You have never seen the Peter Pan story like this. Surprised by the underlying darkness of J.M Barrie's original Peter Pan stories, Brom was struck by this line in particular:
The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two.
This was no Disney cartoon. Yes, Peter was daring and full of mischief, he was an adventurer, quick to smile and always ready to play — but Peter's games often end in blood. He targets children — the broken, the hopeless and the sexually abused — and offers them another life. Tempted through the mists, faerie boys like fourteen-year-old Nick, discover there is always more to lose.
The Child Thief is a haunting and confronting re-working of a childhood classic we all think we know so well. It is an exhilarating illustrated novel, full of monsters, both human and other, both in faerie and in the real world, both adult and child.
Reviewed by Richard Bilkey, Booktopia Buzz Editor
Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief—and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life. He appears to lonely, lost children—the broken, hopeless, and sexually abused—promising to take them to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive, and you never grow old. But his promised land is not Neverland. . . .
With this haunting, provocative, relentlessly thrilling reconsideration of a timeless children's classic, the acclaimed artist Brom dramatically displays another side of his extraordinary talent. Exploring the stygian blackness that gathers at the root of the beloved Peter Pan legend, he carries readers into a faerieland at once magically wondrous and deeply disturbing.
Fourteen-year-old Nick would be lying dead in a Brooklyn park—murdered by drug dealers—had Peter not sprung out of the trees to save him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him into a strange and unsettling mist swirling around the bay. Even though he is wary of Peter's crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, nowhere in New York City is safe for him now. And what more can he possibly lose?
There is always more to lose.
Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries. He must learn to fight or die as he struggles to fit in with the "Devils"—Peter's savage tribe of lost and stolen children.
Here, Peter's dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised, tormented, and hunted, Peter moves between the worlds of faerie and man, struggling to understand what he is and where he belongs. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to kill the dreaded Captain and stop his murderous crew of "Flesh-eaters" before they blight every trace of magic left in this dying land.
Beautifully illustrated by the author with haunting portraits and indelible images, Brom's The Child Thief is a daring novel of darkest contemporary fantasy that will, at once, haunt and exhilarate any reader who agrees to follow Peter on his desperate crusade.
"Brom has always been an artist who gave us his nightmares fully realized, but with THE CHILD THIEF, he paints in words. A wonderfully nasty Peter Pan reboot that stands on its own as a dark, twisted adventure."
Industry Reviews
Beautiful and authentically dark. --Sci-Fi "Beautiful and authentically dark."--Sci-Fi "Ancient magics combine with feral logic to culminate in Brom's The Child Thief. A retelling of Peter Pan spanning America's earliest, magically rich beginnings to today's bare whispers of belief. Wickedly poetic, The Child Thief makes me want to believe."--Kim Harrison "Brom has always been an artist who gave us his nightmares fully realized, but with THE CHILD THIEF, he paints in words. A wonderfully nasty Peter Pan reboot that stands on its own as a dark, twisted adventure."--Christopher Golden "A gruesome and darkly fantastical twist on a classic tale. Brom injects pure horror into fantasy."--Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Ironside and The Spiderwick Chronicles " [A] fascinating work of dark epic fantasy that blends elements of the Peter Pan story with characters from Celtic and Norse mythologies."--Tulsa World Ancient magics combine with feral logic to culminate in Brom s The Child Thief. A retelling of Peter Pan spanning America s earliest, magically rich beginnings to today s bare whispers of belief. Wickedly poetic, The Child Thief makes me want to believe. --Kim Harrison" Brom has always been an artist who gave us his nightmares fully realized, but with THE CHILD THIEF, he paints in words. A wonderfully nasty Peter Pan reboot that stands on its own as a dark, twisted adventure. --Christopher Golden" A gruesome and darkly fantastical twist on a classic tale. Brom injects pure horror into fantasy. --Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Ironside and The Spiderwick Chronicles" Beautiful and authentically dark. --Sci-Fi" [A] fascinating work of dark epic fantasy that blends elements of the Peter Pan story with characters from Celtic and Norse mythologies. --Tulsa World"
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