Unfortunately this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention. I am sure other people will love it!

The cover of the book does not give it the justice it deserves. I guess that is why there is the expression “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” While reading some of the reviews for this book, I was shocked to say the least. I would definitely give it 4 stars as there were times that the authors writing slipped some but overall I found the story intriguing. Our protagonist is Jack who at the start of the book is 9 yrs old and she lives with her brother, Andy, and her father. At night things would start to disappear. Toys that were placed in their regular spots would be gone. When told by a child the story builds with intense suspense. As more things go missing, Jack and Andy decide to look for them. The story then moves to the adult Jack and we learn through the interchange about who she has become. While not the horror book I thought I was going to read, it was a story that had its own horror for a child that witnessed things growing up that she should not have. I was rooting for Jack the entire time. Her character was well developed and flawed at the same time as to give the impression that she was real or could be someone the reader knew. I enjoyed reading this book and would love to read more by this author.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Our protagonist, a 9 year old girl named Jack tells the story of The Toy thief. That is the name she made up, when she was younger, for the thing that came into her room at night and took things including her brother, Andy, who her and her father live with. The story is told from 9 year old Jack perspective and adult Jack perspective. I enjoyed this back and forth telling and how her past led to the lady is is today. I am giving this a 3.5 star review rounded to 4.

An excellent book. Nothing is scarier than horror through a child's eyes. The plot touched on issues of childhood in a broken, dysfunctional family without becoming overly maudlin. I really rooted for Jack.

The author wrote the events happening in a non-linear way, but I had no trouble following it. Even though the present was revealed in a way that gave foreshadowing to the plot, it didn't give anything away. Instead, it added to the suspense and shock.

This book caught my attention solely with its cover, the title and the creepy doll face made me curious. Toy Thief sounds like fantasy and horror rolled into one and my first thought was something on the lines of fairy-tale gone wrong, though I have no idea where that comes from. The first part of the book surely delivered on that premise, and I loved the creepiness of the Toy Thief and the mysteriously vanishing toys, which had a dreamlike (or rather nightmarish) quality. That, however, was topped in the second half, which became much darker and violent.

While I loved the plot - I can easily picture it made into a movie (by Guillermo del Toro as suggested by the author) and the Thief's cave alone would be so worth watching it! -, I had my problems with the main character Jack, who tells the story as she writes it down years later. I really wanted to sympathize with Jack, but it just wouldn't 'click'. I can only assume there might be a misinterpretation on my side, I constantly wanted to shake her out of her self-pity that seemed to permeate the pages. While I could follow her thoughts and actions as a child (loved when she set up the trap for the Thief!), I was irritated, if not annoyed by her adult version, though I can't put my finger on it, it's just a general feeling. I guess I would have preferred the story to focus on the Toy Thief and end sooner, instead of showing how Jack and her brother were changed by the events and what happened to them afterwards. However, I understand that the author's intention was a more complex one, showing what the Toy Thief did to them and how it affected their lives for good.

So while the book took a different path than expected, the writing was intense, almost mesmerizing, so that I found myself glued to the pages most of the time, forgetting everything around me. I will definitely keep the author on my radar from now on.

An interesting read, with fun characters. Didn’t go the way I expected, at all. A nice undercurrent of dread throughout the read with some nice bits of scare. I’d love to read more from this author.

I would like to thank Flame Tree Publishing and Netgalley for this partnership.

I was immediately attracted by the cover of this book, you can see there I would say a kind of doll's face.

It all starts when a skeletal creature slips into Jack's house to steal his things. His brother's going to be kidnapped, Jack's going to do everything he can to find him. A book read in one go, I struggled to hang on to the story but I found it captivating and full of suspense and twists and turns.

I loved this story. I found Jack to be a totally engaging, if flawed, character and was rooting for her success. I loved the imagination that went into the world-building, especially all the details of the lair of the Toy Thief, as well as his backstory. I also loved how the author made me feel actual empathy for this horrid creature. I was almost rooting for him at times! I will be looking forward to Gillespie's next book.

There are few bonds closer than brother and sister, and we learn that first hand in D. W. Gillespie’s The Toy Thief. Best described by author Michael Patrick Hicks as a “coming-of-age story,” The Toy Thief encompasses the childhood of strong-headed, tomboyish Jack and her brother Andy. Together, the two must thwart a darkness that threatens their livelihood and that of other children around them.

In this creative piece, Gillespie takes a different approach to the ‘why’ behind things that go missing from our homes. We’ve all lost socks, batteries, Tupperware, toys, etc., only to have these items turn up later somewhere else or, in some cases, never to be seen again. But what if all those things were actually going somewhere, rather than simply being lost as a byproduct of human irresponsibility? In The Toy Thief, a dark entity swipes toys from children in order to feed off the happiness and positive energy that thrives within those items. Using these items as a way to sustain its own life force, the Toy Thief soon finds itself running out of options for staying alive, and that’s where things truly take a dark turn in this story.

I found the characters in The Toy Thief to be lacking, honestly. Though I am a fan of the non-traditional use of the name Jack for a female character, the characters in this story are a bit too flat for my taste–and this is perhaps where I made the decision to give this book three stars, rather than four. Jack, for all her tomboyish quirks and fiery attitude (at least in her older years), shows little of that in her child years. Andy, on the other hand, seems to lack personality altogether. The father, despite being the only parent in their lives, plays less of a role in the book than the cat, Memphis. Actually, Memphis seems to be the most fleshed out of all the characters, with what felt like the most genuine reactions to many of the ongoing events in the story.

On the other hand, Gillespie’s ability to generate sympathy for a villain–in this case, the Toy Thief itself–is phenomenal. I would be a liar if I said I didn’t feel so badly for the Toy Thief that I nearly cried on several occasions and, if you’re a sucker for bad guys like I am, that alone is a good reason to delve into this book. The emotional connection that Gillespie creates between the reader and the Toy Thief is heartrending and brilliant.

Gillespie’s novel does a wonderful job when it comes to the creep factor. There are times I felt my skin crawl while reading this book, if only because his ability to write of dread is on point. However, when it comes to descriptions of the Toy Thief, I felt like his arsenal ran a little dry. More often than not, the creature was described the same way, using the same words and to me, this was a bit of a put-off.

Overall, The Toy Thief is not a bad book. It’s not the best that I’ve read, but it was enjoyable and I was able to suck it down fairly quickly. I didn’t feel like I was force-feeding it to myself, either and for those that know me, that’s a good thing. I definitely look forward to more of Gillespie’s work in the future.

An engaging, frightening, intriguing character-driven horror tale that walks a perfect balance between creature feature and ghost story, The Toy Thief was as enjoyable as it was compelling. I only read in bed nowadays and this book had me in the sack by 7:30 p.m. for a few days and kept me up late on each occasion.

In essence, the title tells you all you need to know to slide into the book: somebody/something is stealing toys. That's your premise--that's your impetus. On the surface, "big deal," right? But look beneath the covers and it's a fascinating concept. Who/what would do this? Why? And, most thought-provoking, what happened to all of YOUR missing childhood toys?

Jack knows. Jack is the woman doing the narrating (yes--Jack's her name) and her story takes her from the 30-ish woman she is today back to her life as a precocious 8-year old where we follow her as she walks us through a terrifying story of a family being torn apart by an entity that does something as innocent-sounding as stealing childrens' toys.

The book is a page-turner. Gillespie unveils the being responsible for the thefts in a deliciously methodical manner, giving the reader a glimpse here and a glimpse there, but never the whole picture--never. The reader fleshes out the complete toy thief from the parts provided by the author. YOU put together the puzzle, not Gillespie. That was cool. Well-done.

The main characters were perfectly drawn more from dialog than from description. I liked Jack immediately; liked her brother Andy less, but understood his personality from the relation of events in the family. Their father was a sympathetic character drawn in a manner that focused on his human frailties but also gave great emphasis to his protective, paternal nature. In short, you're going to understand these characters. Minor characters are fleshed out just enough--not too much to waste the readers' time, but enough so their motives and appearances in the book are obvious.

One minor portion in the dénouement troubled me just a bit. It wrapped things up nicely but seemed a little contrived, a little "would that really happen?" and that's solely because it was a throw-away paragraph that would have made an excellent sub-plot, but might have added too much to the book.

I think The Toy Thief is a must-read from the horror novels introduced in 2018 and I'm looking forward to more from D.W. Gillespie.

Sorry for the late review, but I found this story a bit of a struggle to be honest. A shame really as I really thought I'd have enjoyed it.
I felt, Jack, was completely unlikeable and I couldn't connect to her at all.
If it weren't for the original idea, I probably would have gave it one star.

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.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Flame tree Press and the author, D. W. Gillespie, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The toy Thief in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
I jumped at the chance to read this book after reading the premise of the storyline. It certainly promised a lot of the horror enthusiast. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the story as much as I thought I would. I felt the plot dragged and I had an extremely hard time connecting with the characters. I really struggled with this one.
sorry, but not a book for me.

This book was not for me - a confusing and irritating first person narrative that moved backwards and forwards in time, combining a toy stealing creature and family problems. Very boring and I did not finish it.

When I read the synopsis for this book, the premise sounded so intriguing that I had to pick it up! I was in the mood for a real chilling story and I can see where this book would be creepy, however for me, it wasn't quite enough to put me on edge and give me the chills I desired. There was a lot of foreshadowing that I enjoyed, although, in parts this did allow me to correctly speculate on the plot twists but I don't feel as though that took away from the enjoyment of the story too much. I did have issues with the main character Jack, as she was so self-absorbed and unlikable that I found myself detached from the story and focusing on her flaws as a main character. I feel like this book would be better suited to someone newer to the genre or that has fears of the specific topics in this novel as I think it would have been a better experience for me if it had been a real horror-filled, nail-biting rollercoaster.

The Toy Thief is a new horror novel written by D. W. Gillespie. Gillespie has been working very hard at becoming well known for his horror fiction and has come out with many novels in the genre. The Toy Thief is about a young girl named Jack, and the very complicated and sometimes terrifying childhood adventures she used to have.

Writing
There is never any question during the course of the novel that Gillespie intended it to be anything other than a horror story. While it is one of the lighter ones I’ve read (I can assure you that I won’t be having any nightmares tonight), it still fits into that category. The tone is creepy and foreshadowing. Some points more than other. There are moments that were purely anxiety-inducing, where I didn’t know what was going to happen next.

You can really see the works that influenced Gillespie here, or at least I could see some similar tones and themes. For me, The Toy Thief read as a blend between Stephen King’s It, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, and Netflix’s Stranger Things. Some of these comparisons are obvious, such as the children resisting an unknown and potentially immortal enemy. Others are more subtle and take a bit of a closer look.

The concept of The Toy Thief is truly a unique one and is the reason why I picked it for my seasonal read. I loved the creepy idea of somebody stealing children’s toys, as odd as that sounds. There’s something nefarious about the idea of a creature caring so much about children’s toys, even discarded ones. That feeling never leaves during the course of the book, and Gillespie made a brilliant move to take advantage of it.

The novel itself was written almost like a stream of consciousness. In this case, that means that the main character, Jack is retelling the story of what happened. But because she’s telling us everything she thinks of, sometimes she’ll get distracted. Sometimes she’ll be telling us about something that happened more recently or something that’s even happening right now. The end result is that no single story is left uninterrupted. Jack bounces from one point to the other and then back again. This worked well at the beginning, where the suspense was still heavy – mostly due to the fact that the antagonist had yet to be truly revealed. It did get tiring towards the end when all I wanted to do was see what was going to happen next.

Development
I had some trouble with the main perspective of this novel. Jack was the main character, and really our only source of information for this novel. I should have cared quite a lot about her and what happened to her, but the truth of the matter is that I didn’t. I thought she was insensitive and off-putting at more than one occasion, often treating those around her poorly. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it kept me from being concerned about her safety. I felt this even more strongly knowing that she lived to tell the tale, so to speak.

While I didn’t find myself overly sympathetic towards Jack, I did feel bad for her and her situation. She didn’t have the best family life, despite her father’s efforts. His efforts were admittedly inconsistent at best. The relationship she had with her brother wasn’t the best, but it is sort of what one would expect between siblings that have gone through a lot together.

There were times where I feel like the author wanted us to be afraid of Jack’s brother, but I never really felt that way. That’s because Jack never was afraid of him, no matter how bad things got. I know that was likely the little sister in her shining through, with a healthy dose of an afterthought, but it does affect the emotions of the novel.

Overall
Overall The Toy Thief was an interesting and unique read. Even though there were elements of the novel I would have preferred to see done differently, I can’t ignore how brilliant the concept itself was. Turning something so innocent as toys as the main focus in a horror novel…it’s enthralling.

The novel is in the horror genre, but it really was more disturbing and creepy than terrifying. In that sense, it ran more similar to Stranger Things and Coraline than It. Casual horror fans would likely enjoy it. Admittedly those who enjoy fits of pure terror will probably find something more satisfying elsewhere.

I really enjoyed Gillespie’s unique view of the world here. He has a particular skill in making the benign disturbing. I personally would love to see if the rest of his novels showcase that talent as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for allowing me to read The Toy Thief.

Spine chilling and scary, this book had me gripped and I had finished it within twenty four hours. The story focuses on Jack, her brother Andy and their encounter with The Toy Thief. It is set in the nineties but I thought that it had more of an eighties feel to it.

The characters are all broken individuals and the writer has depicted their grief and heartbreak in a raw, emotional way that can’t fail to impress the reader. With regards to The Toy Thief itself, I was genuinely scared of it but I also felt an immense amount of pity as it was trapped by its need and want.

Very enjoyable and original story.

Jack is Andy's little sister and their father is forced to raise them as a sole parent after their mother died giving birth. Jack has always blamed herself for the loss of their mother.
One night Jack sees ghoulish fingers tipped in yellow claws appear to steal toys from her room. The Toy Thief (aka TTT) is a terrifying creature guaranteed to give children and adults nightmares. Jack and Andy’s nightmare is about to begin.
Memphis the cat made occasional appearances and each time I prayed nothing would happen to him.
It took me a little while to warm to this story and that changed when The Toy Thief made his first appearance. The writer managed to create some great images in my head and I still get a bit of a shiver if I think of those fingers appearing in the night.
This is a very creepy story and well worth reading particularly if you like horror.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and to Flame Tree Press for providing me with an advanced readers digital copy in exchange for an unbiased review!

The descriptions of the Toy Thief himself were unsettling and really brought back memories of childhood fears. While I didn’t get scared reading this book, I did get chills a couple of times! Great atmosphere and setting in this one.

The narration switches between the mc, Jack’s childhood and present day constantly; I enjoyed the childhood timeline a lot more than the present day and it kept dragging me out of the narrative. It was hard to connect with the narrator at first, as her tone is disconnected and a little choppy, but the plot picks up quickly which makes up for it. Other than those small critiques the overall writing and storytelling was good!

Solid creepy read for the Halloween season, but can be enjoyed year round as well. Super interesting premise to a book!

Gillespie’s new novel is an interesting story told in the first person which tells it story through flashback and the implications what the past has on the present. It has a strong narrative but at times the story has a slight uneasy edge to the proceedings.

The main narrator is a strong character that is well balanced of being self-effacing with a melancholy look at the past. The author obviously has a Dickens thought process when writing because they use a lot of foreshadowing that at times, gets in the way of the overall story. This is not a bad device to use but can get a bit heavy as you would have to ensure that the payoff lives up to what is promise. This does mostly though there are parts that don’t quite live up to what is written.

The characterisations are cleverly and intelligently written with Jacks, the main storyteller, being a well rounded individual that is very likeable. The two other characters, Dad and Andy are very well handled and the feelings of loss are well orchestrated. The family dynamics are excellently written and there is a feeling of realness to the overall story. This is one of the strongest points of the novel and this is done very winningly.

The Toy Thief is an interesting thread added and although this is the character that adds the horror and the otherworldly presence to the story. This is well handled and the folklore behind this character is scary and sad with the perfect balance of the two playing off each other. The dark forces at work extremely well.

The overall plot is handled very well though there are questionable crimes fitting the punishment not quite working. Using the timeframe and media references, probably places the past story in the mid to late 80’s. Outside of this, the story doesn’t really have a time gone by quality when dealing with this aspect. The present day is interesting and does work but there is a few nostalgic loss that probably could have capitalised on. This isn’t totally missed because the author brings forth the family dynamics which is what the story really hinges on it. As stated before, this is the story strong points.

This is an interesting novel that works on many levels. There are some threads that are repeated a couple of too many times but this doesn’t take away of the overall enjoyment of the piece. The chapter breaks and flow mostly work though there are times that the reader is taken out of the action but this is a small point to raise. Interesting, thought provoking, emotionally lead with a touch of horror, mystery and thriller makes The Toy Thief a winning combination with a few drawbacks.