Little Thieves The astonishing fantasy fairytale retelling of The Goose Girl

A retelling of the Goosegirl, in which our main character, Vanja, is sold by her mother to two Low Gods. She learns to lie, to steal, to pretend, to be anyone but herself. All because she wants to have a life of freedom. Caught in the act, she receives a curse mirroring her greed, eating her alive. Bit by bit, she learns that only herself is not enough to save her, no matter how hard she tries. But can she let her guard down enough to accept the help she desperatly needs but never wants? I quite enjoyed the book, although at times I found it really hard to root for Vanja. Of course, its a front she puts up, but at times it was put on so thickly, it got annoying at times. Still, the plot was intruiging and seeing the ways she tried to outrun her own faith were nice to follow. I must also admit that Emeric was the saving grace of this story for me. The way the two of them interacted, their constant back and forth with their banter was entertaining while also infuriating at exactly the correct moments. My biggest issue was the use of german/germanic words in parts of the book. I get that it was based on a german fairytale and it was supposed to be more immersive but being fluent in german, took away some of that magic. Some words were not written correctly etc, which I chalk up to the possibilty of the way its being written in the book making it more easily pronouncable for people whose first language is english so that the words end up being closer to the actual german pronounciation. All in all, I ended being able to glance over it, as it is an issue I know is somewhat specific to me haha