Reviews

The Child Thief by Brom

crowsandprose's review against another edition

1.0

I really wanted to like this book. I has faeries! Peter Pan! An adult spin! But really, it was a hollow echo of a much better work, and I was severely disappointed.

Brom's writing is choppy, his editor ought to be spanked for not taking a firmer hand in the formatting. It was a huge turn off. That alone shaves a star off the rating. Miserable set up makes for unhappy reading.

The characters were shallow and lacked much personality. The mishmash of religion, abuse, myth was hamhanded. Worst of all, the complete lack of resolution of the central character's conflict - that'd be Nick, not Peter - is terrible storytelling and I can't believe that this is a third novel, instead of a 'could have used a stronger editor' first attempt!

It is a book to avoid unless you are REALLY that desperate for a new take on Peter Pan. Brom's a fantastic artist, but his fiction is not, sadly, worth reading. Maybe his other works are better -- but this one is a total pass unless you like poorly formatted stories wherein the protagonist does whatever he wants, and only the people around him suffer for it -- and somehow, you're supposed to be happy at his personal validation of all the horrible things he did at the end of the book.

Sorry, just not interested.

eliover's review against another edition

4.0

The only thing I don't like about this book is that it doesn't have a beautiful prose. The 1st reason for why I picked up this book is that I thought this would have a very good writing and dialogues but sadly.....it had American writing written all over it. Which made me more irritated. Even Peter's dialogues seemed to be American. *Sigh*

I loved the illustrations!!

Spoiler alert:
I liked how the book took a turn after like 19 some chapters and it went a completely different direction than we thought. One moment I was thinking "Okay, the Captain nd the Devils may actually have a negotiation nd maybe things will be well...." And the next moment BAM!
We discover that Peter already knew the Flesh Eaters' desires. That they only want to get the fuck out of there but he can't let that happen.
We discover how Peter is NOT a good person, all the children have fallen victim because of his obsession with The Lady, he can't be completely blamed ofc,but still.
We discover how The Lady is not as good as she seems. As expected of a Godess ofcourse.
And fuckin Leroy?! I thought we stopped writing those kinda characters like a decade ago?!
God, but I loved how Nick realised what Peter was actually doing to these children which is y it's all the more frustrating that even he couldn't escape that fate! Aaaaahhhhh

Nick's Ending was tragic..... But what about Peter? The author didn't mention what lays ahead for him, he's the Horned One's son, okay, but what happens now that he's not under any influence is not answered.

jwhite37's review against another edition

Come back later

thechibiphilosopher's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

iremyln's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

carli096's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

tardigrade_in_retrograde's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

sam_hartwig's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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 against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment and Rape