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The Thief Of Broken Toys (2010)

by Tim Lebbon(Favorite Author)

3.56 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0981297897 (ISBN13: 9780981297897)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

ChiZine Publications

review 1: I'm not sure how to really classify or discuss this story other than to say that the style of writing was interesting and the story was well written, and the characters believable. The chapters all begin as if you're looking down on the scene from afar and a conspiratorial, confessional type narrator is discussing what is laid out in front of you, then the focus narrows and you're back into the story and the narrator fades away until the beginning of the next chapter. The first time, this was disorienting, but as the story progressed, it made sense and gave context to the happenings you read. It felt a little like the old HBO promos where the camera started way over the city and then ended up doing Superman-fly-by's through the city streets. What made this story frightenin... moreg was the potential for losing the memory of loved ones when the symbols reminding us of them are removed from our life. I'd recommend this one, but not to a parent, especially not one with a young child. It made me a little neurotic, and I can't imagine how it would mess with their heads.
review 2: Man was this book boring and pointless. First, the whole story could have been told in about three to five magazine size pages instead of 146 small book pages. I think about 130 of those pages are the same thing over and over, and you don't really get to the point until the last fifteen or so. Second, I felt no emotional connection to the protagonist whatsoever. The guy's kid died, but I really didn't care. Writing about a dead kid should create some kind of gloomy feelings in the reader, but this just didn't do it. Third, the conclusion is just stupid. The route I thought Lebbon was going to take may have been slightly scary or disturbing, but the one he actually chose was just dumb and not really that disturbing at all. SPOILER: The whole point of the book is that the protagonist's kid died and he can't get over it. But he meets an old man who fixes the kid's broken toys, and when he does the protagonist feels better about his loss. In the end the old man wants the protagonist to take his position as the toy repairman, but the protagonist doesn't. So the old man steals all of the kids toys and makes the protagonist forget the kid ever existed. That's it. That's the whole story. In between there are weird scenes with some kind of disembodied spirits floating around the town observing pointless things, but otherwise there's nothing else to it. less

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