I just finished the book The Child Thief
by Brom, the book that has been on my sidebar for a while and thought I would give my opinion of it.The Child Thief is based on the Peter Pan story, originally written by J. M. Barrie. Everyone is familiar with Peter Pan, the lovable boy who never grows up, battles pirates, and takes other children for great adventures in Neverland. The author Brom, however, interpreted Barrie's story differently. He saw Peter as dangerously unbalanced, a frightening character who kidnapped children for his own ends, who placed them in dangerous situations that led to death, and the "pirates" as misunderstood adults trapped against their will in a land of magic.
Yeah, I know, that is one serious reinterpretation.
The book opens in New York with our meeting a boy named Nick who's brother is killed by gang members. He is saved from a similar fate by Peter, who then leads him through a magical mist onto the island of Avalon, where he lives with his gang of kidnapped children named Devils.
As the book progresses, we meet more of the children who are being trained as warriors to fight and kill creatures known as Flesh Eaters. The Flesh Eaters are actually a settlement of Pilgrims who accidentally landed on Avalon while looking for the New World. As adults, their bodies were not able to absorb the magic in the food, water, and air in Avalon and were physically warped into monstrous looking people. The Flesh Eaters are governed by a man known as The Reverend who sees the faerie creatures as demons; Captain Hook, known simply as The Captain, is made out to be a sympathetic man, partial to the fate of the children, and a hero rather than a villain.
We see the children taught to hate, murder, and fight under the direction of Peter who himself is somewhat under the control of a faerie called The Lady, a figure obviously based on The Lady of the Lake. We see the villagers under the control of The Reverend, a man with powerful religious convictions, who keeps the villagers under his thumb and inflicts torture and terror upon any children who are captured while The Captain does his best to temper the atrocities inflicted by the other villagers.
All in all, I cannot see how this book can be considered a reloading of the Peter Pan story. Rather, this is a twisted and dark tale that usurped the characters created a century ago by J. M. Barrie. It took me three weeks to finish it; not because I am a slow reader, but because I had to force myself to turn each page.
If you like dark and unsettling tales, you will definitely like The Child Thief. The author does a very good job of creating and incorporating unpleasant emotions and events (one of the children Peter "saves" is molested by her father), uses many familiar myths (Lady of the Lake, Cernunnos the Horned God, etc), and crafting memorable characters. If you like escapist fantasy, fun stories, and a happy ending, I suggest you stay away from this book.
