November book study: The Child Thief

Okay, I'm going to post a modified version of the review from my Shelfari account.

So this book jumped right off the shelf at me the first time I saw it. I love the original Peter Pan, and any engaging retelling is worth a look-see, so when I got it for Christmas last year I was thrilled. But I was somewhat disappointed when I finally read it. It was a rather mixed bag for me. The story was interesting, sometimes engaging, and kept me moving right along. But the level of writing skill and style was merely par, and there were aspects of the book that I felt could have been vastly improved.

In particular, I think Brom relies too much on sheer explicit gore for his horrific effect, whereas I think a more subtle form of creepiness, combined with mostly-off-stage violence handled with a defter touch, would have been more bone-chillingly effective.

Also, there are stark moments of Research Fail that jumped me right out of my suspension of disbelief. Among other historical inaccuracies, The Child Thief suffers from "Everyone Swears in the Exact Same Way" syndrome. This story takes place over 14 centuries, in many different places. Yet every character swears like an angry teenager from the rough streets of contemporary urban America. I considered that this might be an effort on Brom's part to "translate," but considering the quasi-archaic dialects used elsewhere, I don't really think it was deliberate translation.

(Also: a raccoon in ancient Ireland? Pilgrims traveling across the ocean with a huge cross made out of cold iron?? And yes, the Christians invaded Pagan lands and destroyed or overwrote their culture, but to claim that religion "didn't exist" until the Christians brought it left me scratching my head.)

I dunno. There were some things I liked, and I enjoyed the fresh takes on Tiger Lily and Captain Hook. But overall I thought the writing was just par, and occasionally Fail.

After reading the first two chapter:

Well. This is going to be dark, depressing and slightly disgusting, isn't it?

Still though, I see nothing else wrong with it, other than the fact I don't like any of the characters (but I've only spent a chapter with Nick. We shall see.)

But I am so glad he just didn't write it from Peter's point of view. This is going to be a hard enough slog as is (not because of the quality of the book, just because of the way it's written and it's content)

How's everyone else finding it?

Well, I guess I have to be the counterpoint. I loved the book. I loved the dark take on Peter Pan. I didn't mind the free and loose with mythology and history aspects of the story at all. I did mind the cursing. It felt wrong. Even if Peter had kept up with the times, the Lost Boys would not have kept up. In the end, the only character from Avalon that had any sort of honor was the Captain, and that was kind of cool for me. But here's the thing that worked for me most, I wanted to read it. I read Child Thief in say three days, Friday midnight flight to Monday AM flight. I read the last book, which was maybe a third the size in almost a month. The prose may have been loftier in the award winner, but this one kept me reading. I'd like to see it made into a movie.

Do I have no one to chat with this time around?

I will chat - after I've finished this WIP Then I promise to talk about it. It just may be in the last week or so of November.

Just wanted to say that I am reading it - but slowly.

ELMontague said:

Well, I guess I have to be the counterpoint. I loved the book. I loved the dark take on Peter Pan. I didn't mind the free and loose with mythology and history aspects of the story at all. I did mind the cursing. It felt wrong. Even if Peter had kept up with the times, the Lost Boys would not have kept up. In the end, the only character from Avalon that had any sort of honor was the Captain, and that was kind of cool for me. But here's the thing that worked for me most, I wanted to read it. I read Child Thief in say three days, Friday midnight flight to Monday AM flight. I read the last book, which was maybe a third the size in almost a month. The prose may have been loftier in the award winner, but this one kept me reading. I'd like to see it made into a movie.

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Personally, I kept getting flung out of the story by the historical weirdness, but that's going to be subjective. I did actually think it was pretty cool that Neverland and Avalon were the same thing in this world; that was a unique and clever touch.

I will agree about the Captain, and I liked how his plot resolved, though to be honest I was left wondering if he would forever remain a weird kind of zombie or if he would revert to a normal human after he left Avalon.

One of the most interesting twists in this version of Peter Pan is the fact that Peter is given an older mentor figure in Tanngnost. Sekeu is an awesome fighter but she's no Wendy, and she doesn't really fill Wendy's role as parent and teller of bedtime stories; but in an odd way, Tanngnost does fill this role, since Peter's actual adopted "mother" is mostly distant from him. It does change up the story to have this adult character hanging out with the Lost Boys and advising/keeping an eye on Peter.

I read this just after it first came out, because I was so excited by the concept, a dark Peter Pan.

However, I distinctly recall being disappointed that it wasn't darker. I wanted Peter to be the villain, and he really just...wasn't.

I do like the take on the Captain and his crew. It was a good twist.

I was glad when I finally got this book, as I'm a fan of Brom's art and was desperate to read this. To put it short, I loved the book, even though I occasionally had to cringe at the way Brom is describing some of these things happening personally I didn't know what to expect from it, because professionally Brom is more an artist than writer, I think, but he did a good job. I love the characters (except that damn Leroy), the settings, and Peter's history was rather interesting, I thought.

I was actually a bit distracted by the Staten Island ferry scene. It worked, but I really didn't like it to start.

I can't speak for ElM, but once Avalon sank and the Captain & Crew found themselves in modern-day Manhattan, it just felt...off. I dunno, a shift of tone? Or perhaps the fish-out-of-temporal-water is such an overdone comedy premise that I had trouble taking it seriously, especially when these guys are essentially zombie things?

It felt jokey. The issue I had with it was that it didn't feel like a continuation of the same story. More logical would have been a showdown with the junkies in his Mom's house.