Margaret Owen is an American author. Her works include The Merciful Crow, The Faithless Hawk, and the Little Thieves series.
Career Owen's debut novel, The Merciful Crow, was released in 2019. It is a young adult fantasy novel set in a world where people are divided into castes, such Phoenixes, Hawks, and Crows, with Crows being the lowest caste. It follows Fie, a Crow, who must protect a prince and his bodyguard. A sequel, The Faithless Hawk, was published in 2020.
In 2021, she published Little Thieves, the first book in the eponymous series. Based on the fairytale The Goose Girl, it follows Vanja Schmidt, a thief known as the Penny Phantom, who takes over the identity of a princess and then must find a way to avoid her fate after a god inflicts a curse on her that will kill her if she does not atone for her crimes. The series continued with Painted Devils in 2022, which has Vanja become a cult leader, and concluded with Holy Terrors in 2025. Holy Terrors was a finalist for the 2026 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.
In 2026, she released Rootbound, a tie-in novel for the Disney film Tangled, which follows Rapunzel and Eugene as they travel to the seclusive kingdom of Astera a month after the events of the film.
She is also the co-editor for the 2023 anthology The Grimoire of Grave Fates alongside Hanna Alkaf.
Personal life Owen lives in Seattle.
Publications
The Merciful Crow
Little Thieves
Other Novels
Anthology Contributions
References