Line #57 Literature/SkateTheThief


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3	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skatethethiefcover.png]]
4	[[caption-width-right:333:Beware of Spilling Ink!]]
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6	->''"A book belongs to everybody, in the end, doesn’t it? The stories, the lessons, the discoveries, they all belong to everyone, when it’s all said and done."''
7	-->--'''Barrison Belamy''', ''a.k.a "The Iron Wind"''
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9	''Skate the Thief'' (Book 1 of the Rag and Bone Chronicles) is a young adult fantasy novel written by Jeff Ayers, published in 2020.
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11	The titular Skate, an orphan in a street gang reminiscent of the Artful Dodger's crew in ''Literature/OliverTwist'', bungles a burglary of a reclusive old man, who turns out to be a powerful wizard. He offers her a deal: "borrow" books for him from other libraries in return for room and board - and the chance to learn to read and write.
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13	With the gang (called the Ink) breathing down her neck and expecting results, Skate has to navigate new loyalties, old rivalries, strange creatures, and dangerous incursions into unwelcoming libraries. There's also a flying eyeball spider who likes to cook.
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15	The book is getting a sequel in September of 2023, ''Skate the Seeker''.
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17	----
18	!! This book provides examples of:
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20	* AbusivePrecursors: The elves are long gone; records that exist of their exploits don't paint a pleasant picture of how they treated humans (or each other, for that matter).
21	* ActionGirl: The title character certainly counts, being a young girl who gets in fights, runs from the police force of the city, and takes on dangerous burglary jobs.
22	* AddictiveMagic: Skate is warned that using the CrystalBall unsupervised is dangerous because of this, though other magic is not mentioned to have this particular danger.
23	* AfterActionPatchUp: Thanks to a magical bottle helpfully exhibited by Belamy, Skate recovers from a high fall with little fuss after escaping from a "borrowing" session.
24	* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Late in the book, thanks to Kite, [[spoiler:a group of ruffians walks right into Belamy's (mostly) empty home.]]
25	* AlliterativeName: Barrison Belamy, introduced in the first chapter when Skate's [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal bungled burglary backfires]].
26	* AmplifierArtifact: Skate has to use a golden gyroscope to help her use the CrystalBall, since she has no magical training.
27	* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:In their fight, Belamy lures Hugo into close range, refusing to strike back or even defend himself, in order trap him for the sake of blowing them both up with the rubies on his robes.]]
28	* BlackMarket: Trafficking in stolen and otherwise illegal goods is how the Ink makes its money.
29	* BlingOfWar: Belamy received a gift of extravagant red robes from the king after the war. He keeps them locked up in the basement for most of the book.
30	* BlueBlood: Laribel Ossertine is descended from a famous hero KnightInShiningArmor of the past, and considers Belamy's decision to house a common child off the street as misguided at best and dangerous at worst.
31	* BookcasePassage: Belamy has one that leads to an alchemy lab in the basement, opened by the classic method of pulling the right book on the shelf.
32	* BornOfMagic: Rattle. Belamy calls its creation an accident, saying that Rattle was not what he had meant to make at all when casting the spell that made it.
33	* BorrowedWithoutPermission: Belamy’s InsistentTerminology regarding what he’s asking Skate to do, which is stealing. He does actually want to return them when he's done, though, to Skate's surprise.
34	* TheCaper: several chapters revolve around Skate’s burglaries.
35	* CityOfAdventure: The port city of Caribol, the seat of a barony, offers dangers and exciting secrets. It's got armed guards, witches and wizards, and dangerous thieves. The whole story takes place in this city, and it's large enough to have specific named districts that locals are familiar with.
36	* CollidingCriminalConspiracies: [[spoiler:The Ink's plans for Belamy bump into the robberies planned by Tillby's crew in the finale.]]
37	* CombatPragmatist: Skate and Twitch fight dirty, having never received any formal combat training.
38	* CoolOldGuy: At 107, Belamy is willing to take in a street orphan and teach her to read and write, has the respect of several competent wizards and scholars, is a WarHero, and takes on a criminal organization to help his friend out of a jam without a second thought.
39	* CrystalBall: Belamy has one, and Skate uses it with Petre's guidance to find Twitch. Using these is considered dangerous, as spying on people is addictive, often causing people to neglect things like eating and sleeping to spend more time looking into the ball.
40	* CrystalPrison: Petre is trapped inside of a crystal ball filled with blue smoke as a punishment for a murder he committed. [[spoiler: The truth is more complicated; he didn't actually murder Alphetta, but through a combination of his negligence and her recklessness, she ended up dead. He blames - and punishes - himself through Belamy.]]
41	* DeadlyEuphemism: "Spilling ink" is used by Ink members as a stand-in for spilling blood; Ink members are told that "spilled ink flows both ways," meaning that any blood drawn against a member will be repaid in kind.
42	* TheFagin: The Ink as a whole is happy to use children as burglars and pickpockets. Boss Marshall fits the role most nicely on an individual level.
43	* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Hugo was a teenager who tried to flee the horrors of the war while under Belamy's command. Belamy's adherence to military law ends up accidentally getting Hugo turned into a vampire, who later becomes a vicious crime lord, and eventually goes out in a blaze of fire in a fight with Belamy.]]
44	* GroinAttack: Skate delivers a well-deserved one to Kite, delivering a swift kick to the jewels in order to get away from the older boy in one confrontation.
45	* HonorAmongThieves: The Ink has their rules on how business is to be done, and breaking any of them is suggested to be a death sentence.
46	* IdleRich: Other than her occasional visits with Belamy and other magic users, Ossertine doesn’t seem to do much, choosing to while away the days reading books in her impressive library. Belamy also doesn’t appear to have a day job.
47	* {{Jerkass}}: Kite is a violent, selfish, opportunistic bully.
48	* KingOfThieves: The bosses of the Ink are all under the direction of the Big Boss[[spoiler:, who turns out to be a ruthless vampire with an understandable vendetta against Belamy.]]
49	* LadyOfBlackMagic: Ossertine is a proper, titled Lady who holds etiquette and class in high regard and also studies magic with other scholars in the city.
50	* LittleMissConArtist: Skate, a ten-year-old girl, shows proficiency in maintaining a disguise during a burglary.
51	* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler:Alphetta Belamy died in a magical accident. Her death set in motion [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Barrison's]] transformation into a lich and is why Petre's chooses penance in his CrystalPrison. A statuette of her is thought to be Belamy's SoulJar, but ends up being more of a beacon for bringing back her father after his destruction.]]
52	* MemoryJar: The red stones that Skate examines in the first chapter turn out to be these, memories of Belamy's that he's stored in physical form. He can share them with people.
53	* MobWar: A rival gang, the Claws, have tried to move into Caribol in the past, but the Ink has always shut them out.
54	* NiceToTheWaiter: This is one of the guiding rules of the Ink. Being open with gifts to tavern and coffeehouse workers means the Ink is less likely to attract trouble, and the generosity may even engender enough good will for owners to send the Baron's Guard off in the wrong direction in a pinch.
55	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Rattle is a spider bat eyeball.
56	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:Big Boss Hugo's confrontation with Belamy in the climax mostly consists of the vampire pummeling the lich's body ''hard enough to knock chunks of skin off'', with Belamy not even trying to fight back.]]
57	* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Hugo]], in the final confrontation, has one of these moments when he realizes he's trapped with what amounts to dozens of timebombs.
58	* OurLichesAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Belamy pursued some alternative path to getting to undeath, citing foul magic he wasn't willing to do to get there, but does call himself a lich. The magic keeping him going seems to work the same way.]]
59	* PapaWolf: Best not to threaten Skate around Belamy; her being threatened is the one time in the book we see him lose composure.
60	* PoliceBrutality: The Baron's Guard is noted for having few qualms about violently dealing with thieves in Caribol.
61	* ProtectionRacket: The enforcers of the Ink use this as a source of free income, made easier by the fact that the Ink doesn't allow any criminal activity other than its own in Caribol.
62	* PurposeDrivenImmortality: [[spoiler:Belamy feared that his life would end before he could catch up to Petre, so he paused his pursuit to figure out how to make eternal life work ''without'' doing something horrible in the process. Having caught Petre, he seems to have decided to spend the rest of eternity reading books.]]
63	* RedBaron: Belamy picked up the nickname “The Iron Wind” during his time in the war decades past, and other characters still know him by the moniker rather than his real name.
64	* RobbingTheDead: An interesting example, as [[spoiler:(1) Belamy is an ''undead'', and able to thwart the attempt in the first chapter; and (2) Skate didn't know he was not alive when she broke in.]]
65	* SelfRestraint: [[spoiler:Petre. He mentions that all he would have to do to leave the glass ball is ask Belamy to release him.]]
66	* TheShutIn: Before breaking into his house and learning his name, Skate notes that Belamy lives alone, never goes anywhere, and rarely has any visitors.
67	* SignificantWardrobeShift: After moving into Belamy's house, Skate gets some new clothes to replace the tattered rags she'd been wearing before, and she keeps the nicer outfit as her new look.
68	* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Haman, the wizard in Boss Marshall's employ, is very knowledgeable and is the only character described as wearing glasses.
69	* SoulJar: [[spoiler:Belamy, as a lich, must have one, and Skate is tasked by the Ink to find and take it for the purposes of pressing the old wizard into the Ink's service. Skate thinks it's a statuette of dancing woman, but after Belamy's destruction, the figurine is revealed to be some sort of pathfinding tool rather than the soul jar itself.]]
70	* SpeechImpediment: Twitch has a p-p-pronounced stutter, but it doesn't get in the way of others understanding him.
71	* StreetUrchin: Skate, Twitch, and other children either sleep on the street or in the hideouts maintained by the Ink, having no families to take care of them.
72	* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Belamy takes himself out in the end with a set of timed fireballs inside a forcefield to make sure Hugo can't get away. Being a lich, he should have plans to get better, though.]]
73	* TattooedCrook: Ink members all get matching tattoos somewhere on their bodies, with Skate getting hers on her back at the age of ''six''.
74	* ThievesGuild: The Ink, and though they're the only such group in town, we're told of at least one more (the Claws) who are active elsewhere.
75	* ThroughTheCeilingStealthily: Skate gets into Ossertine's house through a straw-covered hatch on the ceiling, and manages to get to the library without being found.
76	* TimeBomb: A magical version is used to devastating effect near the end of the book. It's one of [[spoiler:Belamy]]'s specialties.
77	* UnnamedParent: We don't learn Skate's parents' names; they lived in obscurity in the slums of Caribol and died when Skate was very young.

Context Literature / SkateTheThief