Thief Eyes, by Janni Simner

Thief Eyes
by Janni Lee Simner
YA
Random House, 2010

I'd heard of this book before but hadn't had the chance to read it. The weather cleared long enough that I could make a quick trip in to Idaho Falls (read: bookstores!) and when I saw it I knew I had to get it. I'm glad I did--it was really good!

Haley is from Arizona, but her father studies volcanoes and geology in Iceland. A year ago, while on a research trip, he returned to Arizona without her mother. No one knows anything about her disappearance, and Haley is having a hard time getting any info from her dad. Finally she convinces him to take her to Iceland, hoping he'll finally talk. The person who does talk, however, isn't her dad. It's his research partner, who is a scientist but who believes in old Icelandic magic as well. Something HAS happened to Haley's mom, thanks to a mis-cast spell of her ancestor from a thousand years ago. And now, that ancestor's spell has hit Haley. Modern teens mix with Icelandic myth in this fantasy-adventure.

What I loved about this book, big and small:

It felt really well grounded. Some books are too la la la stereotypical modern teen. Some are fantasies that take themselves a little too seriously. This was the perfect blend of reality and fantasy that made it all believable.

Ari. He's a genuinely nice guy, cool but a little insecure as well. And very, very decent. I'm a little tired of reading about the Bad Boy. Ari's got some integrity and while he gets a cool gift, he mostly has no desire to eat his girlfriend or anyone else.

Haley having some interests outside the bounds of the novel. She wants to be a zoologist, and what she knows from that comes in useful.

While there is nice attraction, the book is not all about Finding Your One True Love at Age Sixteen and Throwing Over the Rest of Your Life for Him. I happen to be a fan of true love, and believe you can love someone forever, but I'm tired tired tired of books with the same plot (ie, girl falls for dangerous monster boy and wants him forever no matter what, at the expense of everything else, not because they are friends but because of this Enormous Animal Attraction that neither has the power to back away from. And she's signing herself away to him at the age of 16.) It's okay to wait a few years to make that decision. Really.

Linguistics. Ahhh...handled so nicely. I know, it's minor. But linguistic issues just stick out to me when they aren't quite working. And when they ARE working, I just keep smiling. Example: Haley and Ari are trying to borrow a phone to call their parents and there's been an earthquake. They're milling around a bunch of tourists (who are not all Americans), and a German guy asks someone else, "Haben Sie ein Handy?" It's not just a matter of looking up words or getting someone to translate a phrase. That's what Germans would actually ask. (A Handy is what they call cell phones in Germany.) Or, the difference between Haley and Ari speaking in English, and how they sound in Icelandic. Ari doesn't speak bad English, but it doesn't sound completely smooth, either. This little difference was just so nice, and from the point of view of someone who's spent a lot of time living in other countries, it felt really accurate, too.

If you like a nice mix of fantasy and likable characters, or if you have a thing for Icelandic mythology, check this one out!