The central premise of this book is that everyone lives in a world without books or reading. That is, there is a library in one place with a small number of people who read, and a magic book that seems to tell the future that everyone is looking for, but the rest of the population doesn't read. This concept isn't really explored. That is, society seems exactly the same, since in old-fashioned worlds in fantasy people often aren't sitting around with a paperback anyway. But I suspect the world might be even more different without reading than this.

And of course our main character teaches herself to read, as people tend to do in these books. (Tarzan does it too!) The story held my interest, basically. Sefia travels with her Aunt and the two of them are petty thieves, but the aunt is quickly kidnapped. Sefia then decides to figure out the story behind this magical book her parents were murdered for, and save her aunt. She meets a boy who's been tortured and made to kill for sport and is chased by the mysterious people who want The Book and also people who want the boy, and they meet a group of friendly pirates.

Ultimately, the revelations are underwhelming because they're fairly standard fantasy stuff. People have been chasing the boy because they think he might be a Chosen One, but it turns out the girl is also The Special, descended as she is from Mom and Dad Special etc. So it didn't really grab me, but it was better than plenty of other books in the genre that I have read.