The Thief of Always: A Fable

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When both Harvey and Wendell come home, they soon discover that for every day they had spent in the Holiday House, one year had passed in the rest of the world. When Harvey meets his parents, he thinks he went to the wrong house, but he is wrong. His parents also realize who he is and invite him in. He takes a long nap and then tells them what happened. They go on the search of the House, but Harvey had forgotten all the roads he took coming home. They try all day, but Harvey and his parents can't find the house. The author did a great job at incorporating elements from all kinds of children's stories where we travel to magical places and blend those elements with other well-known but still lovely tropes such as fairy-food, changelings and more. The atmosphere was positively zizzling with magic and foreboding.

You might be reading this thinking, “Hey, that plot sounds familiar.” Indeed, the plot has superficial parallels to Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which came out ten years later. However, while Coraline proffers more traditional and direct morals such as valuing what you have and being brave, The Thief of Always gets more philosophical, teaching us that facing the darkness within ourselves leads to personal growth, and that we should make the most of our time while we have it. The man introduces himself as Rictus and explains he flew in through the window. Harvey is caught up by the notion of flying—so much so that he doesn’t even wonder how the man knows his name. Their conversation starts as a brief question and answer session, but when Harvey interrogates Rictus, the man becomes less friendly. Rictus offers Harvey an adventure and tells Harvey he can take it or leave it—he’s just trying to “help.” The Dragon: Carna is more beastly and monsterous and acts as Mr. Hood's more serious enforcer compared to the other members of his Quirky Miniboss Squad. The Thief of Always is a plot that largely reflects a very old western sort of myth warning of the dangers of hedonism and apathy. The myth (specifically, a sort of fable [It even says so on the cover! Yay Clive Barker!]) is meant to impress upon people that their time on earth is short and every day should be valued just as the last (Seriously, he even maxims that shit up at the end). It's a principle that's been expressed in a number of ways throughout time, none of which are proving easy to google and right now I'm not really capable of coming up with one in my head. Suffice to say: It's a mytheme, or a trope, or a meme, depending on whose term you like best. 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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The descriptions of Hood's minions. Rictus has an unnatural, shark like grin, and Marr is described as grossly obese. Marr has an extra helping of Body Horror in her demise, where she melts from her own transformative powers. The book also comes with a lot of drawings, some of them featuring said body horror. The plot I liked, but I also never got the sense I was reading something super original. Barker included handmade drawings as illustrations and that was a very nice addition. They were dark and creepy, but still in a child-friendly sort of way. Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Carna, invoking carnage. Rictus and Marr also count if you get the Meaningful Name. Travel Anywhere (And Avoid Being a Tourist): Travel trends and destination inspiration for the modern adventurer Travel

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.Hood, eager to please Harvey so he will accept his Deal with the Devil, ends up draining his own magic to do so, and destroying his first form with Harvey's final wish. Clue-Cat, is given his name because he is the most curious of Mrs Griffen’s cats and has a tail that points upwards and twists at the top, like a question mark. Comics remain a relatively small scale endeavor in terms of the number of people that read a comic. It would probably take about Ah, honestly, I was always really surprised by how this particular Clive Barker book subverted all my expectations. I mean, the guy gave me Pinhead. Books of Blood. Some of the best, most horrific monsters of the related horror genres. But out of the blue, here I am, reading a YA bursting with a mild but very creative mythos, lost children's souls, and such sweet promises.

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. Seriously, Mr. Clive Barker knows where it's at in terms of thrilling scares. He is the force behind "Hellraiser" and "Candyman", which, if you haven't seen those films, are pretty damn good.Questionable judgement in trusting demons aside, Harvey is the perfect protagonist for a story like this, being a kind of everyman for kids - good, brave, always willing to be a friend even in extenuating circumstances. But he’s also fundamentally still just a kid, and Barker puts that across so well!

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." I loved the warmth of Harvey's greeting when he recognizes a face that he knew "better than any on earth. It was the first face he'd ever loved. It was his mother." On his way to the wall that night, Harvey hears Lulu calling him. He discovers that something terrible has happened: Lulu dove into the lake to retrieve Harvey’s ark and has now turned into a fish-like monster. Harvey sees her transform in the moonlight. The story had occurred to me a while ago and I'd written it down in short form called The Holiday House and I showed it to my agent who

Wendell' – A naive, obnoxious boy who loves to be in the Holiday House and becomes friends with Harvey. Oh, wait! It did annoy me that the cats behaved like humans though. Yeah yeah yeah, they are MAGIC cats, but they don't talk or do anything but be cats (which is what they were created to be) so when they're all "Timmy fell down the well!" leading someone to where they need to be, it just irks me. If they're magic, make them magic. If they're not, then they're not. Gah. But anyway, this was my first introduction to Clive Barker and I intend to read more by him soon like Weaveworld, The Books of Blood (Hellraiser), Cabal and of course a reread of the Thief of Always as a novel this time. The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Only specific children can find their way to Holiday House or have to be lead there by one of his henchmen. When Harvey and his Dad try to go looking for it, they are unable to get there.