Review: "The Return of the Thief" by Megan Whalen Turner

*screaming* *intensifies* *add balloons* *and confetti* *deep breath*. Okay. This book. 

Things I did while reading it for the first time:
Yelled
Stomped
"Argh"ed
Stomped more
Practiced "It's Quiet Uptown" on the piano and aggressively projected E + A onto it.
Pounded on the walls
Woke up my dad by pounding on the walls
Drank tea. Aggressively.
Also ate popcorn. Which felt very appropriate, tbh.
Freaked out. A lot.
Did not cry. (But almost. Nice try, emotions. I'm on to you.)

Reader, it was excellent. 

I'm going to try to keep the hidden spoilers in this review minimal, and just be vague and excited, but two things:

1. I may have spoilers for other books. I'll try to keep that to a SERIOUS minimum, but please keep that in mind. Go read the other books. 

2. If you've read it, please try to keep spoilers out of the comments as much as possible--vague discussion/excitement is ok! And if you want to talk about it in more detail, please email me! My email is HERE. (Seriously--it will make my week if someone who has read it emails me and we can talk about it.)

Okay. Stopping the screaming, gonna do an actual review now. Hopefully.

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Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike.

(Shortest. Blurb. Ever. Gotta love Megan Whalen Turner, and her "Not Telling" policy.)

Worldbuilding/Writing Style
I mean...I talked about the overall writing style in THIS post, but it really only gets better. And the worldbuilding! Alternate Greece! Yaaasssss! Seriously--she does an excellent job of modifying a time period, and adding the details that give it verisimilitude, and the politics that make it true-to-life. And as a side note on worldbuilding--I really love how she includes disabled characters as major-ish characters! But in alternate Greece! 

Plot
I can't say anything about this that isn't spoilers? But I mean...wow. There were several large surprises (not as large as in other books...but I had NO idea where the plot was going, and it made me extremely anxious) and a bunch of small ones. The POV character was extremely well-chosen, and the POV was engaging. And while it was a serious book, there were a bunch of sweet scenes mixed in...and the ending! The ending! The ending! K, going to stop now. 

Characters
As always, consistent, amazing, exactly what they would do, wow. The depth of the characters is astounding, and the POV character is just...*chef's kiss* He and A are my spirit animals. We see all the characters we love (some of them in more major roles than others) and they don't disappoint. A couple of people die. And I can't say anything more. 

Romance
The. Romances. My. Word. MWT makes her romances VERY clear where they are important, and wow, the E + A and S + H are just...gorgeous. Wow. And the little sweet things...and E + A's angriness, but H's perfect analysis...loving it so much. I love this. I am A all of the time. It's fine. Everything is fine. *cries*

There was one bit, pretty clearly but obliquely stated (this description will literally make sense to only MWT fans) where there's a...relationship I don't approve of. I'll hide the descriptive word in this *spoiler* homosexual relationship *end spoiler*.
This is irritating...but since it's not gratuitously spread through any OTHER relationships at all (including the ones I was worried about--dodged a bullet!), and is the only one, it seems kind of realistic to the court atmosphere of that age (I mean--some minor characters have mistresses, which I don't approve of either)...and the relationship actually obviously occurs because of emotional dysfunctionality on the part of both those characters. So there's that. #mytwocents

Content
Umm...there are actual spoilers in the content. I shall be extremely vague: Injuries (some graphic, some not), death (some graphic, some not), some inuendo (non-graphic). 

Overall Rating
Five stars! Of course! There is literally no other rating I could give this book!  

Reminded me of...
Weirdly, The Aeneid. Epic similes, the plants, prophesies, some of the themes, the places... I've not read the whole Aeneid yet, but RotT STILL reminds me of it. 

MWT has told me (she told me!!!!!!!! during a webinar!!!!!!!!) that she hasn't read The Aeneid, BUT The Iliad and The Odyssey were really influential. Which I can see as well. So, so, so.

Have you read this series? What's was your most anticipated release of 2020? What's a final book of a series that has totally fulfilled your expectations?