I started this book before I even meant to. I merely opened it to see how long it was and then couldn't put it down. The story is told through Jack's point of view. Now a grown woman, she recounts a horrific summer from her youth, and the way it shaped her life and the life of her older brother.
Jack and Andy hated and loved each other with the intensity that only siblings can share. Their father, loving them fiercely, but just not up to the task of being a single parent after the tragic loss of his wife, often leaves them without guidance. Into this working class family dynamic creeps "The Toy Thief" as Jack dubs the menacing entity that invades their home. If only toys were all that it wanted to steal! This was my first time reading anything by D.W. Gillespie. It won't be my last. This is my favorite type of horror. The kind that serves up characters I can actually care about, and fills me with an ever increasing sense of dread as I worry over what may happen to them next.
5 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy for review. ( )

9-year old Jack lives with her father and older brother, Andy. At night, something dark sneaks into their house, creeping and crawling through the shadows. Jack isn't sure what the creature is....but she knows it is something she was never meant to see. And it steals things. Particular things that give joy or hold happy memories.....toys. She calls it The Toy Thief. The dark being with the strange eyes doesn't just want to terrorize them....it wants much more than that. Sometimes knowledge comes with a price.

The suspense and darkness of this story build slowly, until the truth of the monstrous situation is revealed. I got sucked right into this story and it held my attention until the very end. How terrifying would it be to have a dark, evil thing sneaking around every night, stealing the very things that are most precious to you? As a child, I was scared of the dark.....and I can only imagine how much more terrifying it would have been to see what Jack saw. And then to realize that you couldn't unsee it....that sometimes knowing about something evil has a cost.

Awesome dark and disturbing tale! Definitely a great Halloween season read!

This is the first book by D.W. Gillespie that I have read. He has written several other horror novels including The Tree Man and All Safe In Here. I'm definitely going to be reading more by Gillespie! This book was delightfully frightening!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

Interesting story...
In this book our main character, a female named Jack, is telling the story of her life and how a horrible force became a part of it one night as it crept into her home. Will she ever be able to overcome this? or will it haunt her forever even as an adult?
Okay I am torn with this book. I really want to love it because the story is so original. However I just can't get into the writing style. The narrative is written in first-person from Jack's point of view and it is basically her telling the story of her life. In a sense it is a coming-of-age novel with a horror setting. It jumps around from scene to scene and makes it so you're so scattered at times you don't even know where you are during the storyline.
I also found Jack the main character is very unrelatable and unlikable even as she comes off as very annoying and whiny in her narrative.
I give the author props for coming up with an original story. As a horror fan I am always glad to tip my hat to those who can come up with new and original ideas in my genre. I just thoroughly feel that I would have enjoyed this book a lot more had it been written in a third-person perspective instead of first-person like she's telling a story to someone sitting in front of her. a play-by-play sort of narrative would have been a better way to approach this story in my honest opinion.
I can't say that I would really recommend this book, perhaps for the originality of the story but not much more. ( )

This is a strange, dark, twisted book. Menace at every step, enhanced by the sometimes disjointed narrative given by the main character. It was a book I didn't always like to pick up, not because it's a bad book (it's not) but simply because it was so darned creepy.
Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for the ARC. ( )