WORD LISTS

"Thieves' Gambit" by Kayvion Lewis, Chapters 1–6

Mon Feb 05 16:10:38 EST 2024
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
Born into a legendary family of thieves, seventeen-year-old Rosalyn Quest tries to escape the criminal life by applying to college programs outside of the Bahamas, but when her mom disappears, she realizes that the best chance to save her would be winning a competition of international heists.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–15, Chapters 16–23, Chapters 24–34, Chapters 35–47
forge
I was starting to worry they’d seen through the transcripts I frantically forged for the applications.
sparse
I crept past the mansion’s rooms with untouched four-poster beds, sparse bookcases, and bare end tables.
tasteful
The Kenyan stars and moon lent just enough light to see how stock-standard the room was. Tidy furniture. Tasteful wall art.
finesse
With the window shut, I scaled the brick wall to the camera facing the lawn. I had ten seconds to stop it from swinging toward me. No time for finesse. I ripped out the larger of the two cords feeding into the wall.
custom
Mom would tell me to think about a new laptop. Five-hundred-dollar braids. Custom kicks that no one but she and Auntie would ever see me wearing.
conscience
The thought of her panicking in a closet for days or weeks twisted my conscience.
exemplary
“Look at my baby, being exemplary and all,” Mom said, clicking the case open and examining the prize.
accentuate
She was a glamorous sort of beauty. Long weave and tasteful eyelash extensions. Thick hips and a pinched waist she loved to accentuate—the complete opposite of my more slender build.
stiletto
Her style was dramatic, not fur coat and stilettos level, but enough that whenever we went someplace where she could really flex herself, she was always drawing double takes.
elaboration
“Hm...maybe not.” Mom looked straight ahead into the empty stretch of road and savannah grasses. I waited for an elaboration. A reason, something.
renowned
As a nationally renowned program, we are excited to attract dozens of talented young athletes every summer who are passionate about befriending peers in their field.
gambit
You are invited to participate in this year’s Thieves’ Gambit. The competition will begin in one week.
painstakingly
Custom-embroidered white Chucks with hundreds of tiny gold leaves painstakingly sewn into the canvas, painted along the rubber seams, and cut into the soles, with sparkling gold laces to match. My shoes were gorgeous.
practical
“I take personal offense to that, Auntie. And even more offense to the thought that I would buy anything I couldn’t move in.” It wasn’t like I collected pumps and platform boots. My custom Chucks were perfectly practical for training.
oxymoron
“Have you ever heard of something called the Thieves’ Gambit?” It was the first time I’d said the words aloud, and they sounded as bizarre as they had in my head. Thieves’, plural possessive? It was an oxymoron. Thieves don’t just get together.
saunter
She moved her braids over her shoulder and sauntered away, fishing a pair of handcuffs out of a supply box packed with a variety of practice locks.
exhilaration
Trusting people in the industry, outside of the family, was out of the question. The options were stay locked up here or give up the life and make normal friends. I would give up the exhilaration of weekly heists for that.
broach
She could help me broach the topic with Mom.
resent
It wasn’t fair of me to resent Mom for the whole dad situation.
waft
Coconut lotion wafted off her, and for a second, I really did feel like I was little again.
render
It was final. The word was on the stone, and the verdict was rendered. No cross-examination. No testimony from me.
fritter
We were on Paradise Island—the one most people think of when picturing the Bahamas. Tall coral towers, white sand beaches dotted with shacks selling conch fritters, and a range of marinas hosting sleek and elegant yachts worth more money than most of the tourists flittering around the island would see in a dozen lifetimes.
lavish
Belowdecks on one of those lavish yachts was our target, and our tenth-floor hotel room had a perfect bird’s-eye view.
smug
It was hard not to let anything smug slip on my face. Mom had dragged me here for my exit-planning genius, and I was using it to run off.
starboard
We’ll buoy our Zodiac between that area and the starboard side of the bow, since there aren’t any portholes nearby, then follow the map I routed through a manhole on the first deck, through the engine room, and into the hold.
convoluted
Leaning over, I swiped to another pair of blueprints, these showing a much more convoluted emergency route tangling through crew cabins around to the bow of the ship. “There’s this too, but it’s messy. My first route should be fine,” I said.
addendum
This was easy money, for real. What was going to be a bit harder was my addendum.
abstract
My sneakers, a palette of ocean blues with abstract waves and foam and coral-green laces, jumped against the boat floor.
lucrative
It was a lucrative business, obvious by this fancy yacht, and just as illegal as what we were doing.
dinghy
Then I followed the blueprints in my head through the shadows of the hold to a small nook flanked with bolted shelves and dinghies.
provisions
In the middle of a collection of neatly stacked lifejackets, first aid kits, and emergency provisions, I found it, just like the online yacht-crew message board said.
deem
An airtight door—deemed too narrow and unsafe for evacuation by the International Maritime Safety Committee, and therefore removed from all emergency-exit-planning blueprints—sat closed with a metal wheel smack in its center.
frugal
I’d have to be frugal with these. Still, I couldn’t help it. “I want one now.”
estranged
I barely knew my grandparents and estranged great-aunt. Mom was never invited to any family reunions, so I assumed I wasn’t either.
excursion
I’d thought she’d be the one person happily waiting for me, resentment free, when I eventually got back from my college excursion, but the world was suddenly so much different than what I’d thought today was going to be.
presume
“You’ve called to register, I presume?”
sentinel
He hovered behind the counter like standing sentinel there had always been his life’s dream.
subtle
A strange smell lingered in the air. A stiff, subtle sweetness. I’d have assumed it was something dangerous if the woman in front of me hadn’t been breathing it too.
complimentary
The flight attendant brought me a tray with a glass of water and packaged cookies. I waved them away, but she pulled out the tray table and placed them down anyway.
“Complimentary.”
loll
I didn’t even know what continent I’d wake up on. If I would wake up.
I swallowed, feeling my head start to loll.

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