Reviews

The Child Thief by Brom

sam_hartwig's review

3.0

I have finally finished, yay! Ok so firstly I have to say that this book is disturbing! I thought the idea of Peter Pan kidnapping children and taking them to his magical place to help fight his war sounded interesting. After reading the first page I thought 'hmm what am I getting myself into?' But I continued on and found the book to be quite engaging, I liked how at times Peter would remember back to his past and give us a tiny taste of how he became the warrior he is and i looked past the violence and gore because i felt that was an important part of the book. But then about 3 quarters of the way through I became a little bored and kind of wanted the book to wrap up so I could find out what happened in the end, I have to admit the last 200 pages were rushed through and I only read the important parts. I can't say that I liked the ending but I didn't hate it either, I guess I expected it to not have a happy ending but being the mushy person I am I wished that after all the horrible things that happened to the characters in the story that I could at least read a happy ending but no... So all in all I give this book 3 stars because I did like it, I just wished it had a happier ending and the story moved along quicker. Ps the illustrations in the book were really awesome! Pps there was ALOT of swearing in the book which kind of put me off too, I'm ok with foul language in a book but this was a little too much for me. I'd say the "F" word is used over 100 times...

atpbs's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

floressius's review

It was boring and flat, the characters weren't interesting, and the dark stuff veered towards being edgy rather than impactful/actually meaningful. The dialogue was also cringe-worthy and poor, the story meandred too much, and Peter's entire backstory was ridiculous. 

I wanted to enjoy this, so it was pretty disappointing for it to be this bad. DNF as I didn't want to waste anymore time on it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment and Rape

klparmley's review

3.0

2012: This was much darker and, may I say, grimmer than I care to read right now. Child abuse and cannibalism is just not what I want to subject myself to.

2019: 3.5 stars. I liked Lost Gods better. But, it's a later book. So....

It's an interesting revision of Peter Pan.

davidcottington's review

2.0

I was a bit disappointed with this after reading Slewfoot.

jennywrennn's review

5.0

I loved this but also what the f***.

christineponkey's review

3.0

started off as a good re-telling of Peter Pan and then became a long-winded book with a constantly changing plot

it's unpredictable the way peter pan was in the book

kmkaleo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my 3rd read of Brom’s this year and is another easy 5 star rating. The Child Thief is a twist on the story of Peter Pan. It can best be described as a blend of Peter Pan and the legend of King Arthur. Peter is a mysterious boy who lives in a magical land called Avalon. He goes into the human realm to find downtrodden children to bring back to Avalon to become one of his Devils. But Avalon is in trouble, and Peter has to take serious action to protect the heart of Avalon. But that action comes at great cost. Brom’s writing is detailed and original and magical. Every book of his is an incredible piece of storytelling, and I cannot recommend his works enough. 

dingoesatemyromany's review against another edition

Too slow

strategineer's review against another edition

3.0

An edgy retelling of Peter Pan by Brom, the illustrator who's work you've definitely seen before (Doom II, Diablo II).

Suffers from both "white man syndrome", racist caricatures and paper thin women, and "first novel syndrome", unpolished and rough main character.

The illustrations are great though and it had potential.

I've heard that his more recent work, Slewfoot, is much better and I'm planning to read it eventually.