Review: The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein

I'm trying to decide how I felt about this book. I'm still unsure. I have read a few books by this author now, and I have liked them all a whole lot. And I was pretty excited about reading this one, since it is the prequel to Code Name Verity. But, well, I didn't love it. Aw. And I'm so disappointed about that. But I did like it. Mostly.

I just had some things that I didn't like about it. I'm not sure how to describe it all. But I shall try. First I must admit to remember just about zero details about Code Name Verity. Gosh. It hasn't been that long since I read it. Okay, four years already, ack. And so I don't remember any of the details about the main girl. Hmph.

Which makes me so sad, because now I'm even more curious about her, having read this book. Hmph. Thinking about maybe re-reading it, but I'm not sure I would love it as much this time around, and I'm not really sure I want to read it again, with that ending. Ugh. But yeah, I did enjoy that earlier book a whole lot. But anyway. This one. I enjoyed the plot a whole bunch. I found the mystery to be all kinds of interesting and horrible and I liked reading about it so much. I just. I didn't like the romance. At all. I shall write more about that soon. But I did like Julie, for the most part. She was pretty sweet and I loved getting to know her. Her family was the best too. I adored them all. The other characters in this book were pretty interesting too, most of the time.

I'm giving this book three stars. Because I had some issues with it. Aw. But I also did enjoy the story. I found the mystery to be all kinds of awesome. I loved trying to figure out who it was that had hurt Julie, that made her lose her memory of it, and put her in the hospital for days. Wish it had focused more on that, but I enjoyed it even so. It was so interesting to read about. Loved reading about how she got hurt, and how she healed, and who helped her. It was pretty awesome to figure out. And written really well too.

I did like the writing in this book. It was easy to read. Though I didn't really understand some of the words at times. Hmph. But still, the writing was good. There is a second mystery in this book as well, because a man has gone missing. And that was all kinds of interesting to read about too. So many clues, yet not that easy to figure it all out even so. This book is a bit too much disgusting at times, lol, with how a dead body was found. Bothered me a little. It wasn't too bad, but yeah, just a little too many details about it all. Ack.

There are a bunch of things about this book that I enjoyed. Like the time period it was set in. So exciting and interesting to read about. And the place too. Sigh. It seemed like such an awesome place. And ahh, fishing for pearls. It sounded so amazing and I did enjoy reading about it a whole bunch. And reading about the Travellers too. I hated how they were treated by some people. It was horrible. But they were such amazing characters to read about. I loved getting to know all of them. They were pretty special.

There are so many people in this book. There is this one librarian. At times I hated her. But at times I really loved her too. She's a bit special, and I loved that about her. But gosh. Julie could be so mean about it at times. At least she understood when she was being mean, though, but yeah. It bothered me. Julie has a lot of brothers. We only get to read about two of them, but oh gosh, they were both awesome and sweet and I loved getting to know them too. I loved her mother and grandmother too. So awesome.

There are also two siblings that she gets to know. Ellen and Euan. I adored getting to read about them both and I loved them both so much. Was a bit harder to love Ellen, as she wasn't all that nice at first, but I did end up liking her a lot. I just wish we could have gotten to know Euan a whole bunch more. Sigh. I felt like he could have been such an amazing character, because of something that happens with him, but yeah, this book didn't have much about him at all, which was a bit disappointing. Aw. I did love them both.

Okay. So. Time to talk spoilers. About why I did not love this book. About why I'm so conflicted about my feelings for it. Sigh. I need to spoil about it, because I have to write about it, because it's bothering me. One thing that bothered me a lot in this book was the scenes of almost rape. Both Julie and Ellen almost gets raped. At different times, by different older men. It was all kinds of disturbing and I wish it hadn't been included. They weren't raped, but almost, and it wasn't good to read about. Made me so sad too.

And then there is the romance in this book. Or lack of romance, to be more correct. The ending isn't all that happy, but it is a good ending, I suppose, unless you know what happens in Code Name Verity. Haha. But yeah. The romance in this book wasn't very good. I mean, I loved that Julie likes boys and girls. But I hated beyond words that she kisses six different people in this book. And she also starts a relationship with a man above thirty, while she isn't yet sixteen. That is simply not okay It bothered me.

Sigh. Okay. Not sharing more about that. Just had to write my thoughts about it. Still giving this book a three star, though those issues of mine makes me want to give it two stars. Aw. Also because I found the book to be a little bit boring, but yeah. I did love a lot of the plot in this one, and so I feel like a three star is the best. Probably. I'm unsure. I wish this book had been better, though. But I also did like it for the most part; it was good. I think you should all read The Pearl Thief; as it was pretty interesting and mysterious.

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