''The Thief of Always'' is a 1992 novel written and illustrated by

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...

. The plot concerns a 10-year-old boy who journeys to a magical house, only to discover its master uses the home to attract children and steal their youth to ensure his own immortality.

Plot

10-year-old Harvey Swick is approached by a stranger named Rictus, who offers him the opportunity to stay at the magical Holiday House, founded by one Mr. Hood. Harvey accepts and accompanies Rictus there, meeting two other children, Wendell and Lulu, as well as its elderly caretaker, Mrs. Griffin, and her three cats. At the Holiday House, all of the seasons pass by in a day, with Halloween and Thanksgiving in the evening and Christmas at night. However, Mr. Hood himself is nowhere to be found, there are mentions of a mysterious figure named Carna, the nearby lake is full of enormous, sad looking fish, and Mrs. Griffin seems to be keeping a dark secret about the house. Harvey must use his wits and clever thinking in order to escape and return home.

Reception

''The Thief of Always'' has received positive reviews from both critics and casual readers alike. The book has an approximate 4.20 out of 5 stars on

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

."The Thief of Always: A Fable"
''Publishers Weekly''. 2 November 1992.

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

described the book as "both cute and horrifying", noting its similarity to

Grimm's Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (, , commonly abbreviated as ''KHM''), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm, first publish ...

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

described Barker's "studiously simple narration" as lacking in spirit.

Adaptations

''The Thief of Always'' was adapted as a bimonthly three-part comic book, published between January and May 2005, by

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

. Retrieved 26 February 2022. In the mid-90s, ''The Thief of Always'' was set to be adapted for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

as an

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

with music by

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...

and

set to produce

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

was set to produce the animation for the film, and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall serving as co-executive producers. The film reportedly made it through two thirds of the

storyboarding A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of Previsualization, pre-visualizing a film, motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The ...

process.

References

External links

Revelations
– official Clive Barker website for adults: includes a full bibliography, filmography and frequently updated news

– for younger readers – features ''Abarat'' and ''The Thief of Always''

– gallery of illustrations made for the book {{DEFAULTSORT:Thief Of Always 1992 British novels 1992 fantasy novels Children's fantasy novels Novels by Clive Barker British children's novels British fantasy novels IDW Publishing titles HarperCollins books 1992 children's books