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The Robber Girl
Part literary mystery, part magical tour de force--an incantatory novel of fierce beauty, lyricism, and originality from a National Book Award Finalist
A brilliant puzzle of a book from the author of Chime and The Folk Keeper plunges us into the vulnerable psyche of one of the most memorable unreliable narrators to grace the page in decades. The Robber Girl has a good dagger. Its voice in her head is as sharp as its two edges that taper down to a point. Today, the Robber Girl and her dagger will ride with Gentleman Jack into the Indigo Heart to claim the gold that's rightfully his. But instead of gold, the Robber Girl finds a dollhouse cottage with doorknobs the size of apple seeds. She finds two dolls who give her three tasks, even though she knows that three is too many tasks. The right number of tasks is two, like Grandmother gave to Gentleman Jack: Fetch unto me the mountain's gold, to build our city fair. Fetch unto me the wingless bird, and I shall make you my heir. The Robber Girl finds what might be a home, but to fight is easier than to trust when you're a mystery even to yourself and you're torn between loyalty and love. The Robber Girl is at once achingly real--wise to the nuances of trauma--and loaded with magic, action, and intrigue. Every sentence shines, sharp as a blade, in a beautifully crafted novel about memory, identity, and the power of language to heal and reconstruct our lives.
A brilliant puzzle of a book from the author of Chime and The Folk Keeper plunges us into the vulnerable psyche of one of the most memorable unreliable narrators to grace the page in decades. The Robber Girl has a good dagger. Its voice in her head is as sharp as its two edges that taper down to a point. Today, the Robber Girl and her dagger will ride with Gentleman Jack into the Indigo Heart to claim the gold that's rightfully his. But instead of gold, the Robber Girl finds a dollhouse cottage with doorknobs the size of apple seeds. She finds two dolls who give her three tasks, even though she knows that three is too many tasks. The right number of tasks is two, like Grandmother gave to Gentleman Jack: Fetch unto me the mountain's gold, to build our city fair. Fetch unto me the wingless bird, and I shall make you my heir. The Robber Girl finds what might be a home, but to fight is easier than to trust when you're a mystery even to yourself and you're torn between loyalty and love. The Robber Girl is at once achingly real--wise to the nuances of trauma--and loaded with magic, action, and intrigue. Every sentence shines, sharp as a blade, in a beautifully crafted novel about memory, identity, and the power of language to heal and reconstruct our lives.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2021
32 people are currently reading
1000 people want to read
About the author
Franny Billingsley
9 books410 followersWhile Billingsley's first novel, Well Wished (1997), was warmly received by critics, a year ago she was a virtual unknown within a publishing climate that regarded fantasy as a specialty genre. Today, her name is on the lips of booksellers and reviewers throughout the country.
Franny Billingsley was not always a writer. She graduated from Boston University law-school in 1979, and worked for 5 years as a lawyer — a profession which she “despised.” In 1983, Billingsley visited her sister in Barcelona, Spain where she was “entranced by a lifestyle in which people did not make a lot of money yet lived richly and artfully.” Realizing that she needed to change her life, Billingsley quit her job and moved to Spain with all of her favorite children's books. “Books like A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy, and The Narnia Chronicles seemed like the perfect antidote to hideously wearisome legal documents,” remembers Billingsley, who began writing children's books while living in Spain.
When Billingsley returned to the United States, she took a job as the children's book-buyer at 57th Street Books, a major independent bookseller on the South Side of Chicago. “I worked at the bookstore for twelve years and I loved it because it helped me get back to the things that matter to me: people, ideas, and imagination. I wrote throughout this period. My early books were simply awful, but I did not let rejections and criticism stop me from writing. I worked hard at learning how to write and finding my strengths. It was not until I began writing fantasy that I found my voice. I believe that, ultimately, talent is less important to writing a good book than is determination.”
Franny Billingsley lives in Chicago with her family and currently writes children's books full-time.
Franny Billingsley was not always a writer. She graduated from Boston University law-school in 1979, and worked for 5 years as a lawyer — a profession which she “despised.” In 1983, Billingsley visited her sister in Barcelona, Spain where she was “entranced by a lifestyle in which people did not make a lot of money yet lived richly and artfully.” Realizing that she needed to change her life, Billingsley quit her job and moved to Spain with all of her favorite children's books. “Books like A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy, and The Narnia Chronicles seemed like the perfect antidote to hideously wearisome legal documents,” remembers Billingsley, who began writing children's books while living in Spain.
When Billingsley returned to the United States, she took a job as the children's book-buyer at 57th Street Books, a major independent bookseller on the South Side of Chicago. “I worked at the bookstore for twelve years and I loved it because it helped me get back to the things that matter to me: people, ideas, and imagination. I wrote throughout this period. My early books were simply awful, but I did not let rejections and criticism stop me from writing. I worked hard at learning how to write and finding my strengths. It was not until I began writing fantasy that I found my voice. I believe that, ultimately, talent is less important to writing a good book than is determination.”
Franny Billingsley lives in Chicago with her family and currently writes children's books full-time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
July 27, 2022
Franny Billingsley writes books like puzzle boxes. They open in the middle of things: a strange girl; a world rich with its own rules, texture, and syntax; faulty memories; a trail of clues like a ball of yarn to lead the reader out. Each of the three books I've read by her, a decade apart each time (The Folk Keeper of 1999, Chime of 2011), has been structured this way while being utterly distinct in setting and tone.
The Robber Girl is kind of a western set in a world that is kind of our own...but with some interesting differences. Our nameless heroine, age ten or eleven, is part of a band of robbers led by Gentleman Jack. She has a dagger that talks to her, an Affliction doled out as punishment for an unknown crime that leaves her unable to talk unless first spoken to, and a dream of visiting Grandmother, lovingly described by Gentleman Jack, in a cottage far away.
And then the heist fails, Gentleman Jack is jailed, and the robber girl forced to stay with the Judge and his wife even though "I was wild, and you can't put a wild person in a cottage. I would be sharp and wild, and they would send me to jail." In this buttercream cottage with "little outbursts of roof everywhere, and windows beneath each outburst," the robber girl begins to remember things, see things, and do things in ways the dagger and Gentleman Jack disapprove of.
The pleasures of this book lie as much in the richly textured writing as the slow unraveling of the mysteries that the robber girl is surrounded by but doesn't herself perceive. I think I would recognize Billingsley's writing anywhere by its rhythmic, folky sound and synesthesia:
And
The world is beguiling in such a way that you might not spend much time questioning how / why / if a dagger is speaking, who doles out Afflictions (the one for killing a child, for example, is perpetually skinless, bleeding hands), why knives have their own immutable rules, how words can be whistled. It reads more like magical realism than fantasy, and the rules of this world blend seamlessly into its other homey textures.
I wasn't entirely surprised by all the revelations, but it was still highly satisfying to witness their unfolding. This is weird, twisty, and rich stuff. Chime remains my favorite of the Billingsley canon, but I really enjoyed The Robber Girl and the feeling of being back in this author's head. She might only have one story to tell, but I'd be up for as many more iterations of this tale as she is willing to write.
The Robber Girl is kind of a western set in a world that is kind of our own...but with some interesting differences. Our nameless heroine, age ten or eleven, is part of a band of robbers led by Gentleman Jack. She has a dagger that talks to her, an Affliction doled out as punishment for an unknown crime that leaves her unable to talk unless first spoken to, and a dream of visiting Grandmother, lovingly described by Gentleman Jack, in a cottage far away.
And then the heist fails, Gentleman Jack is jailed, and the robber girl forced to stay with the Judge and his wife even though "I was wild, and you can't put a wild person in a cottage. I would be sharp and wild, and they would send me to jail." In this buttercream cottage with "little outbursts of roof everywhere, and windows beneath each outburst," the robber girl begins to remember things, see things, and do things in ways the dagger and Gentleman Jack disapprove of.
The pleasures of this book lie as much in the richly textured writing as the slow unraveling of the mysteries that the robber girl is surrounded by but doesn't herself perceive. I think I would recognize Billingsley's writing anywhere by its rhythmic, folky sound and synesthesia:
Here in the kitchen, everything was steam and sniff and gleam. It smelled hot and gold. It smelled the way Grandmother felt in my mouth. The word Grandmother always fit exactly right on the soft middle of my tongue. I liked holding it there, warm and round.
And
There were layers of memory, the tissue-paper memories and the lace memories, and there were also the heavier woolen memories, all folded softly onto shelves. I didn't know what the memories were, not exactly. I tasted them more than I saw them. I remembered the taste of reading, how the word Soap had a soft lemon flavor, how the word You was just a silver breath over your tongue.
The world is beguiling in such a way that you might not spend much time questioning how / why / if a dagger is speaking, who doles out Afflictions (the one for killing a child, for example, is perpetually skinless, bleeding hands), why knives have their own immutable rules, how words can be whistled. It reads more like magical realism than fantasy, and the rules of this world blend seamlessly into its other homey textures.
I wasn't entirely surprised by all the revelations, but it was still highly satisfying to witness their unfolding. This is weird, twisty, and rich stuff. Chime remains my favorite of the Billingsley canon, but I really enjoyed The Robber Girl and the feeling of being back in this author's head. She might only have one story to tell, but I'd be up for as many more iterations of this tale as she is willing to write.
December 7, 2021
A crystalline, beautifully paced fairy tale western that captivated me from the start. I absolutely loved it.
January 24, 2022
I disagree with the blurb: I do not think this is a story told by an unreliable narrator. This narrator has a limited point of view, but she’s telling the story as honestly as she can, to the full extent of her understanding.
And what a tale it is: full of words - learning, and promises - with a full-size house and a dollhouse and a house that is no longer there, with elements that mirror each other and foreshadow other things - with daggers and dolls (and opals) who speak. Its words are literal, and also metaphor; it’s got touches of magic, or the fantastic made literal.
This is a story about literalism, I think: with how literal its narrator is, and how literally it uses words, and how literally it takes its themes and its own elements and ties them all together. In a way it’s obvious (when it tells you, point blank, that ) - but there are times when it’s also playful (“Some say,” said the Judge, “that promises are like piecrust, which means they’re made to be broken.” Are you related to Mary Poppins, Judge?).
And it’s also about magic. There’s religion, and fanaticism, and gold, and community, and laws, and all of it is overlaid with deftly-woven elements which push the story slightly off kilter - returning daggers and cursed hats and blue roses. And Afflictions. And whistling.
And it’s definitely about memory and grief. It’s removed from grief, and I wouldn’t call it particularly sad, but this is a story about daggers-which-plug and the process of remembering: multiple homes, and multiple fires, and - not second chances per se, but new ones, where the past can inform the present but not dictate it.
This is a story where everything is in plain sight, but sometimes those things aren’t easy to see. And so this is the story of learning to see them. This starts with a limited point of view, but it doesn’t end there.
And what a tale it is: full of words - learning, and promises - with a full-size house and a dollhouse and a house that is no longer there, with elements that mirror each other and foreshadow other things - with daggers and dolls (and opals) who speak. Its words are literal, and also metaphor; it’s got touches of magic, or the fantastic made literal.
This is a story about literalism, I think: with how literal its narrator is, and how literally it uses words, and how literally it takes its themes and its own elements and ties them all together. In a way it’s obvious (when it tells you, point blank, that ) - but there are times when it’s also playful (“Some say,” said the Judge, “that promises are like piecrust, which means they’re made to be broken.” Are you related to Mary Poppins, Judge?).
And it’s also about magic. There’s religion, and fanaticism, and gold, and community, and laws, and all of it is overlaid with deftly-woven elements which push the story slightly off kilter - returning daggers and cursed hats and blue roses. And Afflictions. And whistling.
And it’s definitely about memory and grief. It’s removed from grief, and I wouldn’t call it particularly sad, but this is a story about daggers-which-plug and the process of remembering: multiple homes, and multiple fires, and - not second chances per se, but new ones, where the past can inform the present but not dictate it.
This is a story where everything is in plain sight, but sometimes those things aren’t easy to see. And so this is the story of learning to see them. This starts with a limited point of view, but it doesn’t end there.
September 30, 2021
This is really well done. I finished it a few days ago and I haven't been able to figure out how to write a review, so I'm just . . . doing it. It's not Chime. It didn't hit me as hard as that one did, but it does play with similar themes. And it got me thinking about unreliable narrators. In both books, the characters would not say they are unreliable! They are telling their truth as they know it. And we the reader see truths they don't.
Anyway. It was good.
Owned ebook 3/2 for the month
Overall owned book 5/5 for the month
Anyway. It was good.
Owned ebook 3/2 for the month
Overall owned book 5/5 for the month
August 9, 2021
4 1/2 stars
An orphan girl is taken in by a bandit and made to believe that he saved her and she owes him gratitude. She is made to feel ugly, small and unworthy and will only elevate herself if she follows him to the letter. When he is jailed she is taken in by the judge and his wife who slowly try to bring her back to a calmer life and give her the childhood that has been taken. Part fantasy, part Dicken's OLIVER TWIST - Starling is able to silently converse with objects such as her trusted dagger and the dollhouse people at the Judge's house. She follows the code of Gentleman Jack and his followers and as she tries to remain wild she is just as strongly tugged in the direction of love and family at the judge's house. Beautifully written and filled with longing for family, love and feeling worthy. For older middle grade kids, young adults and adults that want to be immersed in a world of danger and violence as well as fantasy and innocence. Fans of Jennifer A. Nielsen's THE FALSE PRINCE , Dickens or Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST will enjoy this. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
An orphan girl is taken in by a bandit and made to believe that he saved her and she owes him gratitude. She is made to feel ugly, small and unworthy and will only elevate herself if she follows him to the letter. When he is jailed she is taken in by the judge and his wife who slowly try to bring her back to a calmer life and give her the childhood that has been taken. Part fantasy, part Dicken's OLIVER TWIST - Starling is able to silently converse with objects such as her trusted dagger and the dollhouse people at the Judge's house. She follows the code of Gentleman Jack and his followers and as she tries to remain wild she is just as strongly tugged in the direction of love and family at the judge's house. Beautifully written and filled with longing for family, love and feeling worthy. For older middle grade kids, young adults and adults that want to be immersed in a world of danger and violence as well as fantasy and innocence. Fans of Jennifer A. Nielsen's THE FALSE PRINCE , Dickens or Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST will enjoy this. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
January 1, 2022
I've been waiting for a book by Franny Billinglsey ever since I sent her an email 11 years ago crying about Chime lmao.
The Robber Girl is endearing and strange w/ the kind of magical eccentricity that only Billingsley + a 10-year-old as the main character can pull off. This type of book/writing isn't for everyone but I love unreliable narrators. I love the wonder and weird of Billingsley's writing, its startling imagery. I love the simple way we're able to explore complex themes through a child's mind and just as important secondary characters.
Not as good as Chime and w/ less compelling fantastical elements, but a good first read of 2022 (!!!) regardless.
luv u fran xoxo
The Robber Girl is endearing and strange w/ the kind of magical eccentricity that only Billingsley + a 10-year-old as the main character can pull off. This type of book/writing isn't for everyone but I love unreliable narrators. I love the wonder and weird of Billingsley's writing, its startling imagery. I love the simple way we're able to explore complex themes through a child's mind and just as important secondary characters.
Not as good as Chime and w/ less compelling fantastical elements, but a good first read of 2022 (!!!) regardless.
luv u fran xoxo
September 26, 2021
This is an utterly unique novel...strange, brilliant, beautiful, and intriguing. I feel the category of children's book does it a disservice. The heroine is only ten, but there is nothing juvenile about The Robber Girl. While young readers can enjoy it, on a certain level, I think some maturity is needed to fully appreciate the multi-layered quality of the narrative. It is subtle, complex, and surprisingly deep. I'm in awe of this author's imagination, intelligence, and skill. She has written a true masterpiece here.
June 1, 2022
Hmmm, I'm not sure what to think of this book. On one hand it was well written in an interesting lyrical way chock full of metaphors (but not in a thesaurus-abuse way). But on the other hand...it felt way too long for me. I gulped down the first hundred pages, then I dragged myself through the next two hundred pages, before forcing myself to sit down and push through to the end.
The gist of the plot is that a girl, just called Robber Girl, is part of a gang of robbers in a western (but fictional) setting led by a charming rogue called Gentleman Jack. During an attempt to rob a stagecoach, Gentleman Jack and Robber Girl both get captured. He goes to prison to await trial for a previous murder, and Robber Girl goes to live with the local judge and his wife. They hope she'll testify at Gentleman Jack's trial, but Robber Girl is extremely loyal to Gentleman Jack. While they wait for the trial, Robber Girl (now called Starling by the judge and co) has to learn to fit in with civilized society by going to school, learning to read, not using violence to solve problems, etc.
I think I was expecting the titular Robber Girl to do more thieving, but she barely lived up to her name. Most of the book is just spent inside the main character's thoughts, as well as the conversations she has with objects around her, especially her dagger and the residents of a large dollhouse in the judge's attic. The dagger in particular represents her viciously loyal side toward Gentleman Jack, with the dagger's voice scolding her when she learns that she kind of likes living with the judge, and when she starts to remember things about her own past. Especially
I'm also biased because I don't really like Westerns, and I didn't realize that's what this story was going to be until I got into it.
Mostly, I just wished this was tightened up and trimmed by a hundred pages or so. It was easy enough to read, but not easy to GET myself to read once I'd set it down. There was nothing specifically wrong with this book that I could criticize, but it just wasn't for me.
The gist of the plot is that a girl, just called Robber Girl, is part of a gang of robbers in a western (but fictional) setting led by a charming rogue called Gentleman Jack. During an attempt to rob a stagecoach, Gentleman Jack and Robber Girl both get captured. He goes to prison to await trial for a previous murder, and Robber Girl goes to live with the local judge and his wife. They hope she'll testify at Gentleman Jack's trial, but Robber Girl is extremely loyal to Gentleman Jack. While they wait for the trial, Robber Girl (now called Starling by the judge and co) has to learn to fit in with civilized society by going to school, learning to read, not using violence to solve problems, etc.
I think I was expecting the titular Robber Girl to do more thieving, but she barely lived up to her name. Most of the book is just spent inside the main character's thoughts, as well as the conversations she has with objects around her, especially her dagger and the residents of a large dollhouse in the judge's attic. The dagger in particular represents her viciously loyal side toward Gentleman Jack, with the dagger's voice scolding her when she learns that she kind of likes living with the judge, and when she starts to remember things about her own past. Especially
I'm also biased because I don't really like Westerns, and I didn't realize that's what this story was going to be until I got into it.
Mostly, I just wished this was tightened up and trimmed by a hundred pages or so. It was easy enough to read, but not easy to GET myself to read once I'd set it down. There was nothing specifically wrong with this book that I could criticize, but it just wasn't for me.
October 22, 2021
I’ve been waiting anxiously for 10 years - since the wonderful Chime - and this has been so worth the wait.
I won't spoil the story by giving away any part of The Robber Girl’s given name - names carry a burden of power in this book and shouldn’t be used carelessly - so she’ll just remain The Robber Girl here. She's a completely reliable narrator, always truthful, and truthful about the times she lies. Her world at first is ruled by rigid, immutable logic, which usually involves theft and blind loyalty.
The only drawback of this book for me was that the hardcover version has the teeniest print I’ve ever encountered in all my years of reading. You’re much better off getting this on e-reader or as an audio book.
Recommended, and totally enjoyable, reading for everyone.
I won't spoil the story by giving away any part of The Robber Girl’s given name - names carry a burden of power in this book and shouldn’t be used carelessly - so she’ll just remain The Robber Girl here. She's a completely reliable narrator, always truthful, and truthful about the times she lies. Her world at first is ruled by rigid, immutable logic, which usually involves theft and blind loyalty.
Chicken pie on Thursdays - that’s what the Judge had said. But it was Friday, and there was macaroni and cheese on Friday. You could eat chicken pie on Friday, though. You could eat it if you stole from Thursday.It was this inherent logic that helped her to connect all the clues and evidence to solve her problems and set herself free. It was a joy to witness the incremental changes she was able to make in her surroundings and in herself and her entire world view.
Now I laid my own key on the green felt. You could see it was comfortable. There was one shiny key and two not-so-shiny keys.I loved this child’s brave journey from easily-manipulated victim to a girl in control of her choices. I don’t think her culminating views on life would be a spoiler for anyone who has read this kind of story, so here’s the final product of the former Robber Girl’s personal evolution:
I closed the drawer.
Now the drawer was full. I had made it full.
Lots of the puzzle pieces had been lying right in front of me, but I was so addicted to my own version of the truth I couldn’t take in any other possibilities.Is that not a perfect way to define the selfishness and - littleness - of those of us who can’t or won't look outside ourselves and our own prejudices, and who refuse to admit any other world view but our own?
The only drawback of this book for me was that the hardcover version has the teeniest print I’ve ever encountered in all my years of reading. You’re much better off getting this on e-reader or as an audio book.
Recommended, and totally enjoyable, reading for everyone.
March 12, 2022
This is a wonderfully written children's book... although I believe it at least belongs in teen. Full of symbolism, metaphor, fantasy and allegory. I really don't know how to describe it, but would love to discuss it with someone!
August 3, 2024
The writing is beguiling and reads like a Hansel and Gretel trail.
A girl with a mysterious identity and her blade -no, the blade is literally a character.
The faulty first person narrative set in an alternate USA cowboy mid-1800s was mildly familiar.
For fans of ‘Pony’ by R J Palacio.
A girl with a mysterious identity and her blade -no, the blade is literally a character.
The faulty first person narrative set in an alternate USA cowboy mid-1800s was mildly familiar.
For fans of ‘Pony’ by R J Palacio.
December 24, 2021
I really loved this one. A strange starry pearl of a book that does a great job capturing what it’s like to be a child with a head full of rules you must not break, that dictate how you are allowed to see the world, your caretakers, and yourself, and what it feels like when all those rules you have taught come crumbling down. Strange, bittersweet, and joyful. I loved this one.
October 16, 2025
Am renunțat la carte după 100 de pagini. Descrierea nu are nicio legătură cu cartea. O fetiță care vorbește cu un cuțit, pe bune?! Și cu două păpuși, serios? Nu merită să dai bani pe așa o carte.
September 17, 2021
The Robber Girl was rescued by Gentleman Jack when her family abandoned her. Now she is riding with him and his gang into the Indigo Heart to rob the stagecoach and get Gentleman Jack the bars of gold it carries so he can regain his birthright. Robber Girl has her own dagger, double-edged and sharp, that speaks directly to her in a pointed way that criticizes many of her choices. But the stagecoach is actually a ruse to capture Gentleman Jack. Now for the first time in her memory, Robber Girl is staying in a home. She is dedicated to rescuing Gentleman Jack from the jail, assuring him that she will never turn on him. At her new home, she discovers a dollhouse that is a miniature of the house, one with dolls who talk with her and set her three tasks. As Robber Girl stays longer, she starts to remember scraps of local songs, melodies and the truth, but the dagger’s voice stays just as pointed in her head, insisting that she keep it all forgotten.
The author of Chime returns with a middle grade novel that is a tremendous read. The Robber Girl is one of the best written unreliable narrators I have seen in a book for children. She fully believes what she has been told by Gentleman Jack, though readers will immediately realize that there are holes in the stories. As both the readers and the girl find clues to her past, the largest puzzle of the book is the girl herself and whether she can recover from denial and trauma enough to set her own course before being swept away again by the lies.
Billingsley has written great secondary characters as well. Gentleman Jack is tremendously charming and manipulative. The judge, who takes the girl in, and his grieving wife have real depth to their characters and their stories. They add another look at coping with loss and trauma to the novel. Even the children of the village, who may seem to be bullies, have other levels to them and reveal them over time. It’s an exquisite look at trauma, faith and belonging.
A stellar middle-grade novel that is a tantalizing puzzle of trauma and truth laced with a touch of fantasy. Appropriate for ages 10-13.
The author of Chime returns with a middle grade novel that is a tremendous read. The Robber Girl is one of the best written unreliable narrators I have seen in a book for children. She fully believes what she has been told by Gentleman Jack, though readers will immediately realize that there are holes in the stories. As both the readers and the girl find clues to her past, the largest puzzle of the book is the girl herself and whether she can recover from denial and trauma enough to set her own course before being swept away again by the lies.
Billingsley has written great secondary characters as well. Gentleman Jack is tremendously charming and manipulative. The judge, who takes the girl in, and his grieving wife have real depth to their characters and their stories. They add another look at coping with loss and trauma to the novel. Even the children of the village, who may seem to be bullies, have other levels to them and reveal them over time. It’s an exquisite look at trauma, faith and belonging.
A stellar middle-grade novel that is a tantalizing puzzle of trauma and truth laced with a touch of fantasy. Appropriate for ages 10-13.
February 28, 2022
NOTHING I could say here would come close to being as impressive or sounding as good as the book's blurb. So I'm not even going to try. I'll just say that this book came highly recommended and lived up to the hype! Robber Girl/Starling may be an unreliable narrator, but she's also funny, and sweet, and heartbreakingly real.
It's interesting, when I look back on the story, really after the first 20 pages, not much happened. There aren't huge plot twists, tense encounters, stressful conflicts. I guess I'd call it a "quiet" book. But, despite the fact that not a lot happened, the book never felt slow. I was hooked on page 1 and dumped out breathless and heartwarmed 400 pages later. And I'm ready to start all over. This book was just so unique and special! Go read it!
It's interesting, when I look back on the story, really after the first 20 pages, not much happened. There aren't huge plot twists, tense encounters, stressful conflicts. I guess I'd call it a "quiet" book. But, despite the fact that not a lot happened, the book never felt slow. I was hooked on page 1 and dumped out breathless and heartwarmed 400 pages later. And I'm ready to start all over. This book was just so unique and special! Go read it!
July 24, 2022
Such a skillfully-written book. The "twist" is obvious to an adult reader, but the gradual reveal, the incredible voice of the protagonist, and the use of language are very effective-- and would be even more so for 8-12 year olds. This one feels like a keeper.
August 9, 2025
Very good prose. Clear and clever and not too much.
I listened to the audiobook. The book cover goodreads shows me does not match the tone of the book I listened to.
I listened to the audiobook. The book cover goodreads shows me does not match the tone of the book I listened to.
February 4, 2022
Unique, beautiful, and moving.
It's a tale of a wild young girl who is loyal to the criminal Gentleman Jack. The gang forms a stratagem to rob the mythic city of Indigo Heart, but the plan goes awry when Gentleman Jack is arrested for the murder of the Federal Marshal. The girl is taken to live with the Judge and his wife, who begin to imbue her with manners and civility. The girl has no recollection of her name nor her past, and is perceptibly grappling with her own trauma. There are holes in her history, and as the story progresses, the reader and the girl are trying to patch together clues of her identity. As the story unwinds, we learn that something or someone is purposefully trying to prevent her from regaining her memories, as it would foil their long-laid plans. While suspenseful, it is also emotionally harrowing as the story embellishes on trauma, regaining a sense of belonging, and what 'home' truly means.
We have an interesting talking dagger who acts as the girl's confidant, a petulant and wry thing whose purpose may be nefarious. It's quite invigorating to have a non-human secondary character take much precedence in the story. The setting is an unconventional interfusion of a wild west/historical fantasy, and there are interesting 'rules' that govern the magic in the city, such as the etiquette of knives. These compelling elements suffuses the story with a sort of charm that gives a lasting impression to the reader. I would love to explore other works of the author!
It's a tale of a wild young girl who is loyal to the criminal Gentleman Jack. The gang forms a stratagem to rob the mythic city of Indigo Heart, but the plan goes awry when Gentleman Jack is arrested for the murder of the Federal Marshal. The girl is taken to live with the Judge and his wife, who begin to imbue her with manners and civility. The girl has no recollection of her name nor her past, and is perceptibly grappling with her own trauma. There are holes in her history, and as the story progresses, the reader and the girl are trying to patch together clues of her identity. As the story unwinds, we learn that something or someone is purposefully trying to prevent her from regaining her memories, as it would foil their long-laid plans. While suspenseful, it is also emotionally harrowing as the story embellishes on trauma, regaining a sense of belonging, and what 'home' truly means.
We have an interesting talking dagger who acts as the girl's confidant, a petulant and wry thing whose purpose may be nefarious. It's quite invigorating to have a non-human secondary character take much precedence in the story. The setting is an unconventional interfusion of a wild west/historical fantasy, and there are interesting 'rules' that govern the magic in the city, such as the etiquette of knives. These compelling elements suffuses the story with a sort of charm that gives a lasting impression to the reader. I would love to explore other works of the author!
April 20, 2022
Where to start? This book is odd. A dagger that talks to a girl, dolls that talk and walk around, beliefs that stars have special powers, curses...and yet it isn't a fantasy book. The main character, Robber Girl, speaks in first person and her language is different - lots of strange metaphors and unusual discription - which I guess could appeal to some older readers or adults, but I found it tiresome and I do not think most students would take the trouble to struggle through it. Set in an Old West type of setting, Robber Girl (she has no name for most of the book) is helping her idol, Jack, rob a stage coach. And then everything goes wrong and everything she knows gets turned upside down. This is a book more about selfishness and child abuse than an interesting story. It is a slightly new way to tell a story so again, some people might enjoy it, but I found it passable at best.
January 21, 2022
Amazing. A book that defies easy explanation because it’s so wound up in being unclear. A really interesting alternate history world and the most unreliable narrator I’ve encountered. The way the book thinks about language and words will stick with me.
June 10, 2022
A unique wild west fable with a hint of magic. Told from the perspective of a nameless girl with some kind of traumatic block on her memories of her life before she was adopted by outlaws, most of the story revolves around a town's attempt to integrate her into society after her adored outlaw is arrested, despite her desire to stay "wild" and find a way back to her previous life. Lyrical writing, an extremely limited narrative perspective, and a gradual discovery of secrets make this an enthralling read.
The girl has an active inner life that, readers slowly learn, represents the memories she's repressed and her attempts to process the strangeness of civilized family life she's been suddenly thrust into.
The girl has an active inner life that, readers slowly learn, represents the memories she's repressed and her attempts to process the strangeness of civilized family life she's been suddenly thrust into.
The dolls were sitting on the floor where I'd left them. The mother doll spoke as though no time had passed. "We're going to give you a name. A special name for a girl with piping in her voice."Also:
"Gentleman Jack's going to give me a name," I said, even though a robber girl shouldn't talk to dolls. And anyway, I had no piping.
"Stop talking to nobody!" said the dagger. "You're making my edges go cold!"
"Your voice tells us your name," said the mother doll. "Your voice tells us your name is Starling. Starlings can whistle and warble and make smooth liquid sounds."
I could whistle, but I couldn't warble or make smooth liquid sounds. My voice was as un-bendy as the dagger. And anyway, whistling was bad luck.
"If you talk to nobody," said the dagger, "that means you're going crazy."
"It's a good name," said the mother doll. "Starlings fight for their families. A starling is a warrior bird."
"I am iron, with carbon added," said the dagger. "If I didn't have enough carbon, I would be too soft. Then I might go crazy."
"You brushed the dust from our eyes," said the father doll. The dolls could open and close their eyes. It was good to have eyes that opened and closed.
"You sat us up," said the mother doll.
"If I had too much carbon," said the dagger, "I would be too hard. Then I might go crazy."
"When you're made of china," said the father doll, "your heart is made of china."
"When a person has a china heart," said the mother doll, "it can easily break."
"But I am just right," said the dagger.
"There will be no danger of broken hearts," said the father doll. "Not now that Starling is here to complete the tasks."
"Tasks?" I said. Sometimes Gentleman Jack gave me tasks. It showed him I was useful.
"Tasks," said the father doll. "Like in a fairy tale, you know."
But I didn't know. "If Gentleman Jack asks me to perform a task, I do. I don't listen to anyone else."
"There are three tasks," said the mother doll.
I didn't know about fairy tales, but I knew about tasks, and I knew that two was the right number of tasks. Two was the number of tasks Grandmother gave Gentleman Jack and his no-account brother. Whoever could finish the tasks would get to have her empire. They went like this:Fetch unto me the mountain's gold,Of course Gentleman Jack would win. It was nice of him to have put the tasks in a rhyme to help me remember them.
To build our city fair.
Fetch unto me the wingless bird,
And I will make you my heir.
I knew that tune, but I couldn't remember it. It hovered on the edge of my mind. I tried to grab it, but you can't just grab your memories. You have to pretend not to pay attention to them, which makes them mad. You have to trick them into sneaking up on you from behind.
What if I listened to it sideways?
"You can't listen sideways," said the dagger.
"You said you could listen sideways," I said. "You said it on day ninety-three."
I remembered it very well. I'd been trying to hide my thoughts from the dagger. I'd gotten better at it since then.
I knew the tune, and I knew words went with the tune, just the way I knew the sun was out, even though you couldn't see it through the white eggshell sky. You knew the sun was out because the prairie crocuses were tilting up their faces and opening their mouths to drink in the light. The crocuses knew about the sun, even if they couldn't see it.
"Crocuses don't know things," said the dagger.
April 16, 2023
This book is both lyrical and allegorical. Our protagonist Starling - or Robber Girl as she is also known - is perhaps an unreliable narrator or scarred in her storytelling by her limitations. Still, her interactions with a world that seems torn, perhaps, between the Old West and a Dystopia is a rich world for her to be unreliable in. The world she lives in has rules she does understand - the handling of a dagger and the need to give someone a penny if you take it from them - and the rules she does not understand - how not to be wild in a civilized town. When a heist seemingly goes wrong, Gentleman Jack, the leader of the group she travels with is arrested and, being too young to jail, she is taken in by a Judge. With some of the gang waiting in the wings and all parties seemingly plotting around her, she is trying to figure out how the worlds can work together. Add to it that she lives in a world of afflictions - her own being that she can only speak if she is spoken to and responds in a limited time frame, and you have the makings for a rich, nuanced, and engaging world.
The use of language here is lush and has a very lyrical quality. The use of folklore - my own family growing up in Appalachia shared the story about always giving someone a coin if they gave you a blade because the metal coin could stop the blade from severing a tie - here is rich as well.
This has, at least to my thinking, an almost Dickensian vibe to it - a sort of poetic Great Expectations fused with a little bit of a sense of wonder and intrigue. We do not know if it is the "real" old West or if it is a far-flung future. The references that take on an almost religious tone - those seeking boons for their prayers and using stars as symbols - complicate our considerations. But, in the end, it does not matter. The book is just too charming and engaging to ignore. Even when one might be able to solve the ending's revelation before it arrives, it does not matter. Starling is just too interesting of a character to adventure with for a brief time to give up the conversation.
A compelling and different work than I expected, but all the richer for the surprise.
The use of language here is lush and has a very lyrical quality. The use of folklore - my own family growing up in Appalachia shared the story about always giving someone a coin if they gave you a blade because the metal coin could stop the blade from severing a tie - here is rich as well.
This has, at least to my thinking, an almost Dickensian vibe to it - a sort of poetic Great Expectations fused with a little bit of a sense of wonder and intrigue. We do not know if it is the "real" old West or if it is a far-flung future. The references that take on an almost religious tone - those seeking boons for their prayers and using stars as symbols - complicate our considerations. But, in the end, it does not matter. The book is just too charming and engaging to ignore. Even when one might be able to solve the ending's revelation before it arrives, it does not matter. Starling is just too interesting of a character to adventure with for a brief time to give up the conversation.
A compelling and different work than I expected, but all the richer for the surprise.
July 24, 2023
I absolutely adored this book. It is old wild west meets magical realism / fantasy. Themes of trust / memory / family / luck / trauma. The language in this book pushes up to a level not often found in children's lit: allegory, metaphor, symbolism, an extensive vocabulary and lyrical language are all used beautifully. Also this cover! Perfection!!
A world were not giving a penny in exchange for a weapon will result in that weapon turning on you. Is it magic or superstition?
Our nameless protagonist is Robber Girl. She is 9 or maybe 11. She rides with Gentleman Jack and his band. He is an outlaw and her hero, her saviour. Today is Day Zero. The day they will rob the stage coach and get the gold that will make Gentleman Jack heir to his grandmother's empire. But everything goes wrong. There was never gold, only a trap to catch an outlaw. Now Robber Girl has to learn tame ways in the house of the judge who trapped Gentleman Jack. Robber Girl isn't tame. She is wild and she knows if anyone can save Gentleman Jack it is her.
But maybe things are not as they seem, and maybe it is time to start believing in herself instead of Gentleman Jack?
Robber Girl at first appears like an unreliable narrator but as the story unfolds we see she has a child's view of her life and the events surrounding her - She has built her view of life in the way she has to survive and to thrive in her life with Gentleman Jack. Her view is obscured due to the lies and half-truths she has been told and has believed because to do anything else would rip her world apart. She also behaves like a child would (a good change IMO from some kid lit that has children acting as teens and teens as adults -precocious beyond their years).
Yes there is some violence (death too) in the story but it is not glorified or graphic, and it is in keeping with the wild west tone of the story. No sex or sexual violence.
A world were not giving a penny in exchange for a weapon will result in that weapon turning on you. Is it magic or superstition?
Our nameless protagonist is Robber Girl. She is 9 or maybe 11. She rides with Gentleman Jack and his band. He is an outlaw and her hero, her saviour. Today is Day Zero. The day they will rob the stage coach and get the gold that will make Gentleman Jack heir to his grandmother's empire. But everything goes wrong. There was never gold, only a trap to catch an outlaw. Now Robber Girl has to learn tame ways in the house of the judge who trapped Gentleman Jack. Robber Girl isn't tame. She is wild and she knows if anyone can save Gentleman Jack it is her.
But maybe things are not as they seem, and maybe it is time to start believing in herself instead of Gentleman Jack?
Robber Girl at first appears like an unreliable narrator but as the story unfolds we see she has a child's view of her life and the events surrounding her - She has built her view of life in the way she has to survive and to thrive in her life with Gentleman Jack. Her view is obscured due to the lies and half-truths she has been told and has believed because to do anything else would rip her world apart. She also behaves like a child would (a good change IMO from some kid lit that has children acting as teens and teens as adults -precocious beyond their years).
Yes there is some violence (death too) in the story but it is not glorified or graphic, and it is in keeping with the wild west tone of the story. No sex or sexual violence.
November 5, 2021
In a hybrid Wild West historical/fantasy setting, the Robber Girl is ten, or possibly eleven, when she and Gentleman Jack are captured by the sheriff. To her dismay, she is taken into the Judge’s home rather than to jail with Gentleman Jack and asked to testify against him for the murder of the Federal Marshall. Though the voice of her dagger in her head tries to prevent it, the Robber Girl is slowly, in fits and starts, tamed. The Robber Girl’s true identity is glaringly obvious early on for the reader but her circuitous and painful journey to realizing it is the what makes the book so delightful – though towards the end of the novel it became difficult to believe that none of the adults in her life knew the truth (or did and made no effort to convince her of it). Still, the story is told very much in the voice and perspective of the Robber Girl – which is delightful – so one could make a case for her simply not registering any such arguments beyond the few brief sideways remarks from the Judge and Mr. Elton that she puzzles over. It is a difficult book to classify. The Robber Girl’s age and developmentally appropriate interests and concerns (dolls, family) would make it appear to be a novel for an upper elementary/middle school reader. But the writing is so literary and the packaging (the knife on the cover held by a hand that is clearly not a 10-year-old’s) is firmly Young Adult. I loved it (which may mean that it’s really an adult novel about childhood) but it may have a hard time finding the right readers – and that would be shame.
January 22, 2022
This is probably one of the harder reviews I've had to write. I absolutely loved this book. There are so many layers to it that make it hard to write about it. We have a young girl working alongside "Gentleman Jack" a known criminal. She believes he rescued her after her mother abandoned her. While trying to rob a stagecoach Gentleman Jack is caught. This young girl is taken home to the Judge's house. This is a house that has known sorrow. The judge and his wife lost their son and daughter to smallpox. As you read along you realize that things definitely are not what they seem. The judge and his wife try to "tame" this wild girl. She communicates with her dagger who keeps reminding her how much Gentleman Jack has done for her. You know something is afoot whenever she begins to communicate with the dolls in a dollhouse the judge had made for his daughter. The dagger also doesn't like when she thinks she remembers things. It doesn't want her to remember. There are definitely reasons Gentleman Jack has not named her. There are reasons she has been lied to for five years. She is the only one who holds the key to what Gentleman Jack wants. Better than that she holds the key to who and what she is. I tried to explain this to my students and had just as much trouble explaining it to them. I recommend this one to everyone who loves beautiful language, fantasy and unreliable characters.
September 15, 2021
When you meet this Robber Girl, you wonder how she ended up with that other 'robber', Gentleman Jack, but her angry thoughts sharing her amazing tale soon tell us much, so much that we readers know we're in for quite an extraordinary place and time created by Franny Billingsley. When Gentleman Jack is arrested, the judge takes the girl to his home, much to the dismay of his wife who continues to grieve for their dead children, lost to smallpox. The girl has an "affliction" that keeps her from talking unless asked a question although, in her mind, she talks, or is yelled at, by her dagger. The judge sends her to school, a terrible experience, which the dagger says is a "taming thing" and this girl is wild, in speech, in general knowledge, but not in her ways of taking care of herself. A dollhouse built by the judge plays a fantastic role in making change, along with the judge's caring treatment. The town itself seems old, is built around a celestial goddess, Blue Roses, and plays a part in the girl's change from wild to one who discovers her truth. I am imagining that the continual thoughts of the girl that tell the story are reminiscent of childhood thoughts themselves. Although fantastical in this story, children do keep secrets in their thoughts, often not quite real as well.
March 7, 2022
This story is rather unique--it's an "alternate history" historical fiction with some magical realism (sort of) and basically an unreliable narrator. It deals with trauma and memory loss, found family and family ties. It's set in the Old West but not really the "real" Old West. It took me awhile to get into it, probably because I was having to read it only in short sessions. Once I had time to sit and just immerse myself in it and get used to the odd way the narrator tells her story (the dialogue with the dagger gets annoying), I was hooked. It is about an orphan raised by outlaws, who is taken in by a Judge and his wife and learns more "civilized" ways of living while she is trying to get back to her outlaw father-figure and help him get rich. On the surface, it's the Wild West. But then you have things like a religion centered around the "Blue Rose" and the Seven Stars, plus a talking dagger and talking dollhouse dolls, which take this in a different, more philosophical, direction. I really liked the writing once I got used to Robber Girl's odd mannerisms, and found myself rooting for her. There is clearly some horrible tragedy in her past that has caused her not to be able to remember her life before the outlaws, and it has affected her whole personality. Not sure what teens I would recommend this to, unless I knew them very well.
June 28, 2023
I just finished and I am in awe of this strange and brilliant book. Kind of stunned. The book's world narrative comes to us through the eyes of a young girl who lives with self-aggrandizing criminals, and who doesn't know she was kidnapped years before. She has been trained to forget her past so she can be manipulated by her captors and kep in her place. Her wandering subconscious toward her past is continually reset by a dagger, which is also symbolic of the life she has been forced into and must adapt to in order to survive. Little by little her realities collide and her psychology shifts. She must make a choice to discover and become who she truly is.
I read this book first for the unique plot line and character. I will read it again for it's unconventional musical voice and poetic imaginings. There is always magical thinking hidden in Billingsley's prose, which almost feels unreachable, but reveals itself when one sits with it. Franny Billingsley is a writer I will always follow because her writing style is so unique and beautiful. This book is now on my favorites shelf along with The Folk Keeper.
I read this book first for the unique plot line and character. I will read it again for it's unconventional musical voice and poetic imaginings. There is always magical thinking hidden in Billingsley's prose, which almost feels unreachable, but reveals itself when one sits with it. Franny Billingsley is a writer I will always follow because her writing style is so unique and beautiful. This book is now on my favorites shelf along with The Folk Keeper.
January 19, 2022
The Robber Girl rides with Gentleman Jack to find the gold in Indigo Heart that is rightfully his. Barely eleven, the girl has no name as she was saved by Gentleman Jack when her mother abandoned her. Memories are absent in the time before.
Now, Gentleman Jack has been arrested for the murder of Marshall Starling. The Robber Girl must find a way to free him even though she is living with the Judge and Mrs. del Salto. While at their house, she finds a Dollhouse with a mother and father who give her 3 tasks...even though 3 is too many.
Here's The Robber Girl's story of redemption, survival, and secrets. Full of imagination, whimsy, and flowery language, it a tale as old as time: good vs. evil and knowing when to tell the difference. Folklore and fairy-taleish in its descriptions, The Robber Girl also leans into biblical and mythological subtle nods. A slow-moving story to savor while rooting for an unlikely heroine.
Now, Gentleman Jack has been arrested for the murder of Marshall Starling. The Robber Girl must find a way to free him even though she is living with the Judge and Mrs. del Salto. While at their house, she finds a Dollhouse with a mother and father who give her 3 tasks...even though 3 is too many.
Here's The Robber Girl's story of redemption, survival, and secrets. Full of imagination, whimsy, and flowery language, it a tale as old as time: good vs. evil and knowing when to tell the difference. Folklore and fairy-taleish in its descriptions, The Robber Girl also leans into biblical and mythological subtle nods. A slow-moving story to savor while rooting for an unlikely heroine.
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