Book Review - The Toy Thief by D.W. Gillespie
Title: The Toy Thief
Author: D.W. Gillespie
Publication Date: October 18, 2018
Genre: Horror
Pages: 237 pages
Rating: 3/5 stars
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My Thoughts:
The Toy Thief is an interesting little horror novel. It has your typical monster that goes bump in the night, but it's also very much a study of complicate sibling relationships. While the monster was definitely intriguing and unique, I felt like there was too much going on in this novel for me to ever really connect with it.
Jack's family life is good, but not ideal. Her mother died in childbirth with her, leaving her father a single parent to Jack and her older brother, Andy. When Jack accidentally captures footage of a mysterious creature stealing a toy from her home in the night, their family dynamic becomes even more complicated as Jack tries to save her toys and her surly teenaged brother.
The Toy Thief himself is a really interesting monster. I wish there had been a bit more focus on him, because I really enjoyed the concept of having this terrifying, evil being who is simultaneously very human and vulnerable. There's some time spent on his creation, the idea that there's a demon at the heart of his corruption, but not enough to fully round him out.
On the whole, I didn't love the back and forth between adult Jack and 9-year-old Jack. I didn't feel like the present day part of the story was really necessary, and some of the childhood background also really bogged things down. This novel gets off to a very slow start and while there are some terrifying moments, for the most part they're dampened by all of the day-to-day sections surrounding them. If this had been a novella that focused only on Jack and Andy's confrontations with the Toy Thief, I think it would have appealed to me a lot more. Grown-up Jack just wasn't all that interesting to me, and her sections take up at least a third of the novel. I also had a bit of an issue with how frequently the author used "kid logic" as an out to explain why certain events happened the way they did. The ending especially (which fed into why adult Jack is such a hot mess) could have been much more satisfying had it been handled differently and not just explained away by kid logic.
I've seen some mixed reviews for this book, and I'd say I'm very middle of the road on it. I didn't love it, and I did have some fairly major issues with certain aspects, but I definitely appreciated the creativity and uniqueness of the concept. The Toy Thief is definitely not your typical horror novel, but I think as a coming of age novel with horror elements, it does okay for itself. I could see teenaged readers enjoying this and identifying with the characters more than I did. For the most part, this was an entertaining read that would have been better for me had it been a little more focused.
(note: this is an affiliate link)
My Thoughts:
The Toy Thief is an interesting little horror novel. It has your typical monster that goes bump in the night, but it's also very much a study of complicate sibling relationships. While the monster was definitely intriguing and unique, I felt like there was too much going on in this novel for me to ever really connect with it.
Jack's family life is good, but not ideal. Her mother died in childbirth with her, leaving her father a single parent to Jack and her older brother, Andy. When Jack accidentally captures footage of a mysterious creature stealing a toy from her home in the night, their family dynamic becomes even more complicated as Jack tries to save her toys and her surly teenaged brother.
The Toy Thief himself is a really interesting monster. I wish there had been a bit more focus on him, because I really enjoyed the concept of having this terrifying, evil being who is simultaneously very human and vulnerable. There's some time spent on his creation, the idea that there's a demon at the heart of his corruption, but not enough to fully round him out.
On the whole, I didn't love the back and forth between adult Jack and 9-year-old Jack. I didn't feel like the present day part of the story was really necessary, and some of the childhood background also really bogged things down. This novel gets off to a very slow start and while there are some terrifying moments, for the most part they're dampened by all of the day-to-day sections surrounding them. If this had been a novella that focused only on Jack and Andy's confrontations with the Toy Thief, I think it would have appealed to me a lot more. Grown-up Jack just wasn't all that interesting to me, and her sections take up at least a third of the novel. I also had a bit of an issue with how frequently the author used "kid logic" as an out to explain why certain events happened the way they did. The ending especially (which fed into why adult Jack is such a hot mess) could have been much more satisfying had it been handled differently and not just explained away by kid logic.
I've seen some mixed reviews for this book, and I'd say I'm very middle of the road on it. I didn't love it, and I did have some fairly major issues with certain aspects, but I definitely appreciated the creativity and uniqueness of the concept. The Toy Thief is definitely not your typical horror novel, but I think as a coming of age novel with horror elements, it does okay for itself. I could see teenaged readers enjoying this and identifying with the characters more than I did. For the most part, this was an entertaining read that would have been better for me had it been a little more focused.
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