The Thief

by George MacDonald

Like Gen, your protagonist here is an outsider thrust into a position of power within an ornate court structure, but where Gen uses cunning and theft, Maia must navigate politics through unexpected kindness and genuine connection. Addison builds her world through dialogue and social interaction rather than exposition, so you'll experience the same pleasure of gradually understanding the rules of a complex society alongside a character who's equally lost.

by Scott Lynch

This one's the obvious cousin to The Thief, but Lynch takes the con-artist-thief premise and adds a layer of genuine found-family warmth that Turner hints at but doesn't fully explore. The heist plotting is intricate without being convoluted, and Lynch has that same gift for making you trust an unreliable narrator—you'll find yourself constantly reassessing what you actually know about the characters' motivations.

by John Nalbandian

Chakraborty writes with the same attention to power dynamics and hidden agendas that makes The Thief so compelling, but she's working in a richly detailed Islamic-inspired fantasy world where magic operates on strict rules you'll need to learn alongside the characters. Like Gen, your protagonists here are people operating from positions of relative powerlessness, using intelligence and observation to survive in systems designed to crush them.

by Italo Calvino

This is the surprise recommendation—a 1979 metafictional novel that shares The Thief's obsession with unreliable narration and the reader's role in constructing meaning. Where Turner makes you question what Gen is really doing, Calvino makes you question what *you're* doing reading the book itself. It's playful rather than heavy-handed, and if you loved the trickster element of Gen's character, you'll appreciate how Calvino tricks the reader on nearly every page.