(Might contain mild spoilers.)

I couldn't have been more pleasently surprised reading The Thief of Always. I sat down with it and finished it in one sitting.

If I had to sum it up in one word, I would call it enchanting. The book demands a suspension of disbelief as it helps you back into your ten-year-old shoes and takes you along on your childhood nightmare. It touches on a few of the bigger horrors most kids have, from feeling trapped to warped monsters. Whether you're a child, a teenager, or an adult, there are days where you'd just like to escape to your perfect paradise. And that's exactly what the protagonist, Harvey Swift, gets to do. But what happens when that escape turns...sour?

On the whole, the book was fun. Light and easy to read, but not to be dismissed as a 'juvenile' work. On to the review: I liked the first half of the book better than the second. It's not like the storyline was unpredictable--I could pretty much guess where the story would end up--but it stayed fresh and entertaining. The first half, though, was more suspenseful. The first half is able to keep the mindset of a trapped ten-year-old while the second half forces the reader to grow up a bit. Not that this is a bad thing, but I personally enjoyed the mystery element of the first half more.

The protagonist, I felt, was believable as a ten-year-old. There was just the right balance of selfishness and thoughtfulness. There were times in the book where I felt like he was a little bit underdeveloped for a main character and I would have liked to get into his head a little bit more (maybe a first person narration would have been better?) but Barker did such a wonderful job of driving the story that it was excusable.

If you need a quick read, The Thief of Always is nice story crammed into a small package. (My copy of the book was about 270 pages with large print, and about a third of those pages taken up with illustrations.) If you're a young horror fan or you can appreciate good young adult horror, I'd recommend The Thief of Always. ( )

I don't read a lot of horror and am not often impressed by the genre, but this book is wonderful. It is beautifully written - and even now, a good many years since I read this book - "The great grey beast of february" sticks in my mind. This book is not so much written as crafted.

The story is not terribly complex, the cast of characters not terribly long - but that is not what makes this book great. What makes it great is the quality of the writing, and the way the author transports you into the world he has created, making you care about the characters.

This book is highly recommended. ( )

Barker's not my favorite but this book is the one that started me reading AGAIN. It is a great way to save your children from living a life without literature. It made me want more ideas like the Holiday House in my life. ( )

What a great story. I literally read this in about two hours. It was so good I couldn't put it down. I've read some of Barker's work in the past and they've been pretty heavy works. This was different. I almost want to say it was written with the teen or young adult in mind, as it was a very quick and easy read. Despite that, the story was great.

Mr. Hood's house had stood for a thousand years tempting children bored with their lives and looking for excitement. There is a price to pay for the bliss that the children receive. Harvey is different however, he sees through the charade and eventually sees the dark side of the house. He was the will power and courage to fight back against the house.

Some things seemed a bit stretched, but I'll forgive these minor issues because of the quality of this novel. I wish Clive would write more novels like this one. Great stuff. ( )

Like most horror books, I wasn't too impressed with this one. I'm not a big fan of the genre and I'm not young enough to be in the target audience for this book. I'm having some of my students read it and I'll be interested to see what they think of it. Overall my biggest complaint was believability. Harvey was too dumb and the house (the creatures especially) were too easy to defeat. Not a fan! ( )