The Plucker (2005)

I adore Brom's art, and it turns out he's a pretty good storyteller, as well. I loved this book. ( )

Mostly a beautiful and intense book. The blend of words and illustrations is perfect. It is definitely a book for adults (or mature teens) but captures the feeling of a picture book or young reader in order to keep the mood of toys and a child's room. I perhaps would have liked more to keep us in the wartime setting, but the reader does not spend much time in the human world for that to happen. As it is, I might have preferred just explaining away his parents as both being workaholics or something similar. Without enough time spent on the setting, it felt thrown in.

The dialogue was very evocative of childhood, the toys all had simplistic ways of speaking and childlike emotions because of the "gusto" they absorb from their child. The one problem I had was with the curse words. Thomas obviously doesn't use them, so I didn't understand Jack using them. at least in the beginning, before he becomes a Weapon. Jack in the Underbed I could see using something he thinks is a bad word to show how unhappy he is to be exiled there, but I can't see him saying curses because he shouldn't know them. Definitely those words in the mouth of the Plucker make sense, and having Jack NOT use them would show the split much clearer, I think. ( )

This is an illustrated novel by Brom. Brom both tells the story and illustrates it. His artwork is both extremely creepy and hauntingly beautiful.

This is the story of Jack, a Jack in the Box toy who belongs to Thomas. Jack is a forgotten toy and has been dwelling in the Underbed. When Thomas's father brings the boy a new toy, Thomas's soul as well as all of the toys are in grave danger. It is left to Jack and Thomas's nanny Mirabel to defeat the evil being and save Thomas.

This book pulls no punches where visciousness and gore comes in. The Plucker is evil incarnate, granted he is torturing toys, but the torture scenes are no less disturbing for the lack of blood. It is a well-written story; a morbid twist on the timeless tale of what happens to the toys when they are forgotten. Think Toy Story meets Stephen King. The artwork is beautiful.

I really enjoyed the book. I was going to sit down and read it with my son but decided to read it on my own first. I am glad I did. While there is no blood, so to speak, there is a lot of torture and toy disembermant. The Plucker has a fowl mouth and swears something awful; we're talking real swearing here. This is a scary book, I am 30 and I thought it was scary. I can't imagine what my boy would have thought. I disagree with the editorial review that says this is Grade 5 and up for reading level; I agree more with the review that says Grade 9 and up. This is some pretty adult stuff and one of the pictures, while artistic, does have some disturbing toy nudity :-) Definitely not a children's fairy tale; this story emits darkness that is more typical of your original Grimm Brothers fairy tales.

The book sends a good message and ends in a very hopeful way. As I mentioned I was impressed with both the artwork and the story; I am excited to see and read more work by Brom. ( )

There is a real monster under the bed, destroying the toys and slowly killing the little boy. It's up to Jack-in-the-box to save everyone. The art is fantastic, and while the story is more or less classic, it is twisted, and made all the more disturbing by the artwork. ( )

"Plucker" is a creepy little tale that takes you into the secret imaginary lives of toys. They suffer for our pleasure, and in this tale the suffering is most horrible. I've known of Brom as a fantasy artist for role playing games for years now, so I was rather trepidations to see how he would cut it as an author. He relies on some pretty hackneyed tropes such as the "wise slave woman" and the "sinister African spirit fetish" but if you can keep the bile down for that you have a really fiendish little story here and some wonderful artwork to boot. I really liked how the villain, who is trying to take over the soul, mind, and body of a young boy from 1942 Southeastern U.S. talks in such a way as that boy would, although with some choice oaths thrown in from his tribal African origin. It was the little things like that which kept me reading. ( )