Reviews

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault

nedge's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

roannasylver's review against another edition

5.0

“They didn’t need more precise rules any more than they needed romantic love. They had faith—the kind that destroyed industries and changed the cityscape forever. All they needed was to keep communicating, and they would get through it fine.”

* * *

UGH I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. An adventurous half-detective story, half-heist, all wrapped up in magic and soul-powered industry, cover-ups and machinations, actually good government employees with the peoples’ best interests in mind (HOW REFRESHING) and an incredible non-romantic relationship at the center. It felt so good to watch this form, watch 2 people with different orientations negotiate and find common ground as they become so important to one another, and know that at no point would they be invalidated or made to do anything they didn’t 100% want (perks of trusting the author~). So important.

And super fun, with found family feels, and amazing positive fat rep. (One of my favorite parts is when Adele sees her sister again after a long time away and sees she’s gained a lot of weight—and it’s a GOOD THING, she’s relieved, and thinks Emm will be so much healthier and safer, and just holy crap, we never GET THIS. I’m so glad we get this.)

thebookfaerie's review

adventurous slow-paced

3.5

glitter_reversi's review

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Such a fantastic and engaging adventure! Loved all the representation, especially as an aroallo myself I loved how relatable Claire experience is!

sarahsnacks's review

hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

ordwayhomebody's review

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

strawberry_peaches's review

4.5

I absolutely loved a lot of this book, the author describes characters and the world so wonderfully with this tinge of warmth; the action scenes are also very gripping. I do wish that the cast of characters was tightened up more since the a mount of small character roles felt overwhelming at times. Overall though this was a great and really warm feeling book.

cqqq17's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

marioncromb's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Not a style of prose I am personally a big fan of, kinda a bit too YA & tell not show (common with these sort of alphabet soup and very deliberate 'for the representation' books), but an enjoyable read.

I liked the French(-Canadian?) aspect to the worldbuilding

I really liked some of the side characters, like Mx Kouna and Emmanuelle.

The fat rep was nice. The genderfluid rep i think was shown very well, the benefits of the book format is that it is easy to just take it as written (Claire, and also Claude, different but the same) and conceptualise gender in a purer way without any visual distraction. In a world with magic though i always feel like real world signifiers of gnc like binders or etc wouldn't really be necessary, because magic could do better??

Nice to have aro & ace rep but as an aro it got too sappy for me

A diverse cast of characters but there was a lil bit of 'white as default', while the characters with black or brown skin was often deliberately made clear, no one was explicitly described as white (and only one or two side characters occasionally described as pale) when i think they were supposed to have been assumed to be (?)

The witches in the tanks and left in the bridge seemed kind of forgotten about?? I also wanted to know what happened with the exocores

10000bees's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Superheroes, bakers, and a magical mystery combine in Baker Thief, which is about a baker who is also a thief. It was a little hard to get into because of a slow start, but I think once I got used to the writing style it helped speed things along. I really liked all the queer rep (of which there is so much!) and the world was pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it felt like there was a pretty huge disconnect between the tone of the writing and the actual truth behind the mystery. Without spoiling, the heaviness of the truth doesn't feel impactful when there's so much lighthearted banter sometimes on the same page. Idk, it really diminished some of the impacts and tension. Still a cute read and a great choice if you're looking for books that feature aromantic characters and relationships!