In The Toy Thief we follow Jack, our main character who is a woman, now in her twenties, writing down the terrifying events which occurred when she was just nine, and her brother Andy only thirteen.

It takes a lot to scare me with the amount of horror related content I take in on a day to day basis, but The Toy Thief managed to do just that. At certain points during my read, I found myself holding my breath without even realizing it. The author transported me back to childhood, where you never knew what may be lurking in your closet, or under your bed.

I really enjoyed this one a ton. Along with the horror, there were definitely parts that tugged at my heartstrings. Jack's unwavering love for her big Brother for one, and their Father.. who may not have been what a traditional parent should be, but did his absolute best and loved his children with everything he had in him.

I definitely recommend giving this one a read. I certainly won't be able to get the unnerving description of the Toy Thief out of my mind anytime soon, or my dreams for that matter.. and I doubt you'll be able to either. 4.5/5⭐

I received a copy of this e-book from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley, and although it was provided at no cost to me, I am under no obligation to provide a positive review.

The protagonist and narrator of this story is Jack, who is telling the story as an almost-thirty adult, retelling the events of the summer when she was nine. Jack has many daily struggles, the most cumbersome of which is the guilt associated with Jack's mother dying while birthing her. Add in a single father doing the best he can and an older brother, Andy, who remembers their mother when he was a small child and deeply feels that loss, and you have a good foundation for a dysfunctional family dynamic.

Into this mix is thrown a creepy creature Jack accidentally catches on videotape, one who sneaks in during the night and steals a friend's doll. This starts Jack down the road of trying to determine what the creature, who she ultimately names The Toy Thief, is and what he wants. When her brother Andy begins acting strangely and eventually disappears for a time, the drama ramps up as brother and sister combine to fight an evil that has existed since long before their time on earth. Will they succeed? Will they come out the other end better or worse than when they started? Will the family ever sort out their difficulties?

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I liked the antagonist and the backstory for him. I also liked the subplots related to family dynamics between Jack and Andy, between the kids and their dad, and watching how they all try to thrive when all each of them is doing is putting one foot in front of the other every day. Gillespie uses strong, imaginative narrative to create his world and describe the monster. I really like the story he crafted, and I'll definitely check out other offerings.

Ultimately, there were two things that kept this from being a five-star review. First was the story being told in first person past tense from almost twenty years after the dramatic events. Just knowing Jack survived to tell the story reduced the tension to some extent as I knew she would be fine. Of course, that doesn't necessarily hold true for Andy, their dad, or other characters, and you'll just have to read the story to see what happens to them. The second issue was the hopping back and forth from present to past. In some ways, the jumps to the present pulled me out of the tension of the past. If those jumps happened in the middle of a chapter, I had to go back a couple times to re-read the first couple paragraphs to determine whether we were in the past or present. But beyond those issues, it was a very well-crafted story by Gillespie, and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

This book is a good read and is definitely one that will leave you with shivers down your spine. A thumping good read that you can enjoy time and time again.

Gillespie delivers an eerie and bittersweet supernatural story about a family confronted by a strange, folklore-like creature with his excellent new novel The Toy Thief.
Told from the POV of Jacqueline, reflecting on the events of the summer when she was nine, it's a rich and powerful tale about family, grief and the loss of innocence.
Gillespie masterfully weaves the horror elements of the creature into what is effectively a family drama about a family living in the shadow of a death.
The characters of Jacqueline, aka Jack, and her brother Andy are particularly well drawn, bringing a vast richness to the characters that draws you in for the ride.
Part of Flame Tree Press' new line of genre books, The Toy Thief may not be the darkest title on its growing shelf, but it is one of the most powerful.

This is a tricky review to write. When I first picked up The Toy Thief, I guess I was expecting a different type of read from what I got. The cover screams horror and the description sounded terrifyingly creepy. However, the story seemed to be more about coming-of-age, grief and family. The author spends a lot of time focusing on past vignettes about Jack (Jaqueline) and her brother Andy - and although this can be a useful narrative tool to develop characters and bring the reader into the story, I actually found it had the opposite effect on me.

The plot starts off strong as we are introduced to 8 year old Jack who lost her mother at childbirth and lives a lonely life with her dad and 13 year old brother Andy. Jack is a tomboy at heart and really only has one friend. While having a sleepover with her friend one night, the two girls fall asleep after filming themselves and she accidentally captures video of the toy thief stealing her friend’s doll. This sets in motion a series of eerie and unearthly events.

The author uses imaginative and eloquent description to portray the toy thief that creates an atmospheric quality within the story. He also uses a first person narrative through the eyes of Jack. This lends itself well to developing a closer relationship to the characters and introducing a somewhat unreliable narrative that heightens suspense.

Where things fell a bit flat for me was the jumping around between past, present and future, which detracted from the plot development and ultimately made the horror parts less impactful. Just when things would be getting going with the toy thief, the story would jump into the past about Jack or Andy growing up or into the future with foreshadow of events to come. This left me confused at times and feeling ultimately hdisconnected. There were some wonderful moments of spine tingling fear but I wanted more.

I’m not sure I would classify this book as full on horror. Maybe more of a suspense fiction with magical realism. A very creative and intriguing story, nonetheless, that is an apt read for October!
Thank you to Flame Tree Press and D.W. Gillespie for an ARC.

Great premise and a pretty good tale with alternating timelines that had some creepy parts but I thought it could have been a bit more. I am looking forward to seeing what else this author can do.

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.**

3.5 stars.

THE TOY THIEF is the first book that I have read by author D.W. Gillespie. I found the premise of this book to be quite original, and there were some genuinely "chilling" moments that really captured the imagination.

The central idea of this . . . thing . . . that stealthily steals toys was something quite original in my mind. The sections dealing with this matter were very well executed and honestly made me feel as if I were reading something fresh and new.

Unfortunately, told from the first point-of-view of a younger sibling, Jack (Jaqueline), this story bounced back and forth both in time, and topic.

". . . you have to understand us. Stitched up. Not quite broken, but held together by duct tape . . . "

Part of this was coming-of-age, part past (even before our main character's birth), part future/present interludes, and part . . . toy thief. After half of the book like this, I did become very annoyed that the story couldn't stay focused on the one part I enjoyed the most.

". . . That was the part I remembered: the stark, cold realization that the people you love might not be who you think they are . . ."

While some foreshadowing came in words from the future/present sections, in regards to things we hadn't learned yet, these felt like they gave away too much. When they were finally "unveiled", it was rather anticlimactic, as I had already guessed as much, in most instances.

". . . weirdos like me, people pushed out of the inner circles, hiding in plain sight at the edge of the crowds . . . we were never alone, but we never really mattered either . . . "

Overall, I will say that there were certain parts where the writing definitely impressed me. Some of the thoughts and feelings evolved from someone I didn't initially care for, to a character more knowledgable and sympathetic. The parts involving the actual toy thief were atmospheric and filled with a heart-pounding tension, though not quite "horror", in my own opinion. Aside from this, I have to add that I just didn't enjoy the way in which the story unfolded. There were large gaps when we could have used information pertinent to the main theme. I feel that the author was making the result of the "past" on the family the most important idea here, but I simply wanted more backstory and scenes involving the toy thief.

As this was my personal preference, I urge other readers to come to their own conclusions, as everyone has different tastes when it comes to writing styles. Your opinion may differ.

". . . We were, in our own ways, all broken, as chipped around the edges as an old plate . . . "

The Toy Thief is an interesting little horror novel. It has your typical monster that goes bump in the night, but it's also very much a study of complicate sibling relationships. While the monster was definitely intriguing and unique, I felt like there was too much going on in this novel for me to ever really connect with it.

Jack's family life is good, but not ideal. Her mother died in childbirth with her, leaving her father a single parent to Jack and her older brother, Andy. When Jack accidentally captures footage of a mysterious creature stealing a toy from her home in the night, their family dynamic becomes even more complicated as Jack tries to save her toys and her surly teenaged brother.

The Toy Thief himself is a really interesting monster. I wish there had been a bit more focus on him, because I really enjoyed the concept of having this terrifying, evil being who is simultaneously very human and vulnerable. There's some time spent on his creation, the idea that there's a demon at the heart of his corruption, but not enough to fully round him out.

On the whole, I didn't love the back and forth between adult Jack and 9-year-old Jack. I didn't feel like the present day part of the story was really necessary, and some of the childhood background also really bogged things down. This novel gets off to a very slow start and while there are some terrifying moments, for the most part they're dampened by all of the day-to-day sections surrounding them. If this had been a novella that focused only on Jack and Andy's confrontations with the Toy Thief, I think it would have appealed to me a lot more. Grown-up Jack just wasn't all that interesting to me, and her sections take up at least a third of the novel. I also had a bit of an issue with how frequently the author used "kid logic" as an out to explain why certain events happened the way they did. The ending especially (which fed into why adult Jack is such a hot mess) could have been much more satisfying had it been handled differently and not just explained away by kid logic.

I've seen some mixed reviews for this book, and I'd say I'm very middle of the road on it. I didn't love it, and I did have some fairly major issues with certain aspects, but I definitely appreciated the creativity and uniqueness of the concept. The Toy Thief is definitely not your typical horror novel, but I think as a coming of age novel with horror elements, it does okay for itself. I could see teenaged readers enjoying this and identifying with the characters more than I did. For the most part, this was an entertaining read that would have been better for me had it been a little more focused.

A spooky thrilling book perfect for dark nights in the run up to Halloween.
Who or what is creeping around her house in the deepest darkest hours before dawn. Who or what is making her big brother into someone who scares her.
Jack a small girl with a big imagination and an even bigger heart finds herself looking for the answer to those questions in this dark story.
So she sets out first alone then with her brother Andy to track and trap the thief who can sneak in and steal things close to her heart. Follow them as they leave a trail of jelly beans in their search, jelly beans that will ultimately lead to Jack alone to its lair and her by then stolen brother.
A dark tale that while I enjoyed the story overall I struggled to come to terms with how it skipped from one timeline to the next, maybe the first person perspective didn't help me here but as with any reviews that is just my own opinion I want readers to judge any book for themselves.

*thank you to Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

2 stars.

This was a hard one to get into and a hard one to keep myself pushing forward on. It did have parts that I felt were good but they were rather short and not frequent. It just bored me. The idea of the story however was really good. It sounded like it had alot of potential, and written with more focus on the actual scary parts, this would have been a hit. Unfortunately the story was not one I will remember. But is it a bad book? No. But if you are looking for a horror story, don't bother, go to the next book you are wanting to pick up.

Note: I received a copy of The Toy Thief by D.W. Gillespie via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Toy Thief
Author: D.W. Gillespie
Genre: Horror
Pages: 240 (Paperback)
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Publication Date: October 18, 2018

Jack didn’t know what to call the nameless, skeletal creature that slunk into her house in the dead of night, stealing the very things she loved the most. So she named him The Toy Thief… There’s something in Jack’s past that she doesn’t want to face, an evil presence that forever changed the trajectory of her family. It all began when The Toy Thief appeared, a being drawn by goodness and innocence, eager to feed on everything Jack holds dear. What began as a mystery spirals out of control when her brother, Andy, is taken away in the night, and Jack must venture into the dark place where the toys go to get him back. But even if she finds him, will he ever be the same? -- Except copied from GoodReads. 

Love it or hate it -- I'm more of a neither kinda ghoul. Not a lot of emotions were evoked in me, while giving The Toy Thief a read. I didn't lay awake at night, page-turning in anticipation for something amazing to happen.  I'm not saying I expected a life-changing experience, but I did expect more of something. The Toy Thief is another book I can throw into the category of, 'I probably won't remember this next week.'

& now, I'm not saying this was a horrible read. Not at all. & I know someone else will pick up The Toy Thief & probably absolutely adore it. But, if you are anything like me, you might say meh and quickly move onto something else.

I suppose one of my biggest complaints is that I just didn't care for Jack, the narrator, until the end. And, even then I can't say I really cared about her. Her personality, especially as an adult, was very irksome. In my opinion, she was incredibly rude (& yes, I'm looking at that judgmental blind-date she went on) -- which is usually never a complaint coming from me. I love a woman with an attitude, maybe it's a kink, but with this character is wasn't working for me at all.

I also didn't enjoy the way in which this story was told. The Toy Thief bounces between past & present & for a while, I guess I couldn't see why I would even care about her present-day anecdotes. Granted, it does tie together in the end, but I would have much preferred reading a story that strictly took place in the timeline of Jack's childhood. That's where all the creepy things take place & that's honestly what I'm here for. In general, I felt there were a lot of unnecessary anecdotes.

Speaking of unnecessary anecdotes, I have one for you.

When I was a wee lil' ghoul, I was banned from watching Pixar's Toy Story. Me? Banned from Toy Story? Me? A person who grew up watching Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers & Jason Voorhees destroy teenagers was banned from Toy Story? & it was all because I had a nightmare about that damn doll head attached to the mechanical body.

While reading The Toy Thief, I kept having flashbacks to that horrid doll. The description of The Toy Thief didn't necessarily fit with aforementioned doll, but it's definitely what I kept imaging & I felt that did add a more of a personal creepy feel for me. So, bonus points for that? Also, minus what I imagined, the creature was actually really creepy & I definitely would not want to wake up to seeing that on my ceiling.

There is one thing I truly enjoyed in The Toy Thief, and that is the relationship between siblings, Jack & Andy. It started off as a rocky ride between the two & it doesn't get entirely better, but there's definitely a strong development. & I, Becca, am a sucker for development.

I had quiet high hopes for The Toy Thief, I hoped it would get me into the creepy October spirit, but I personally felt that the book was more focused on a self-living narrator and her family situation,rather than the creepy rat - like monster, that steals toys.

The storyline, jumps from a young Jacqueline to an older version (aka Jacks) but there's no clear indication when that's going to happen, most books I have read with this type of storyline provides alternative chapters. As it was, it felt quite disorganised.

The writing itself was imaginative but I felt maybe the imaginatively was aimed at a more irrelevant area of the book? For example,the home life; which really distracted from the main story. The creepy episodes occurred sparsely; far and few inbetween, Jack's first actual physical interaction with the toy thief was creepy but considering this was categorised as a horror, I was expecting a bit more.

I would have rated this a 2.5 Because for a debut novel, it is satisfactory but I really was hoping for a keep me awake horror! I've added the 0.5 due to the front cover being amazing!!

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time maintaining interest in this story and had higher hopes for it. I will admit that once it got towards the last quarter of the book, it got a little creepy and I will give the author credit for the detail put into one of the characters.

Overall, I don't think that this story was for me but more along the lines of an 'okay read'.

The Toy Thief‘s title monster is the stuff of nightmares, so ghastly that my mind can only conjure him up in partial images before it shuts down completely, but as a whole the book is really a family drama disguised as a horror story. (Though perhaps all family drama is a horror story, depending on who’s telling it.) D.W. Gillespie’s novel follows Jack, a 9-year-old girl, and her 13-year-old brother Andy as they stumble upon the existence of a fearsome monster who breaks into their house at night to steal toys. When they realize that the monster is also hurting Andy, they decide to fight back, setting off a chain of events that will determine the course of the rest of their lives.

Jack narrates the book, alternating between the present day when she is an adult and flashbacks to her childhood as she and Andy face down the Toy Thief. The narrative structure buoys the novel’s central theme of innocence lost; adult Jack, who is frankly kind of an asshole, looks back on her childhood and sadly but unsentimentally pinpoints the moments when she and her brother lost the best parts of themselves. The Toy Thief is responsible for many of these moments, but he is not solely to blame. Most of Jack and Andy’s troubles began long before they ever met the monster. Jack tells us at the beginning of the book that her mother died while giving birth to her. Jack never forgave herself for that “sin,” and Andy didn’t either. Their father did the best he could to raise them after losing his wife, but he was largely absent as a parent. As Jack tells it (and she may not be the most reliable narrator, but I believe her on this), there was never going to be a happy ending for this family.

The scenes with the Toy Thief are incredibly creepy, particularly the ones in Jack’s bedroom. There’s a moment involving a Polaroid camera that I can’t stop thinking about when I’m trying to sleep; I’m considering sending Gillespie my Ambien bill. These creepy scenes don’t make up a large portion of the book, though. As I said, this reads less like a balls to the wall monster story and more like an introspective account of family dysfunction with occasional scenes of supernatural terror. For D.W. Gillespie, family drama is horror, and his novel The Toy Thief shows that one way or another, we all lose our innocence.

D.W. Gillespie is the author of a number of short stories, but if I recall right The Toy Thief is his novel-length trad pub debut (he has a few indie titles out, too). It's a solid introduction to his work, and Flame Tree Press has signed him for a second release in 2019, which I'm most certainly game to read.

The Toy Thief is a coming-of-age story involving Jack, her brother Andy, and the strange titular rat-man creature that invades their home to take their most cherished toys. Told in a tight first-person perspective, Jack tells us the story of this significant past event, slowly revealing the details of their encounters with the Thief and the ways in which their history has colored and shaped the present for this family.

Jack is an unreliable and unlikable narrator, an abrasive woman who thinks quite highly of herself and isn't shy about taking others down a peg or two when her ego demands it. She believes she is better than those that surround her, but also aware that if she lived in another location, like Hollywood or New York, she'd only be average at best. She vacillates between shrill and personable. On the surface, she could just be another tough chick as imagined by a male writer, but there's enough hints in the story to convince me there's more to her story and how events have shaped and altered her personality. It's safe to say that the Thief has made Jack the woman she is today, and her encounters with him have permanently changed both her and her brother.

The Toy Thief itself is an interesting creature, and Gillespie injects it with a lot of promise and potential. I liked the history of this particular monster quite a lot, and its cravings and desires that compel it to steal from the children are pretty dang nifty.

On the horror front, though, The Toy Thief isn't particularly scary. Gillespie generates some solid moments of creepiness, but never any actual fright, and he eschews violence and gore for the most part. Perhaps it's more appropriate to view The Toy Thief as a dark family drama rather than a straight-up work of horror. In a brief supplementary interview with Gillespie, the author speaks of his admiration for the film work of Guillermo del Toro, whose influence can be felt here, particularly the del Toro of Pan's Labryinth and Crimson Peak, which rely heavily on atmosphere, family dynamics, and neat-o creature design far more than blood-curdling, spine-tingling terror.

Readers looking for a fast-paced, gore-filled romp might be disappointed, but those looking for something slower and quieter may find themselves engaged by Jack's autobiographical musings. The Toy Thief certainly has me curious to see what else Gillespie has up his sleeve in future books and I find myself looking forward to his sophomore effort, One by One per a recent tweet, to steal away some more of my time.

[Note: I received an advance reading copy of this title from the publisher, Flame Tree Press.]

Nine year old Jack and her older brother, Andy, fall victim to a bogeyman that breaks in to homes at night stealing children's most loved toys.

There are some quite creepy scenes in the story but I wouldn't personally call it horror. The supernatural/fantasy elements are not overplayed and this is more a story about family, particularly the love/hate relationship between siblings. A decent urban fantasy.

"Brothers and sisters are like that, the best and worst of relationships, the entire world rolled into one."

Have you ever read a book that was both everything you wanted and everything you hated at the same time? Unfortunately, that was my experience reading The Toy Thief: I really enjoyed the main storyline but I didn't enjoy the main character or the narrative style.

The book is written in first person and is narrated in such a way that feels like you are listening to someone try to tell a story - it is completely stream of consciousness and she jumps around her life, weaving a story that largely paints her as a horrible and unlikable character, which is in stark contrast with her as a child. The way Adult Jack talks about herself gave me vapid TifAni from Luckiest Girl Alive flashbacks, which is one of my least favorite reads. I found myself absolutely hating the book whenever we were in any time other than that summer when she was nine years old.

As far as horror goes, the central story and backstory of the Toy Thief was creepy and interesting. If the book had been told in the present tense and skipped the weird time jumps and fat shaming of a blind date, I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Toy Thief is really about Jack growing up, and I read the Toy Thief as a metaphor for lost innocence. I would have liked to see the Sallie/doll side story resolved a bit; while not integral to the story overall, it felt as if something bigger was alluded to but was largely left unexplored.

Overall, I thought The Toy Thief was a fast paced horror read with many layers: it isn't just about the horrors of the rat-like monster that has come into their home but also about the horrors of losing oneself, of growing up, and of loss. My enjoyment of the book was somewhat hampered by the adult persona of Jack and I did personally struggle with the stream of consciousness "confessional" narrative style, but if this book sounds like something you would be interested in I hope you pick it up!

cw: animal death, bullying, death, body horror, loss of a loved one, suicide

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me an electronic advanced reader copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Quotations taken from an uncorrected proof and may change upon final publication. The Toy Thief will be released on October 6, 2018.

This is an unusual read and I really enjoyed it.
It's a slow burn, well written story about a young girl and her brother, living with a loving father who is doing his best and all of them grieving for their mother / wife.
Into this comes a 'toy thief', a demon who has taken on human form in order to steal toys.
The horror is definitely there throughout the book, slowly, slowly becoming more evident and that, I really enjoyed as well as the link between a demon who craves/steals the positive side of humanity, alongside the potential for the children's grief being what brings the demon to life. In the main, this is a book about family, grief and growing up in a one parent home.

The story does jump around a bit, with the narrator switching between telling the story as her 9 year old self and then as an adult. This worked for me though and I did enjoy the flow of the book, although, it's definitely confusing at times.

Overall, It's a good read, with a really good ending.

I'm very grateful to NetGalley, Flame Tree Press and the author for my ARC in exchange for this honest review.

THE TOY THIEF is a highly entertaining coming-of-age story with supernatural overtones that I enjoyed immensely.

This is the story of a rather dysfunctional but loving family, all of whom are haunted and affected in different ways by a tragedy for which Jack (main character and narrator) blames herself. When Jack accidentally discovers that a strange creature has invaded her home and inexplicably stolen a toy doll, she's compelled to unravel the mystery of this creature's existence and motivation and, above all, its ultimate goals.

THE TOY THIEF is a sweet, sad, and often creepy little tale with strong, if tragic, characters and a unique (legitimately chilling) monster.

In THE TOY THIEF, D. W. Gillespie has put together a great story that deftly explores themes of familial love, sacrifice, and innocence lost, and I very much look forward to more from this talented writer.