The Art Thieves: List 4

by Andrea L. Rogers
In a climate-ravaged future, Cherokee teen Stevie Henry must decide whether to trust a mysterious boy claiming to be a time traveler sent to steal and protect priceless artwork before an impending apocalypse destroys it.

This list covers vocabulary from "Red Dirt Boogie, Brother"–"I’m Sorry."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. untenable
    incapable of being defended or justified
    “Why?”
    “Because the planet is about to communicate pretty loudly that what is happening now is untenable. And—” He paused.
  2. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    “...The impact of that many shadow operations on current communications and digital and energy technology is unfathomable, unpredictable.”
  3. affinity
    a close connection marked by community of interests
    “People pick and choose based on their affinities and families.”
  4. inconsistency
    the quality of lacking a harmonious uniformity among parts
    Now and then I asked him random questions, questions that tested the abilities of a world-builder, checking for inconsistencies in his stories, his ability to repeat the same information.
  5. platonic
    free from physical desire
    “Because that kiss felt pretty platonic,” I remarked.
  6. abscond
    run away, often taking something or somebody along
    “How do I know you’re not here to bring about the end of the world? Or making it all up so I’ll help you steal some priceless artwork and abscond to Costa Rica or something?”
  7. provenance
    where something originated or started
    “...If you are willing, you would meet with a curator, donate another forgery—a piece with Cherokee provenance, ties to Chief Bowles and his son and Sam Houston—and help switch the headdress out for another.”
  8. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    Mom and I weren’t stingy with our tears, with Levi elsewhere. But Dad was all stoic, as if all would be well, as if it was simply a matter of getting through.
  9. missive
    a written message addressed to a person or organization
    Then I heard the fax machine make the jarring noise it used to always make, like screaming telephone lines, or missives from space.
  10. ambient
    completely enveloping
    I heard Adam walk around the cavernous warehouse and could tell by his footsteps and the other ambient noise that he had sat on his old iron bed.
  11. reconnoiter
    explore, often with a goal of finding something or somebody
    In my non-working hours I could both reconnoiter and sightsee.
  12. unrepentant
    not feeling or expressing remorse
    “They told me they’d rather have a dead child than an unrepentant sinner.”
  13. cul de sac
    a street with only one way in or out
    Levi began to ask Adam questions about where they were going as we walked to the semi parked at the end of the cul-de-sac.
  14. swath
    a path or strip (also figurative)
    Fires had destroyed a large swath of land on the southwest of our city, taking out million-dollar homes, businesses, and small homes overnight.
  15. pittance
    an inadequate payment
    According to the news, some of the poor had no homeowner’s insurance and were being offered a pittance of their land value by real estate developers.
Created on Sun Sep 20 17:58:21 EDT 2026 (updated Tue Nov 03 14:30:55 EST 2026)

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