This book gave me the shivers and sent me looking up fairy tales that I'd never heard of, such as the story of Roland. Obviously Alice went through the looking-glass and Dorothy went to Oz, and the fractured fairy tale for adults has been well-done before. But for me, this book gave its child traveler, David, much richer and scarier motives than "there's no place like home." The war background made me think of Pan's Labyrinth (many similar themes), and I appreciated the frank discussion of David's feelings of grief for his mother, displacement in his family, and hatred for his new half-brother. These things made his journey that much more poignant. Being a certified wimp, I was both repulsed and hypnotized, from David's first sighting of the Crooked Man through the window of his room, to the very nightmarish activities of the Huntress. You may have to read the ending several times!