I can't TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!! I TRIED, I TRIED so hard... So very very hard to finish this book, to find some merit in it, but 158 pages in I'm ready to scream and flee a room if anyone forces me to read another word of this... 
 I think if I forced myself to finish my sanity would break and somebody would find me clubbing the library's copy of "The Child Thief" over and over again like a mad seal poacher crying, "Die, book, die!" 
 (which I would then only stop when somebody grabbed my shoulder, shook me like a rag doll and exclaimed, "Honey, it's DEAD! It can't hurt you anymore.") 
 It is such a disappointment too. I was SOOOO excited for this one. All the glowing reviews... A dark, adult version of Peter Pan meets the Mists of Avalon... Golly gee was I thrilled; did I ever stalk the library holdings shelves praying it would come in... Only to discover, I don't simply dislike this book, no no no, I HATE it. Hate it with a passion I haven't felt for a book in...possibly ever... Sure I hated Mark of Athena, and "The Lost Girls", oh and "Fairest of them all".... or thought I did, but now I know true literary hatred. 
 Every other word is "F- you". I knew from the get-go this was going to have bad language and I prepared myself (just like I did for the film, Love Rosie, which I enjoyed greatly despite every character having a filthy potty mouth), but this is beyond excessive. It basically becomes an invisible word, as unnoticeable to the eye as "Said" by the hundredth time it's invoked here. 
 I HATED all the characters. Nick was such an annoying special snowflake with mommy issues. That Leroy kid KILLED the cute little fairy (I'm sorry, am I supposed to hate this kid because he's mean to Nick, or because he's a fairy-smushing jerk? Cuz frankly I only feel the latter). I DID have a mild interest in Peter (his backstory was bizarre and overdone but it was semi-interesting) and Cricket (poor girl, you were the only character in this I didn't want to drop dead; please no one who's finished this book tell me if she dies or not, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW), but that couldn't keep me reading this on its own, it just wasn't enough. 
 The combo of Avalon and Neverland was poorly done... 
 Pardon my French but this book was just 400 pages of crap (I did skim ahead a little, despite being unable to force myself to read it properly all the way through). 
 Except for the pictures. Brom is clearly A WONDERFUL artist. I adored looking at the striking drawings in this very much. Maybe he should stick to that and not inflict the world with his horrid storytelling. 
 I realize I am in the minority here, since a lot of people love this book, but it just does nothing for me in the least. 
 Bloomin' shame.