Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Stolen Child

Not all fairy tales are for children. Some of them are best suited for the adults in the family, people who truly understand how something evil and unexpected can so suddenly come along and snatch away forever the best that life has to offer. Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child is one of those fairy tales.

Little did young Henry Day know when he decided to run away from home that he was being watched closely by a dozen hobgoblins who had been waiting for their chance to snatch him and substitute one of their own in his place. Using a combination of study, luck and their own special magic, these changelings are able to mold one of their own into such a perfect copy of the original that even parents and siblings are usually fooled into believing that nothing strange has happened.

This is the way that is has always been for the changelings. But times are changing, and much as any wild animal depending on ever diminishing forests for survival is finding it harder and harder to survive in the wild, by the 1950s the changelings are being threatened by the steady destruction of their natural habitat. Not too many years after Henry Day is taken into this band of perpetual children to wait his turn for recycling into the human race, a wait that can be as long as 100 years, things being to go downhill for the changelings.

In alternating chapters, Donohue tells his tale from the first person points-of-view of his two main characters, Henry Day (now known as Aniday to his fellow hobgoblins) and the changeling who has replaced Henry in his old life. Aniday, despite the fact that he can remember less and less of his old life as the years go by, can never quite accept his new existence with the tribe and feels compelled to learn about the family he left behind. The new Henry Day feels insecure in his own new life and becomes obsessed with finding out about the family he himself was snatched from decades earlier.

The Stolen Child is a nicely written coming-of-age novel wrapped around a story about the end of a way of life that had endured for centuries. Keith Donohue manages to make his cast of hobgoblins every bit as sympathetic as his human characters in this fairy tale that he has filled with lessons about life.

Rated at: 4.0

16 comments:

  1. I'm glad you liked this book as it is sitting on my bookshelf right now waiting for me to get to it. I nearly started it this week but decided to go with No Country for Old Men. Anyway, thanks for the review.

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  2. Really enjoyed reading Stolen Child. Donohue is on my watch list for new novels.

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  3. I'm reading this next month for the Unread Authors Challenge, so I just skimmed the review. I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

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  4. It's a good one, Matt. I was not real familiar with the "legend" behind the changeling myth and I really enjoyed finding out about it and about why the myth developed in the first place.

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  5. Same here, Elizabeth. That was a great first novel and I have high hopes for what will follow. I hope Donohue doesn't have a problem with the "sophomore jinx" next time out.

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  6. Thanks, Eva. I always try not to include spoilers, but I'm sure that I've inadvertently done so at times. I try not to reveal anymore than the bookflaps reveal but when I embellish and give some personal opinion it's difficult not to cross the line.

    I hope you enjoy it...let me know.

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  7. Every time I stumble across a review of this book, I get excited about reading it again. It looks really interesting--more so than I thought, from your review.

    It's on my short list of what to read next, but I'm patiently waiting for it to be turned in at the library. It seems to be really popular.

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  8. Ohhh....this sounds really good!! Damn. Another book to add to my ever growing Mt. TBR!!

    Nice review!!

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  9. I'm glad you liked this one as much as I did. It's a good one!

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  10. Don't give up, Renay, because it's worth the wait.

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  11. Stephanie, I don't think that my TBR list has EVER been longer than it is today. I have to keep reminding myself what a nice problem that is.

    I can remember a few years ago when I would almost panic because I suddenly realized that I didn't have a book in the house that I hadn't already read...boy, those days are long gone.

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  12. No doubt about it, Susan...I love browsing book blogs to see what folks unearth. I just wish I could keep up. :-)

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  13. I just bookmooched this one and it's on its way. I can't wait to get my hands on it either. I'm so glad you had good things to say about this one. I'm looking forward to reading it even more.

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  14. Let me know what you think of it, J.S. I enjoyed being in that strange world for a couple of days.

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  15. Wow...this really sounds fabulous; I love this kind of thing, and I've never heard of this book, but I'm off *right now* to add it to my gotta-get-this-book list!

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  16. Mo, if you enjoy fantasy, this should be a good one for you. Do let me know what you think...

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I always love hearing from you guys...that's what keeps me book-blogging. Thanks for stopping by.