The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

 

Source of book: Borrowed from the library

 

This was this month’s selection for our “Literary Lush” book club. One of the things I enjoy about this club is that I end up reading interesting books that I never would have discovered on my own. I’m not really much of a horror reader, so nearly all of our annual “Spooky Lush” books have been ones I would not have otherwise picked up. This is definitely one of them. For this year, our hosts picked a kids’ book, and opened the meeting and discussion to younger people, including my youngest, who read and enjoyed the book, and had plenty to say about it. 

 

Apparently, Clive Barker is better known for adult horror, with crazy and often horrifying twists. This book is far more G rated, but still contains age-appropriate thrills and unexpected plot twists. 

 

Harvey Swick is a young boy who is enduring soul-crushing boredom in the dregs of February. The weather is poor, and there is too little to do at home besides school. 

 

Then, a bizarre grinning creature comes to his window, and invites him to visit the Holiday House, which is just a few blocks away. Harvey hesitates, but the creature says he will come back and ask again. The second time, Harvey goes with him. 

 

He is led to a mysterious old house, where it turns out that every day is the best holidays, from Easter to Christmas - and never February ever again. The seasons go by once a day, the food is delicious, and every desire you might have comes true. Like a good kid, Harvey calls his parents, and they say he can stay there. (This will turn out to be an illusion, like everything else about the place.) 

 

But there are problems, which become more apparent with time. First, there are only two children there - Wendell and Lulu - and Lulu seems to be increasingly jaded and absent. 

 

I won’t spoil things further - the plot is much of the fun. 

 

As befits a kids book with a fairly short length, it is a fast read, with little time for character development. Harvey gets most of the attention, and the other characters mostly exist as they are. Also, a lot of the big reveals happen just past halfway, and after that, it is a matter of action and event. This isn’t a bad thing, just don’t expect the kind of characterization and nuance that you would get in the very best kids books. 

 

The illustrations are delightful - although I guess they aren’t in every edition. Try to find one of the older hardbacks if you want those.

I love the opening of the book:

 

The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter. 

 

The book has cats in it, which is very on-brand for our book club. (Most of us love cats, and petting the cats of the host is part of the fun.) In this case, we get Blue-Cat, Stew-Cat, and Clue-Cat - which belong to the housekeeper. Unfortunately, bad things happen to two of the cats during the story. I will note that it is interesting that the cats are (technically) illusions, but they also seem to have abilities and minds of their own. Which is pretty much how cats are. 

 

I’ll also mention that the book is subtitled “A Fable.” How one chooses to see the moral may vary. For me, it seems to be about the way that time with our parents or kids (depending on the reader) seem endless, but run out all too soon. You can never get those years back. I would even say that the book turns on its head the trope of the dad who has no time to play with his son - in this case, it is the child who fails to value the time with his parents. 

 

One of our members compared the book to Coraline by Neil Gaiman - and he liked this one better. I would personally go with Coraline, or perhaps the also-similar The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but The Thief of Always is good too. 

 

Overall, an enjoyable lighter read, and worth a shot if you or your kids are into entry-level horror and mystery. 

 

Traditionally, our book club does themed costumes based on the book, so in this case, “Time” was the theme. Enjoy my costume for the occasion: