In the seedy underbelly of New York and Boston, children are being neglected, abused, molested, beaten up and forced to run away from home. These vulnerable, unloved children are not entirely alone. Watching from the trees and shadows and fire escapes is a wild, charismatic half-fae boy called Peter. He rescues them from abusive parents, from street gangs and from the hardships of their world, and offers them the chance to live in paradise, to play games with other children and never have to gro

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"He snuck several sidelong glances at the pointy-eared boy. There was something captivating about him, something about his strangeness, the wildness in his eyes that Nick found exciting. From his gestures to the odd way he was dressed, even in the way he bopped down the street so light on his toes, like some real cool cat -- bold as brass, as though daring anyone to challenge his right to be there. Nothing escaped his attention, not a flittering gum wrapper, a cooing pigeon, or a falling leaf. And he was ever glancing up at the stars, as though making sure they were still there." (p.25)

In the seedy underbelly of New York and Boston, children are being neglected, abused, molested, beaten up and forced to run away from home. These vulnerable, unloved children are not entirely alone. Watching from the trees and shadows and fire escapes is a wild, charismatic half-fae boy called Peter. He rescues them from abusive parents, from street gangs and from the hardships of their world, and offers them the chance to live in paradise, to play games with other children and never have to grow up into a hateful adult.Fourteen-year-old Nick is one such child, bullied and physically abused and threatened by the drug dealers who have moved into his grandmother's house to help them cover the bills. Feeling betrayed by his mother, he takes the dealer Marko's stash and runs off into the night, only to find it harder than he thought to avoid Marko's drug pushing street gang. It is only the sudden appearance of Peter that saves Nick's life, and while it takes a little extra convincing for Peter to lure Nick to the island, he succeeds.The island is Avalon, home of the Lady whom we know of as the Lady of the Lake. Once nestled in Britain, the death of the old ways and the rise of Christianity saw the faerie folk, the elves and trolls and other creatures, threatened, persecuted, executed. The Lady let the island drift across the ocean, until eventually it settled off the coast of what is now Manhattan, where friendly trading with the indigenous people occurred.But then their old foes arrived at the continent, and two big ships of Puritans accidentally landed on the shores of Avalon. Death and cries of "demon!" quickly resulted; the ships' canons proved too great for the faery folk, who retreated to the northern stretches of the island. To protect Avalon, the Lady created the mist, which hides Avalon and also detaches it from time and space. Time passes more slowly on Avalon, and humans are unaware of its existence. But it is there, and only Peter, being half-human, can navigate the treacherous, magical path back to the human world, where he finds more children to bring home with him.Altered by the magic of the island, the children become fast and fleet of foot, they stop ageing and become just as wild as Peter. And Peter needs them, needs them all, to fight an endless war with the Flesh-eaters who are slowly devouring the island, killing and burning the trees and searching for the Lady - and a way off a land they consider Purgatory.The children live and die for Peter, as Nick quickly realises, but things are even more dire for him: he is too old for Avalon, and the magic is twisting him into something dark and monstrous - into a Flesh-eater, the enemy.This is a dark, violent and grisly re-telling of J.M. Barrie's, and as a large-format, almost square and very heavy hardcover, it's worth the price and the aching arms to get this edition. It is beautifully illustrated by the author, Brom, who has worked on World of Warcraft, comics such asandas well as Tim Burton's. This is his third book, and it's a thing of beauty and wonder and horror.I fully respect the author's copyright on his illustrations, but I really wanted to show you some and there were a couple floating around the internet that are from his promotional website ( http://www.bromart.com/childthief.html): An image of Peter in the tree. These gorgeous sketches herald the start of each new chapter, while between pages 278 and 279 are full colour illustrations like these, of Peter, the Lady and one of Peter's Devils, Sekeu:Even if you hold out for the paperback, at the very least take the book off the shelf at the book shop and flip through it, to see these drawings.The story is highly detailed but the prose is - not stark or colourless, but almost factual, lacking pretension or frivolous adjectives. A taste:At times (the quote isn't an example of this), it can become too slow as the almost toneless narrator methodically describes everything, but that is my only problem with the story.I've actually never read the original, but I have an old ex-Deloraine Primary School Library edition from the 60s (that's my primary school). I don't remember why I got it, because the story of Peter Pan never really interested me. I'm not even sure why. After reading about Brom's inspiration for this re-telling, though, I'm quite keen to read it. Brom talks about reading the original story again as an adult, and noticing all the dark stuff, the disturbing things about Peter, and one line in particular about the fate of Peter's Lost Boys, that "when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out..." I have to agree: there is something incredibly ominous about thisline. Creating the Child Thief is no far stretch, since Barrie's Peter Pan did in effect kidnap children; creating a Child Thief who thought of lost children as "new blood", fodder for the war against the Flesh-eaters in order to save his Lady, fits perfectly.Interwoven in the story of Nick and the other Devils and their fight with the Flesh-eaters, parallel even, is the story of Peter - his origins, how he came to Avalon, how he came to have a band of wild children called Devils. Inherent in Peter's story is his own tale of neglect and abuse, as well as the chance to see Avalon in its glory, before the Scourge began to kill the forest and the magical creatures were forced to flee to the furthest corners to escape the Flesh-eaters. It's an engaging story, this story-within-a-story, at times heart-breaking, but when you come out the other side Peter is a tangible, known entity, a boy you can understand and sympathise, while at the same time being unalterably Other.The dark tones of the novel, the grittiness, the vivid descriptions of things right out of horror movies - it all creates a very real, vivid, believable world that has begun to go mad. More than that, it very clearly represents a kind of fairy tale rendering of the clash of pagan and Church, the death of magic in the hands of the pious, the death of the imagination in adults. Fantasy, as one theory goes, is often frowned upon as a genre because it encapsulates Play - and play is a childish thing, something you are supposed to outgrow. It is the perfect genre, then, in which to capture this and mourn it. And who better than Peter Pan, the boy who didn't want to grow up, to be the figurehead?Things aren't as simplistic as all that. To hear the Flesh-eater's side of the story is just as horrible, and I actually felt sympathy for the Captain who only ever wanted to get off the cursed island and see his little boys again. This is another theme: how miscommunication, and misunderstandings, can lead to bloodshed and lifelong hatred. It has happened time and again throughout our history - squeeze it onto a small island and you have it play out in microcosm, with no way to ignore the high cost.This is one of the things I love about Fantasy, the genre - and something most fans deny that it does: it's ability to explore our shared histories, examine and shine light on the good and the bad, reminding us of how repetitive history can be, how we don't learn, and showing us that there can be another way; or at least, showing us the consequences if we follow the same, well-worn path as before. With history so old and boring to most of us, Fantasy can play a pivotal role in bringing things to life. Because our history and culture influences us so much when we write, even authors who aim for nothing more than to tell a good story end up saying so much more. (Then there are the ones who can't even tell a good story: we learn nothing much about ourselves from them!)shines a light on a great many aspects of our culture and society and history, both past and present, and the open ending helps add to the mythological nature of the character Peter Pan. Far from detracting from the original story,feels like the real thing. Read for its own sake, you'll never look at Peter Pan in quite the same way again.