12/23/2023 0 Comments The thief of alwaysHe hoisted himself up onto the rim of the pan to sniff at its contents, his tail flicking back and forth. But soon Barker deftly foreshadows both the dangers of the feast and the dangers to the children via the over-the-top demise of Clue-Cat: The hungry house offers plenty of illusory food for the children Hood has snared. Griffin had set a dozen plates of food in front of him: hamburgers, hot dogs and fried chicken mounds of buttered potatoes apple, cherry and mud pies, ice cream and whipped cream grapes, tangerines and a plate of fruits he couldn’t even name.” His willingness isn’t particularly surprising given the extreme horror of his adult fiction, but nonetheless, other authors might have taken a safer road here.īarker sets a theme of devouring with the very first line of the book: “The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.”Īnd once young Harvey is inside the house, he’s greeted with a feast: “Mrs. Once they’ve turned, Hood claims their souls and slowly consumes them.Īs compared with Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, I was impressed with Barker’s willingness to not pull many punches with regard to the peril he puts his young protagonists in. For every day that passes at the Holiday House, a year passes in the real world, and once a lifetime has passed outside, the children within undergo an Innsmouth-style transformation into hideous fish. The house is actually the manifestation of a sorcerer called Hood who lures lonely, bored, and abandoned children into his realm. First published in 1992, it tells the tale of 10-year-old Harvey Swick who on one rainy evening is visited by an entity named Rictus who later lures him away to a place called Holiday House. The Thief of Always is a children’s novel by Clive Barker.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |