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The Child Thief is a Dark Fantasy novel by the artist and novelist Brom. A dark retelling of the stories of Peter Pan and The Lost Boys, Brom takes many liberties with the originals by J M Barrie. Brom incorporates monsters and faeries well alongside a poverty-ridden horrific heap of a sad populace in New York.

Synopsis

Plot Intro

The novel begins with a horrifying prologue. A young girl still in the early stages of puberty, mother dead, alone with the man that was with her mother, awaits the bad thing to happen. He was drinking and getting more drunk by the minute. As he appears in her doorway he drops his pants, leaves them on the floor, and approaches her. But this night would be different. This night, a shadow appears in the window and that shadow is a boy. He bounds into the room with amazing speed and knocks the man into the hallway. Thuds, screams, and a horrific "Oh, God" and the apartment falls silent. The boy reappears, auburn hair freckles and pointy ears with golden eyes. He comforts the girl telling her of a place where there are no grown-ups. An enchanted island with other children like her and lots of adventure to be had. A glance around the room and the girl thinks, what else is there to lose? If she could have spoken to the other children that followed the golden-eyed boy, she would have known: There is always something else to lose.

Plot Summary

The novel follows several different characters in their adventures through Avalon. First following Nick from the slow charming attraction to the golden eyed boy, to the horrifying walk through the mist, pass the barghest and the flesh eaters, and into the safety of Deviltree, the story only begins to unravel. Brom makes liberal use of Celtic and Scottish mythology as, in a parallel storyline, he describes Peter's history from birth to Lord of Deviltree.

Peter spends his time searching for new children to take back to Avalon. Always searching in the poorest of the poor neighborhoods, Peter only takes those children that are abused, forgotten, or, his personal favorite, runaways. He befriends these children before taking them - the mist would never allow him to take a child without the child's consent. I go willingly, the last words ever spoken by the children before leaving for the mist and Avalon. Many children die in the mist. Many more die fighting for their lives in Avalon, and Peter must go out seeking more... more blood for Deviltree.

Avalon is an enchanted isle in its final death throes. Peter's Clan of human children is the final force between the Flesh Eaters and The Lady. The Lady's magic keeps Avalon alive and the mist up to keep out unwanted humans while, unfortunately, keeping the Flesh Eaters in. The Lady is trapped within the heart of Avalon, kept a prisoner in her own land by her nephew and Avalon's heir apparent, Lord Ulfger.

The Flesh Eaters arrived on Avalon when the first refugees left the British Isles in search of a new home free of religious persecution. When they arrived, they were greeted by a glorious delegation of horned beasts, elves, satyrs, and faeries looking to secure peace among the newcomers. At the sight of monsters and devils, the humans fled back into their gates and a war begun. Termed the Flesh Eaters for eating any of the living things they killed, including the magical creatures, the humans holed up in their sanctuary and hid from the evil outside. Likewise, the magical creatures hid in their wood from the horrors coming out of the pilgrims' stronghold. The Lady released the mist so that no others might enter. Yet, thus, none were allowed to leave. The magic of Avalon twisted the grown humans into black scaly monsters and they became stuck in the war against The Lady - to kill her and release the mist so they might leave this island.

The children at Deviltree are also affected by the magic of Avalon. However, being children, they were not twisted into malicious scaly creatures. Instead they grew strong, fast, and amazingly powerful. They were honed into warriors, fighting alongside Peter to save Avalon and The Lady and rid the land of the flesh eaters.

The story reaches its climax with all of the forces meeting in a final unexpected clash that will shake the order of things in both worlds forever.

Literary Analysis

Children as Warriors

In The Child Thief, children become merciless warriors, bloodthirsty and savage. Taken from homes that abused or hurt them, they leave for a place where there are other children that came from similar backgrounds. Brom discusses how this relates to gang culture. The children are slowly affected by Avalon's magic and become a powerful force. This knowledge of superiority coupled with the right circumstance could easily cause innocent children to become mindless killing machines. Judging from what goes on in modern gang culture, seeing how quick teens are to define their own morals, to justify any action no matter how horrific, I believe it wouldn’t be that hard.(Brom, The Child Thief)

Humans or Monsters

The Flesh Eaters are people that were once good Christians in search of a place to live without fear of attack on their belief systems. The Reverend, an honorable man, becomes a twisted soul that takes nasty pleasure in torturing children. The people are led deeper and deeper into insanity as the magic of Avalon affects them. Throughout the novel, The Flesh Eaters are depicted as evil creatures, but the reader is eventually introduced to their side of the story. They simply want to go home to families and away from this island.

The beasts of Avalon, however, are (before the Flesh Eaters) a light and airy people that worry more about merriment and joy than seriousness or war. They worship pagan gods with true powers that live among them. They want the same thing as the Flesh Eaters, for them to leave and never return.

Brom mixes the beasts and the humans. At the beginning of the novel, the difference is clear. The beasts are a joyous wonderful lot and if it were not for the arrival of the flesh eaters, they would be yet in a similar situation. However, Brom twists the story around by finally revealing both sides, and the reader is left to decide for themselves who to root for.