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The Readymade Thief: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published:
Penguin Publishing Group 2017
Accelerated Reader:
IL: UG - BL: 6.1 - AR Pts: 19
Lexile measure:
870L
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
“The most must-read of all must-reads.” —Marie Claire
“A kickass debut from start to finish.” 
Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad

Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run.
 
Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all.
 
Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her—and why.
 
A novel of puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, urban exploration, art history, and a singular, indomitable heroine, The Readymade Thief heralds the arrival of a spellbinding and original new talent in fiction.


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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
08/01/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780735221857
ASIN:
B01MYWMZ80
Accelerated Reader:
UG
Level 6.1, 19 Points
Lexile measure:
870
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Augustus Rose. (2017). The Readymade Thief: A Novel. Penguin Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Augustus Rose. 2017. The Readymade Thief: A Novel. Penguin Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Augustus Rose, The Readymade Thief: A Novel. Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Augustus Rose. The Readymade Thief: A Novel. Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
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Shared Digital Collection33
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Grouped Work ID:
6f8fdff3-c4bd-b109-3502-d3b0cb408b17
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 17:23:14
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:44:50
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 21, 2024 08:53:21
Last Metadata Change:
Nov 19, 2023 10:02:55
Last Availability Check:
Apr 21, 2024 08:53:24
Last Availability Change:
Jun 27, 2023 05:49:53
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Apr 24, 2024 02:13:21

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“The most must-read of all must-reads.” —Marie Claire
“A kickass debut from start to finish.” 
Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad

Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run.
 
Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all.
 
Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her—and why.
 
A novel of puzzles, conspiracies, secret societies, urban exploration, art history, and a singular, indomitable heroine, The Readymade Thief heralds the arrival of a spellbinding and original new talent in fiction.


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      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
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        June 26, 2017
        The 17-year-old heroine of Rose’s debut novel, a richly detailed intellectual thriller set in contemporary Philadelphia, has already been through an adventurous childhood and adolescence when she ends up in juvie, set up by a former friend for a crime she hasn’t committed. Not that Lee Cuddy hasn’t earned her stay there: a natural-born shoplifter, she has also sold enough drugs to accumulate thousands of dollars in cash. Escaped from prison, she winds up in a creepy, cultish home for runaways and then goes on the lam with Tomi, a gentle Czech boy who has a talent for data retrieval, a taste for urban exploration, and a passion for the work of French artist Marcel Duchamp (whose “readymades” cemented the idea that ordinary objects could be considered art if their assembler defined them as such). After Lee steals a satchel from the office of the cult leader, she finds herself pursued by the mysterious Societe Anonyme, which is involved in the production of designer drugs. While Rose may put in one too many obscure references to alchemy and unified field theory, Lee is an excellent character, and the many shadowy settings she travels through make for a fascinating vision of an alternate, underground Philadelphia.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        June 1, 2017
        A young woman must outthink and outplay a group of men trying to uncover the deepest secrets of the universe (with the help of clues left by Marcel Duchamp) in Rose's debut novel.Lee has always felt invisible, taking advantage of this by shoplifting and dealing drugs to her high school classmates. When her friend Edie turns her in, Lee is sent to juvenile detention and then the psych ward, from which she manages to escape. Homeless, friendless, and directionless, Lee stumbles upon a group of other lost teens who live in the Crystal Castle under the control of a mysterious figure known as the Station Master. When she steals a strange object that turns out to be a work of art by Marcel Duchamp, Lee has no idea that she has attracted the obsessive interest of a shadowy and dangerous society that effectively worships Duchamp. They believe he left clues in his art that reveal the key to immortality, and they are willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone to decipher them. Together with her friend Tomi, an art fanatic who likes to creep around abandoned buildings, Lee fights to stay one step ahead of the Societe Anonyme, which seems to have spies everywhere and which has determined that Lee herself is central to their dastardly plans. The novel is complex on many intellectual levels, drawing heavily on theories of art history and physics, and the mystery is deep and satisfying in both its unpredictability and its culmination. The sheer scope is impressive, as are Rose's evocative descriptions of underground and abandoned places, reminiscent of David Lynch's films. Lee, despite being a strong survivor, doesn't captivate, however. Her survival depends on her ability to be self-sufficient and to separate herself from people, which also estranges her from the reader. Admirably ambitious but lacking in soul.

        COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        July 1, 2017

        It's a bit of a challenge to describe this first novel, which feels a little like David Mitchell wrote The Da Vinci Code and mixed in a bit from Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers. Seventeen-year-old Lee Cuddy would probably be the first to tell you that she's no model kid. She steals, sells drugs, and has had more than her fair share of run-ins with the police. Still, she has good grades and plans for the future, including college with her best friend Edie. But when Lee takes the fall for a drug deal gone bad, her college plans evaporate and she finds herself homeless and on the run from both the law and a shady underground organization that believes she possesses something of great importance. Enter Tomi, a gifted hacker, who takes Lee under his wing and introduces her to urban exploration and the art world, all while evading those who pursue them. Rose has created an excellent twisty plot set against a richly textured backdrop, but his characters feel a bit sketched. We don't get to know Lee particularly well, and the people around her feel a bit like foils to help move the story along. But what a story it is! VERDICT Give this one to readers looking for an unputdownable literary summer escape. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/17.]--Liz Kirchhoff, Barrington Area Lib., IL

        Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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“The most must-read of all must-reads.” —Marie Claire
“A kickass debut from start to finish.” 
Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad

Lee Cuddy is seventeen years old and on the run.
 
Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all.
 
Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city—empty aquariums, deserted motels, patrolled museums, and even the homes of vacationing families. But the...
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