The Clockill and the Thief
Gareth Ward
Walker Books
Pub. 2022

March 29, 2022

Poisoned blood, death’s door, a Covert Operation Group (COG) trying to stop the next world war, and a traitor escaped from custody.

The Clockill and the Thief is a sequel to the book The Traitor and the Thief by Gareth Ward. It tells the story of Sin, who is part of COG, and his friend Zonda Chubb and their frenemy Velvet Von Darque. They are tasked with capturing a traitor among the ranks of COG. Sin, who is dying from his blue blood, has to battle sky pirates and Clockill, the part man part machine creations. But Sin’s condition is worsening, and he seems to be running out of time.

This book is relevant to kids and teens these days as it deals with friendships, hard decisions and impossible scenarios. Although it is set in a fictional world where there are some unrealistic features, it still manages to present problems people face in the real world. It’s about how to manage hard decisions, and how sometimes those decisions aren’t the best for you, but they might help others.

I particularly like how, on the back of the book, there is a quote from the fictional Grym Book of Nursery Rhymes, that sets a mood to the book. When I read that, it interested me and helped me understand some parts of the book with the Clockill.

‘Tick-tock, chip-chop, cut out your heart and replace with a clock. Stitch it and sew it and stitch it again, heartless, invincible with cogs for a brain’.

Although it doesn’t relate much to the message of hard decisions it does help us understand more of the book and sets you up to understand more of the story.

There is another quote from the book that really supports the main message of this book.

‘”We’re all COG candidates,” said Zonda. “We’re all capable. We should draw straws.” She was right: they were all capable. In fact, Zonda and Velvet were probably more capable than Sin. His body was shutting down, the effects of his last injection already wearing off. That was the reason he wanted to go. If he stayed behind, he might die anyway’.

This quote from the book really shows the sorts of decisions the protagonists of the story are forced to face. They don’t have any adults with them, so they’re just three teens trying to make an impossible decisions, as we must in current times. It helps us to understand that sometimes we have to make hard decisions that don’t have any right or wrong answer, and that that’s okay.

Overall, I loved The Clockill and the Thief. I really hope there are more books in the series. It is an amazing story that disguises its messages in an adventure filled, dystopian novel. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves these sorts of stories.

• Hannah is a student in Auckland.