The Child Thief
The Child Thief is a 2009 dark fantasy novel by the artist and novelist Gerald Brom. A dark retelling of the stories of Peter Pan and The Lost Boys, Brom takes many liberties with the originals by J M Barrie. Brom incorporates monsters and faeries well alongside a poverty-ridden horrific heap of a sad populace in New York.
The novel begins with a horrifying prologue. A young girl awaits her abusive father, only to be rescued by a boy with auburn hair, freckles, pointy ears, and golden eyes. He comforts the girl, telling her of a place where there are no grown-ups and lots of adventure. The girl goes with him.
The novel follows several characters in their adventures through Avalon. Brom makes liberal use of Celtic and Scottish mythology as, in a parallel storyline, he describes Peter's history from birth to Lord of Deviltree.
Peter spends his time searching for new children to take back to Avalon. Always searching in the poorest neighborhoods, Peter only takes those children that are abused, forgotten, or, his personal favorite, runaways. Many children die in the mist. Many more die fighting for their lives in Avalon, and Peter must go out seeking blood for Deviltree.
Avalon is an enchanted isle in its final death throes. Peter's clan of human children is the final force between the Flesh Eaters and The Lady. The Lady's magic keeps Avalon alive and the mist up to keep out unwanted humans while, unfortunately, keeping the Flesh Eaters in. The Lady is trapped within the heart of Avalon, a prisoner in her own land by her nephew and Avalon's heir apparent, Lord Ulfger.
The children at Deviltree are also affected by the magic of Avalon. However, being children, they were not twisted into malicious scaly creatures. Instead they grew strong, fast, and amazingly powerful. They were honed into warriors, fighting alongside Peter to save Avalon and The Lady and rid the land of the Flesh Eaters.
The story reaches its climax with all of the forces meeting in a final unexpected clash that will shake the order of things in both worlds forever.
The children become merciless, bloodthirsty and savage. Taken from abusive homes, they leave for a place where there are children from similar backgrounds. Brom discusses how this relates to gang culture. The children are slowly affected by Avalon's magic and become a powerful force. This knowledge of superiority coupled with the right circumstance could easily cause innocent children to become killing machines. Judging from what goes on in modern gang culture, seeing how quick teens are to define their own morals, to justify any action no matter how horrific, I believe it wouldn't be that hard. (Brom, The Child Thief)
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