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Healers and Thieves
Where do your daydreams take you? Fourteen-year-old Amanda Jones often finds her mind wandering to the same place: A large Victorian house where each room is lined with many doors. The empty rooms have become a familiar part of her life, yet, as her fifteenth birthday approaches, the pull of the imaginary house becomes so strong that Amanda finds it difficult to focus on anything else. Why does the house keep drawing her back? What will happen when she gathers enough courage to open a door and see what's on the other side? Healers and Thieves is the first book in The Psychic Traveler Society series.
- GenresFiction
336 pages, Paperback
Published April 8, 2019
7 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Susan Quilty
8 books24 followersSusan Quilty is an indie author who writes novels that are grounded in reality with a science fiction, fantasy, or psychological twist.
Lovers of speculative fiction or psychological drama will enjoy The Insistence of Memory and To the Left of Death. While YA and adult readers alike can explore new worlds with The Psychic Traveler Society trilogy, which includes: Healers and Thieves, Family and Foes, and Elders and Aliens.
For a light reading, try the choose-your-ending gamebook, Audrey and Esther Geekify Greenville or Freely Written Vol. 1, a selection of short stories from Susan's podcast.
Lovers of speculative fiction or psychological drama will enjoy The Insistence of Memory and To the Left of Death. While YA and adult readers alike can explore new worlds with The Psychic Traveler Society trilogy, which includes: Healers and Thieves, Family and Foes, and Elders and Aliens.
For a light reading, try the choose-your-ending gamebook, Audrey and Esther Geekify Greenville or Freely Written Vol. 1, a selection of short stories from Susan's podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 2, 2024
[There are no explicit plot spoilers in this review.]
Healers and Thieves is Book One of the YA Fantasy series, The Psychic Traveler Society. The story centers on a fourteen-year-old protagonist whose recurring daydreams often take her to a Victorian house filled with doors. As the story progresses, she is drawn into a secret society and mysterious locales while balancing the more mundane challenges of family, school, and adolescence on the side.
The YA Fantasy genre has a (sometimes deserved) reputation for being overcrowded with mediocre offerings cashing in on the success of Harry Potter and Twilight. It's refreshing that this book is built from a palette of concepts and plot devices that are familiar yet competently and uniquely assembled -- nothing feels overused or stale from the outset. Healers and Thieves does a good job of capturing and conveying the main character's wonder and sense of discovery as she leaves her comfort zone. In some ways, it reminded me of Elizabeth Winthrop's classic, The Castle in the Attic, which I devoured many times when I was an actual young adult. The world-building is much more robust than that book though, and the author paints an intriguing, internally consistent world.
As an Old Adult, I appreciated that the author did a good job of incorporating YA elements without letting them overpower the main plot. The main character is believable as a self-conscious teen trying to figure out her limits and potential, yet I did not have to wade through fifty pages of Harry Potter's teenage angst to get that point across. I was not a big fan of the "adults not immediately answering kids' questions completely" plot device, but recognize that it was needed to avoid exposition dumps and build tension towards the conclusion.
When it comes to the first book in a series, there are usually two ways to go -- either tell a self-contained "one-and-done" with hints at a broader universe that are unfolded in subsequent books, or start progressing towards the final book without delay, treating each conclusion as a pause point in the action. Healers and Thieves falls squarely in the latter category, with a level of resolution similar to what you'd find in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass or Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. The ending of the story leaves plenty of characters and world-building concepts to explore in future books but I wished that it had more self-contained finality or some stronger moment of triumph. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and look forward to Book Two.
Healers and Thieves is Book One of the YA Fantasy series, The Psychic Traveler Society. The story centers on a fourteen-year-old protagonist whose recurring daydreams often take her to a Victorian house filled with doors. As the story progresses, she is drawn into a secret society and mysterious locales while balancing the more mundane challenges of family, school, and adolescence on the side.
The YA Fantasy genre has a (sometimes deserved) reputation for being overcrowded with mediocre offerings cashing in on the success of Harry Potter and Twilight. It's refreshing that this book is built from a palette of concepts and plot devices that are familiar yet competently and uniquely assembled -- nothing feels overused or stale from the outset. Healers and Thieves does a good job of capturing and conveying the main character's wonder and sense of discovery as she leaves her comfort zone. In some ways, it reminded me of Elizabeth Winthrop's classic, The Castle in the Attic, which I devoured many times when I was an actual young adult. The world-building is much more robust than that book though, and the author paints an intriguing, internally consistent world.
As an Old Adult, I appreciated that the author did a good job of incorporating YA elements without letting them overpower the main plot. The main character is believable as a self-conscious teen trying to figure out her limits and potential, yet I did not have to wade through fifty pages of Harry Potter's teenage angst to get that point across. I was not a big fan of the "adults not immediately answering kids' questions completely" plot device, but recognize that it was needed to avoid exposition dumps and build tension towards the conclusion.
When it comes to the first book in a series, there are usually two ways to go -- either tell a self-contained "one-and-done" with hints at a broader universe that are unfolded in subsequent books, or start progressing towards the final book without delay, treating each conclusion as a pause point in the action. Healers and Thieves falls squarely in the latter category, with a level of resolution similar to what you'd find in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass or Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. The ending of the story leaves plenty of characters and world-building concepts to explore in future books but I wished that it had more self-contained finality or some stronger moment of triumph. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and look forward to Book Two.
November 22, 2021
Healers and Thieves, the first book in the Psychic Traveler Society series by Susan Quilty, was a joy to read.
It is a cozy, even-tempered YA fantasy/sc-fi infused adventure, the kind of book that makes you yearn for bedtime so you can curl up and escape in the wee hours of the night with it.
The story itself centers around Amanda Jones, a young teen trying to figure out her place in the world between the loss of her father, figuring out her relationship with her best friend, Drew, as well as navigating her mother’s post-loss life. As her mind drifts, seemingly as an escape to these troubles, she finds herself inside an old Victorian manor house filled with mysterious doors. But over time it becomes apparent it is much more than just her imagination, and once she finds the resolve to find out what’s behind the doors, she discovers abilities she never realized she possessed as well as how her life intersects with that of the PTS.
Quilty is a commander of words, and she crafts rich, descriptive sentences that are impeccably crisp, clear and succinct. I am in awe at the seemingly ease in which she writes, and I enjoyed this aspect of the book every bit as much as the story itself.
Healers and Thieves ends with an even bigger discovery, which opens the door to the second of three books, and I expect only the best is yet to come.
It is a cozy, even-tempered YA fantasy/sc-fi infused adventure, the kind of book that makes you yearn for bedtime so you can curl up and escape in the wee hours of the night with it.
The story itself centers around Amanda Jones, a young teen trying to figure out her place in the world between the loss of her father, figuring out her relationship with her best friend, Drew, as well as navigating her mother’s post-loss life. As her mind drifts, seemingly as an escape to these troubles, she finds herself inside an old Victorian manor house filled with mysterious doors. But over time it becomes apparent it is much more than just her imagination, and once she finds the resolve to find out what’s behind the doors, she discovers abilities she never realized she possessed as well as how her life intersects with that of the PTS.
Quilty is a commander of words, and she crafts rich, descriptive sentences that are impeccably crisp, clear and succinct. I am in awe at the seemingly ease in which she writes, and I enjoyed this aspect of the book every bit as much as the story itself.
Healers and Thieves ends with an even bigger discovery, which opens the door to the second of three books, and I expect only the best is yet to come.
May 14, 2019
This was an Excellent read!
September 29, 2025
Really enjoyed this story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews