Brom

There are a whole host of mythologies and faerie tales at play here. My first thought was that this was a dark retelling of Peter Pan, which is not all that far off the mark. This is a twisted gory ode to Peter Pan and Avalon and other faerie stories. If you really think about Peter Pan, even the Disney version, he's basically I child predator--a kidnapper. Then if you think on the original, non-watered down version, Peter is pretty cruel, he kidnaps children and sends them to war against show more his enemies. His lost boys are frequently killed in battle, or put out to pasture if they begin to "grow up". That's really messed up!

All that being said, Peter, is a child thief who tricks runaways, or kids from bad situations into following him into the mists of Avalon. And if they manage to make it through the mist, they're trained as soldiers in his personal army. Everything Peter does is for the Lady Modron and to protect Avalon, but it all comes at a cost. The child thief has lead countless children to the deaths.

This story had loads of deaths, battles, magic and just general craziness. All-in-all I really enjoyed it. show less

When Abitha travels overseas to her new home in a Puritan community in Connecticut, she becomes an outcast. The town sees her as an outsider, her husband, Edward, the only real person who accepts her. When he suddenly perishes, Abitha’s entire life seems to crumble around her until she meets a forest spirit she names Samson. Is he a God or a demon? Her salvation or her damnation?

This was such a good book, but it made me so mad. I hated nearly every human character in this book. The men, show more Wallace in particular, were so infuriating. I rooted so hard for Abitha from the beginning, and it was hard watching her take blow after blow. It seemed like every time things started to go her way, something else would go horribly wrong.

Because of that, it took me a little while to finish this story, but I loved the end of the book. This whole story reminded me of that movie The Witch because Abitha was both sassy and strongheaded just like the Thomasin.

This was my first book by Brom, but it definitely won’t be my last. show less

I first stumbled across the tradition of Krampus, a figure in Alpine folklore and holiday tradition, only a couple of weeks before finding this book in December 2013. Krampus is a sort of “anti-Santa” who either precedes or accompanies St. Nick on his rounds. But where St. Nicholas rewards good children, Krampus, a distinctly demonic creature – shaggy, horned, and terrifying – carries a bundle of switches with which to beat disobedient children, even stuffing the worst of them into show more his sack to devour. Brom's tale hearkens back to a supposed pre-Christian root of Krampus, in which Krampus was the guardian of Yule, responsible for seeing to it that the traditions surrounding the holiday were properly observed, so that the seasons would turn properly and the earth would be renewed. Brom's tale revolves around Jessie, a down-and-out wannabe country singer in a dirt-poor part of West Virginia. Jesse's wife has left him, taking their daughter, and has moved in with Dillard, a corrupt lawman. As the novel begins, Jessie is a contemptible character: weak of will, lacking in self-confidence, and self-pitying. But when one of Krampus' henchmen falls through the roof of Jessie's trailer during a pitched battle with Santa Claus, Jessie is quickly drawn into the orbit of Krampus, the Lord of Yule, who has been imprisoned in a cave for centuries. Santa, it soon emerges, is none other than the reborn Norse god Baldr, who has re-imagined himself as Santa Claus. Krampus, who seeks to rekindle the traditions of Yule as a pagan celebration of the renewal of the earth at midwinter, despises Santa/Baldr and seeks his death. The story moves rather slowly until Krampus is liberated from captivity and begins to take a more active role in events. Krampus is easily the book's most interesting character. He unapologetically uses the humans he meets to serve his own ends, but even so is not entirely unsympathetic. Overall, this was a fun little read, certainly enough to make me check out Brom's other works, The Devil's Rose and The Child Thief. A late-breaking update, Oct. 2016 - according to Al Ridenour's recently published The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas (2016), the pre-Christian roots of Krampus are overstated. Still, Brom's novel remains an entertaining read. show less

Amazing retelling of Peter Pan. All the classic elements of the story of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are there and yet... there is so much more. Peter is a very complete and complex character. If you looked at the story objectively, you would say Peter is a sociopath but that would be too easy. The story and the character are too rich and complex. Not only Peter, but also the lost boys and all the other characters in this story. Even the bad ones...
I loved it, and you will too.