I was really enjoying this book right up until the ending which kind of ruined it for me. Can't really explain without spoilers so here we go.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

We have Good Guy and Bad Guy. Bad Guy is, like, really bad. They rape and murder innocent people and they won't stop. The justice system is either too corrupt to prosecute them or they're too careful to leave any proof of their crimes. The only way to stop them is to kill them.

Good Guy knows this and, while they have a strict moral code and have never killed anyone before, spends the entire book/movie hunting down Bad Guy to kill them.

The chance comes, they're face to face, Good Guy's gun pointed at Bad Guy's head. It's now or never. Good Guy's about to pull the trigger when Bad Guy says, "Go ahead, shoot me. But if you do you'll be just like me."

Despite the fact that Good Guy has had the whole book/movie to consider the consequences of what they're planning to do and come to terms with them, they think Oh shit, they're right. I can't kill them because then I'd be a killer. Bonus points if they're related in some way and the Good Guy can see some of their own face in Bad Guy's. Good Guy hesitates. Bad Guy takes the opening and goes for their gun.

There's a loud bang!

Good guy thinks Did they shoot me??? No I'm not hurt. Blood starts to spread on Bad Guy's chest. Did I shoot?? No, my gun's cold. Good Guy turns to look over their shoulder. Unexpected Side Character stands behind them with a smoking gun before slipping away into the night/mist/forest.

Good Guy turns back as Bad Guy slumps to the ground. Dead. Good Guy gets to have their cake and eat it too as Bad Guy is now dead and Good Guy got to keep their hands clean, never having to make any hard decisions or deal with any consequences of those decisions.

Scene.

I am so tired of this trope! First of all, the whole "If you do this you'll be just like me" thing is so overdone. Is killing someone ever morally justified? How about when taking one person's life could save the lives of countless others? Philosophers have debated this ethical dilemma for centuries. We've all heard about the trolley problem. We've all thought about what we'd do in that situation. And ultimately there is no "correct" answer, there's just what each of us decides is the ethical choice in a given situation given our own personal sets of values. So, sure, have this scene and maybe we can learn something interesting about the main character. We could get to see what she really values in that split second she has to decide what to do. It's tired but it would give some insight into our MC's true character. That is if the author has the courage to go through with it and have them make the choice instead of foisting the responsibility onto a side character we barely know and never see again.

Tina's story ends up wrapped up neatly in a bow and we never even see what she thinks about what went down. Her father is dead and she doesn't think about him once in the denouement, she just moves on. She never struggles with any sense of guilt or even considers what she would have done if Catherine hadn't been there to shoot Omoko.

She hasn't changed at all because of what happened and that's about the worst way you could end a book.

Still giving 3 stars because the set-up was really well done and I was really invested in the characters and the world. ( )

Oh, dear.

City of Saints & Thieves started out pretty good, but by the end it had reached such nauseating levels of cliche and stupidity that I skimmed the entire climax.

I really should have known when, about fifty or so pages in, I stopped to look up whether the author was from Africa. Because for a novel set in Kenya featuring a Congolese protagonist, the whole thing sure reads really, really white.

This opens up a whole can of worms about whether authors can, or should, write about cultures other than their own. Which, yes and no? If you're a white woman and you're going to write the story of a Congolese refugee, you better do a damn good job. Anderson does not do a good job. Her world is not believable. Sangui City never comes alive, or even elevate itself beyond cardboard cutout 2D. There's no sense of presence or place. Tina's formal education ends when she's eleven, but she casually references the Chinese pirate Zheng Shi and Indian bandit queen Phoolan Devi. Tina and her world don't feel real, and consequently I struggled to remain invested in such an obvious facade of fiction.

Not to mention a lot of technical stuff was just wrong. Tina's ability to open any lock with a couple of bobby pins is ridiculous. Boyboy's hacking reminds me of the hacking scene in Jurassic Park: cute, but that's not how it works. I majored in English, for crying out loud, and even I know the hacking stuff is unrealistic.

The author spent time in Kenya and has worked with refugees, and likely done really important and excellent humanitarian work. I understand and empathize with her desire to tell the story of the refugees she met in an engaging way. But the entire book rings very false. ( )

Pretty good! A little slow and dragging at times but good. I was so mad at first when I thought Tina was in love with her half-brother. I was like all these cute Kenyan boys and she got to like her brother!? With that being said (no, he wasn't her half bro after all), I didn't care for the romance at all and didn't see why Michael was so pretty. Throw stones if you wanna, but the book could've done without Michael and not missed a beat.

I absolutely loved Bug Eye and detested Ketchup pretty much like everyone else did.

There were some heavy themes of rape, survivorship, and family bonds. I liked Tina, but I didn't exactly care or not care for her. I know some people didn't like it, but I was genuinely surprised at who the big boss was.

Overall, it was good (but too long) and I wouldn't read it again. ( )

Tina doesn't really exist. She lives on the streets of Sangui City after her mother was murdered while her sister lives at a Catholic school on a scholarship. Every one of her actions is motivated by vengeance. After joining with a gang, she learned how to steal undetected and how to survive in her precarious situation. When she's stealing information to start her revenge, Tina is unexpectedly caught by a childhood friend. She's forced to make a deal with him to confirm the identity of her mother's killer without a doubt. This triggers a series events that reveals the truth about their past and makes her realize she didn't know her mother as well as she thought.

City of Saints and Thieves is a thriller with twists and turns, well drawn characters, and a meaningful journey. Tina is instantly relatable. She puts her sister above everything, making sure she has what she needs and safety. Reading her rules and the way she keeps herself safe on the streets is an amped up version of what women do every day to escape negative attention or worse. Tina is an even more disadvantaged position as a thief who operates within an entirely male gang and chooses to live by herself in order to protect herself. All of her decisions are understandable and I was on her side the entire way. She stayed with her plan even when faced with an childhood friend/crush who could potentially be hurt by releasing information on her mother's murderer. Tina's mind is always looking for the best way to tackle a situation. She never lets anyone have all the information and constantly makes secret plans to keep moving forward.

My favorite part of this story is when Tina goes back to her Congolese hometown to find out what exactly happened there. She has few memories, but her mother had a best friend and a whole life Tina never knew about. This exposes both parts of the Congo: the people and nature in comparison with the expoitative aspects. The people are incredibly resilient and brave, trying to do what they can to help the people and make the place better in an understaffed and underfunded hospital. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and a stark contrast to the atrocities committed on it. The brutality of war is shown as well as the resulting violence, injury (both mental and physical), and death. All parts of this place are shown just as Tina finds out wonderful and awful things about her mother that were kept from her. Knowing what her mother experienced and how she survived put things into perspective for Tina.

City of Saints and Thieves is an exciting thriller that I could never predict. The only thing I found lacking was in Michael, Tina's childhood friend. I found him nosy, presumptuous, and too willing to underestimate her. However, their romance was relegated to the background and didn't take over the major story. I really liked Tina, her determination, and her story. At its core, this book is about a girl trying to understand her roots and herself. ( )

I loved this book primarily because it was SO different from other young adult books on the market. Tina is an intriguing character. She's tough but sensitive and she's been through hell. It is easy to root for her success in her desire to avenge her mother's death (and to believe she can actually pull it off).

Anderson transports the reader to a variety of settings from the streets of Kenya to the Congo. Tina leads us on a thrilling adventure that will have you biting your nails and questioning whether she really knows what the truth of her story is. The book ends with a finale worthy of Hollywood.

Highly recommend - a must read! ( )