Thieves’ Gambit: Shifting Desire (KLC Podcast, S2 Ep. 4)
podcast highlights by Kristi Wright
This season, Erin Nuttall and Anne-Marie Strohman are diving deep into Kayvion Lewis’s YA novel Thieves’ Gambit, the thrilling story of Rosslyn Quest, who comes from a family of international super thieves.
In the fourth episode of the podcast, Nuttall and Strohman focus on desire, specifically shifting desire. A main character in a story typically has both an external desire, a tangible goal that the character has and works toward during the course of the story, and an internal desire, the often profound–sometimes hidden or subconscious–need that steers a character’s emotional journey.
In Thieves’ Gambit, the main character, Ross, also has a Shifting Desire because her external desire changes early in the story. Initially in the novel, Ross’s external desire is to attend a normal gymnastics camp. She has applied behind her mom’s back, and gets an email accepting her into the camp early on. In the first few scenes, it becomes clear that her internal desire is to have friends and not be lonely. When she agrees to help her mom out with a new heist, secretly, she’s planning to escape:
My fingers itched the way they always did when I was about to steal something. But they weren’t itching for treasure this time; I was stealing my own future back. (p30)
Then her mom is kidnapped. This inciting incident changes everything. Now Ross’s external desire shifts to saving her mom’s life. To access enough money for the ransom, she must compete in the Thieves’ Gambit, against other teen thieves, to win the prize.
Sometimes stories have a little mini-arc at the beginning with an easily solved goal that introduces the character and how they approach problems. But here, the mini-arc at the beginning is more about moving the character from what she wants in a less pressured situation to having what she wants change as the stakes are raised and everything becomes super high-pressure.
Interestingly, her new external desire is in opposition to her internal desire. Whereas her original external desire, to go to gymnastics camp, would have naturally aligned with getting her friends and abating her loneliness, the new external desire demands that she not trust anyone, that she treat everyone as the enemy, that she focus only on her external goal. By shifting Ross’s external desire, Lewis gives her readers a story with impossible obstacles and high stakes.
In Episode 4 of the KidLit Craft Podcast: Thieves’ Gambit, Erin and Anne-Marie discuss how Lewis sets up these external, internal, and shifting desires with high stakes and obstacles that drive an extremely compelling story.
LISTEN TO EPISODE 4 ON APPLE PODCASTS, OR WHEREVER YOU LISTEN.
Watch for Episode 5
In Episode 5, Erin and Anne-Marie will explore the complicated family dynamics that are introduced in Thieves’ Gambit, especially between Ross and her mom, and how their complicated relationship creates obstacles to Ross realizing both her external and internal desires.
REMINDER: There is so much going on in this book that it’s impossible to stay away from spoilers. So, be warned!
Find out more about the KidLit Craft podcast HERE.
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