Graphic Novel Reviews: Lily the Thief

Lily is a young girl whose life goal is to become a master thief. She is part of a guild, working under the eye of her mentor, Seamus. Until now she has been sent on menial quests for objects of little value, but she is ready to prove her worth to the guild master. After completing her latest quest, Seamus inquires about giving her a shot at higher level quests. She sneaks into the meeting and listens to the conversation from the shadows. Apparently the guild master thinks very little of her and never plans to give her a chance at next level quests. Of course this doesn’t sit well with her, so she steals a quest scroll and decides to take fate into her own hands! 

The quest takes her to a castle where a group called the Brotherhood of Fire has made an offer to purchase a coffin and relic of a long dead king. Her mission is to steal these items. She manages to get her hands on the relic, but accidentally alerts the castle guards of her presence. They surround her, but she is able to narrowly escape their clutches. 

Lily stays hidden overnight, and in the morning decides to transfer the relic to Seamus in order to get it into the guild masters hands. However, when she arrives at his house, she finds the guards from the castle have beaten and captured him. The guards take both of them to the Earl of the village. He shares that he was the one who gave the guild master the quest with hopes of double crossing the Brotherhood of Fire and that he wishes to use the relic to unlock a door to a long lost treasure. He enlists Lily to steal the two remaining keys to the door. He already has one that was hidden within the stolen relic.

Lily ventures to the prison of the Brotherhood of Fire in search of the second key. While there she overhears the Brotherhood’s plan to free an ancient god, Ithiel. She locates and retrieves the key while causing a riot in the process. When she arrives in the city, she tells Seamus what she heard in the prison. He tells her Ithiel was a god from ancient stories who tried to wipe out the human race! Despite the warning, Lily travels to the crypt where the final key rests with the last fallen king. She grabs the key but also wakes up a horde of undead soldiers.

After escaping and returning to the kingdom, she has a change of heart and decides not to give the final key to the Earl. Instead she goes to the guild master. It turns out he sold her out to the Earl who then comes and massacres the entire guild of thieves. He opens the locked door expecting treasure but instead discovers the corpse of Ithiel who comes back to life and promises revenge upon the world that cast him away.

This story is full of fun, fantasy and adventure and is sure to hold the reader’s attention until the very end. Janne Kukkonen has done an excellent job at storytelling and creating the mythology within the pages. Readers will look forward to finding out what comes next after they have finished! Perfect for fans of “Mighty Jack” and “Zita the Spacegirl”, both published by the same publisher, First Second.