kandicez's review against another edition

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4.0

A fairy tale is the last place a child is safe, and yet the misfortune of childhood is learning this lesson as grown-ups sing songs of innocence and hand us these tales and stories. Gaiman is, as always, a marvel, for his ability to take the mundane, the mystical, the magical, the historical, and combine it all into not just a semblance of a story, but a web of experiences and images that are unlike anything else.

The stories of the dead detectives (boys themselves) and a group of children stolen away to a magical land, this story is an example of the real horror of violence against children. There were many passages/panels that left me aghast and only prove the strength of the tale and the illustrations that accompany it. Rather than pretend childhood is a time of innocence and bliss, Gaiman is able to show the real vulnerability of children and their subjectivity to vice and manipulation.

Fairy tales are often stories of horror, pain, loss, and danger, but Gaiman reminds us that, even in the darkest of places, the capacity for strength in human beings, especially children, is everlasting.

grimondgalgmod's review against another edition

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2.0

Ugh. I loved the original Children's Crusade event but this book is so disappointing. They should have just collected the annuals and one-shots instead of editing them all into a single "cohesive" story. Who cares if the crossover was unusual or confusing? I mean, this is early 90s Vertigo we're talking about and that's pretty much par for the course. I would recommend reading this only as a companion to those original issues, most of which I found in dollar bins at local comic shops.

xjuwita's review against another edition

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2.0

This took me longer than it should. I don’t feel anything for the characters. In fact, I couldn’t care less about what happened to them. Yes, it was that bad for me. Meh.

eekgranola's review against another edition

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3.0

Not my favorite Gaiman, but very Gaiman-esque. Lots of characters from different things in one place. Felt like I maybe needed to go back and read some of those works more.

5elementknitr's review against another edition

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5.0

An outstanding collaborative event! I loved the horrifying side stories of missing children through the ages. This is a ghost story, a horror story, a story of magic and the power of children.

apageinthestacks's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5/5

It kinda hurts that I'm rating a Gaiman book so low, but after about half way through part 1 I just couldn't get into it--I loved the way Gaiman opened the story, and I think the idea's fantastic, but it just didn't hold my interest all the way through. I definitely want to go back and reread this, though, especially after reading more of the Vertigo series the characters here come from.

onceandfuturelaura's review against another edition

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3.0

A cross over event of the child characters in Vertigo comics. I quite liked the characters from Sandman. The Big Bad was big and bad. I didn't understand the climax. There might have been something there about understanding truth and understanding what grounds us. Or maybe Tim Hunter is just annoying.

pas7281's review against another edition

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2.0

I definitely read this however I have virtually no understanding of what happened. What I did understand was good but I felt like I was missing like half the story

trippalli's review against another edition

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5.0

Love all the Gaiman grain novels

mackle13's review against another edition

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2.0

So, I thought this book was going to be more about the historical Children's Crusade than it was. The Crusade is referenced in the story as a historical point, but it's definitely not the focus.

Also, this is a collected work where parts are missing. Per Gaiman's intro, it was an attempted collaboration of various Vertigo authors, back in the day, but some people went off with their assignments and then didn't really follow the outline of the story. So those parts were sort of just not collected, but new middle pieces were written to tie it in together. But we're left with characters that are introduced, and reference, but then never really seen.

Overall, it was an interesting attempt, but it definitely didn't get executed properly.