving chapter book. The chapters are around nine chapters and usually end on a cliffhanger. If they don’t end in that manner then they end with one of the characters saying “Let’s go find the crystal!” or ”…and then a giant raven grabbed them in its claws”.
They never end on a device that gives readers a chance to catch their breath. They never stop on a plot point that’s not interesting or provides some reason for young readers to stop with the book. The act of reading, especially when you’re a young reader, requires a degree of inertia, or Newton’s First Law of Motion.
Relic of Thieves uses all sorts of literary hooks to keep young readers engaged. Younger readers who aren’t initiated will never be bored, but they may need a refresher on where the character fits in the bigger scheme of the story. Older readers might roll their eyes in frustration when Anya complains once too often about her brother. However, that’s a minor wrinkle in an otherwise smooth story, and it’s only noticeable to middle school readers.
Anya is a typical middle school student whose world is about to change. Her best friend is moving far away. The new girl in her grade, Senka, is a little bit different and lives near the park in the odd house that the neighborhood kids make fun of. It’s the typical witch house, except in this case, special beings who have access to other dimensions really do live there. One day Anya is being too nosey and peering through Senka’s window. She sees them using a set of antique keys that reveal doors to places that magically appear. Anya steals the keys and magically brings her friend back to her, but it comes at a price. A new dimension of Greek Gods, monsters and beings that she vaguely remembers from her studies are now real and interacting with her in the realm of the Dead.
If you read the River of Spirits, The Underwild #1 you will love Relic of Thieves. The first book focused on Senka and her story. This second book in the series has her as a very influential supporting character. Relic of Thieves is Anya’s show, with a tour guide that readers met and liked in the first book. Those people already know Senka. The joy for the initiated will be discovering someone who stumbles into her world. How will they react? From a reader’s perspective, that’s a fun difference that you don’t see often in books. If you’re an upper-elementary school kid who likes to ready, you’ll dig Relic of Thieves. It’ll skew mainly to girls, but in theory, any reader in that age group will gamely follow along if they give it a chance.
The Underwild: Relic of Thieves is by Shana Targosz and available on Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
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