The Thief of Always: A Fable

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Not bored. Definitely not as bored as him, or nearly as gullible or enticed by a house of holidays, myth, or changed children. But I do really feel the underscored notion that you really can't go home again.

the images, the illustrations and the fast pace of the graphic novel diminishes my imagination I have as a reader of novels. It doesn't allow me to imagine how a hero looks, how that or this place is at night, how ugly is the villain, how long a corridor is, and so on. Right Behind Me: After Hood is seemingly defeated, Rictus reveals that he had secretly stolen some of Hood's power for himself. But then a hand reaches out of the ruins of the House and grabs him...Mrs. Griffin offers Harvey plates of food, everything from hot dogs to ice cream. As he eats, a girl named Lulu comes into the kitchen and starts asking him questions. Harvey responds but tells Lulu he won’t be staying long and mentions his parents. Lulu laughs and tells Harvey his parents know he’s here. Confused, Harvey is told to call them. He does, and sure enough, his mother says she set the whole experience up to give Harvey a break from his boredom. Just one catch, which, of course, the children realize too late — you can’t leave. Think of it as “Hotel California” for kids. This book comes with a lovely publishing story. When he wrote “Thief of Always,” Barker was well known as a frightmaster He’d never written a book for kids. So… Hyperactive Sprite: Jive is described as this: "Every muscle in his body seemed to be in motion: tics, jigs, and jitterings ... Even his hair ... seemed to hear some crazed rhytm." The Faceless: Mr. Hood does make a "body" for himself from the remains of Holiday House, but his true face is never seen.

Well, there’s another. The vampire who created this place doesn’t want blood. He collects souls. And he’s always on the lookout for new ones, because … but that’s for me to be spooked by and you to find out.Just as your voice may shake when you get to the end and you realize what Harvey must do not just to escape Holiday House but to return their souls to who-knows-how-many children.The illustrations are gorgeous and they are, of course, done by Barker himself, enhancing the entire reading experience. It's such a magical, wonderful story and I want everyone to experience it (but don't tell me if you hate it, cos I don't think my heart could take it!). Upon starting the book there were so many comments from people who said this book changed their life or that it was the gateway book into the wonderful world of reading... I GOT YOU, GUYS. I get it. I wish I had experienced this book when I was young, but I am equally happy to find it in adulthood where I could maybe appreciate the different themes a bit more. However I look forward to reading this to my kids someday - or any kids - hell, maybe I'll just start reading it to random kids on the street. This is a fast read too. Once you start, you won't want to stop. And the ending. That ending. It's such a great payoff. It really leaves you with that warm feeling on the inside. However this miraculous place worked, it seemed real enough. The sun was hot, the soda was cold, the sky was blue, the grass was green. What more did he need to know?” Now, onto the characters... I didn't really care for any of them. It didn't help that, besides our protaganist, most felt pretty flat to me. And the reason I cared little for the protaganist is because he didn't really have a dramatic need (besides not being bored anymore...) in over half a book. And that first half is pretty much without major conflict as well. So that didn't help...

I took the encouragement of some of my goodreads friends and went with it. I decided to go with the Thief of Always as it was one of the ones that was being recommended by the ones who know me best. Let me just tell you- I was not disappointed. Mrs. Griffin' – The housekeeper, and a fantastic cook. She has been there longer than anyone and seems to know more than she lets on. Harvey is the perfect main character for a children’s story. He’s the “normal kid” POV for readers to experience the story through but is also unique within the strangely magical world of the Holiday House. He has nagging suspicions about Mr. Hood, questions how the House’s magic works—and why—and he finds the unwavering acceptance with which the other residents of the house treat every oddity unnerving. As for the secondary characters, the three other Holiday House residents—Mrs. Griffin, Wendell and Lulu—were quite intriguing. They each represented different impacts of the House and where Harvey’s fate could be headed. I was unsure of who to trust in the beginning and the characters only became more interesting as we learned how the Holiday House was affecting them. The enemies within The Thief of Always were also very entertaining. They were unique and creepy but persuasive and appealing to those they targeted. maybe nobody will buy it! So I'll sell it to you for a dollar.' Actually, they ended up giving me a silver dollar for it. And I did the illustrations

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Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories. Cuando Clive Barker escribió La Casa de las Vacaciones, su agente recibió el relato sin mucho entusiasmo, pero el escritor continuó escribiéndolo hasta convertirlo en una novela que tituló como El ladrón de días que llevó él mismo a la editorial Harper Collins. Barker, sabiendo de la dificultad de vender su obra, le puso precio: un dólar. La editorial aceptó. Era un riesgo: Barker era un escritor conocido por “la nueva carne”, con cuadros, relatos, novelas y películas perturbadoras donde aparecen el sadomasoquismo, la violencia y un horror opresivo, que concibieron a seres como los cenobitas de Hellraiser o los habitantes de Midian de Nightbreed. ¿Cómo se vendería una novela de corte juvenil, aunque también muy oscura, como El ladrón de días? Pues, irónicamente, de un modo magnífico, recibiendo varias ediciones y el reconocimiento de crítica y público, aunque, lamentablemente, con los años parece haberse quedado en el olvidoe incluso llegando a quedar descatalogada tanto la novela como el tebeo, pese a su adaptación al cómic con el extraordinario arte de Gabriel Hernández Walta (Los Visión). Pero ¿de qué va El ladrón de días? De la juventud, el paso del tiempo, la niñez, los deseos y los monstruos.

The man called Rictus does appear again, floating down from a cloud in his puffed-up coat. This time though...this time, his offer is true. So Harvey walks with him to a place Rictus names Holiday House, a walk still within the limits of his small town, but somehow into an area he's never seen before. He says he'll only spend a few hours. Then he'll go home. Because he hadn't told his parents. And yet when he gets to this beautiful house, somehow his parents had known of his plans all along. “Stay as long as you like Harvey. You deserve a little time off.”

Let's start with the writing. This was my first Barker and I have to say, I adored the writing! I have absolutely nothing negative to say about it. This baby reads as smooth as spreading butter on toast. Harvey and Rictus travel across town to a wall at dead-end road. The wall in front of them begins to magically transform, opening the way to a beautiful, sunny expanse and a giant house. Inside the house, Harvey meets an old woman named Mrs. Griffin and a young girl named Lulu. Harvey explains he must get home to his parents, but Lulu says they know he is there. He calls his parents, who confirm her words, and decides to stay. For the 10-year-old who reads Thief of Always, it is, I think, an adventure primarily. It is about a child who has time stolen from him Maybe too tough for adults. Not for the 9-to-11-year-old kids in my daughter’s crew. That’s because Clive Barker has written a story that works on two levels. One is an adventure story for kids, with a simple moral: careful what you wish for. For adults, the moral is more complex, more philosophical. The genius is not just in the simplicity of the story and its non-stop action, but in the pared-down language.