Story Thieves: Worlds Apart
‘Worlds Apart’ is the last book in the Story Thieves series, and I loved it! I didn't want the series to end, but it sadly did. I was really looking forward to seeing this book-themed world where the fictional and non-fictional worlds were torn apart. It is the longest book in the series with almost 500 pages and is written by James Riley. It was published in the year 2018 by Aladdin. The genre of this book is adventure, even though it says it is a genre- bending book on the back cover.
This book is about bringing the fictional and non-fictional Bethany-ies back together and forming the old Bethany. Two Bethanyies and one confused Owen will obviously mean a whole lot of adventure. In this fifth and final book in the New York Times bestselling series ‘Story Thieves’ Owen and Bethany try to find their way back to each other after the fictional and nonfictional worlds are torn apart.
As the book opens, it’s been a few months since Nobody separated the fiction and non-fiction worlds. Owen is now living in a world with no imagination, and he can’t imagine it any other way. It is making the library where his mother works empty since no one is interested in any books, even non-fiction. Owen and Bethany have failed from letting Nobody split the fictional and non- fictional worlds. Bethany who is split in 2, lives in another world but no one minds as they’ve all lost their imagination. But one day, Owen gets trapped in a dark reality 5 years in the future where there are no books. On the other hand, fictional Bethany is happy to be trained by her superhero father until she realizes without the non- fictional world’s support, her world would fade away. Owen and his friends would have to risk everything to finish Nobody to save the worlds.
The characters in this story are Owen, Bethany, fictional Bethany, Charm, Kiel, Kara, Nobody, Fictional Owen and Dr. Verity. Owen, Bethany, Charm and Kiel do all the fighting. Bethany and her fictional form are both captured by Nobody, who is the villain. Fictional Owen is on Nobody’s side. Dr. Verity played a small role but he helped in saving the worlds.
I cannot imagine any fan being disappointed by this book. From the very start I’ve been very anxious to find out what would happen each step along the way. That’s what happens when you’ve got characters you care about and added to that, is the fact that each book has thrilling endings. ‘Worlds Apart’ ends the series, and it does so on a high note.
We meet some fun characters over the course of the series, and almost all of them are back to playing major roles in the final chapter. The climax was perfect for this series, and it wrapped things up nicely. I was happy since I love all of these characters, and I was happy to see them one more time.
The series has always had some humor, and I got some grins and laughs out of this book as well. Pun lover that I am, I especially enjoyed some puns we get in the second half. Because of Nobody’s name, there were some funny parts like Kiel’s line: “Nobody tells me what to do” or one of Nobody’s henchmen’s line: “No one’s plan is better than Nobody’s”.
There are some valuable lessons about the importance of fiction and imagination along with the importance of grounding things in reality. We realize that how dull our world would be if there was no imagination. The book is not preachy about it; these are just a natural outgrowth of the story that is told here.
I suggest this book for readers of age 9-12. This book gets 4.5 out of five from me.