Helpful Score: 11
It is about two lives--a seven-year-old boy and a centurien-- that are forever changed when they swap places with one another, one knowing and the other not.
This book was not at all what i imagined it to be: it was dark, imaginative, like a quiet little noise you can't get out of your head. It drew me in and every second i got i read. Rated 4.5/5
This book was not at all what i imagined it to be: it was dark, imaginative, like a quiet little noise you can't get out of your head. It drew me in and every second i got i read. Rated 4.5/5
Helpful Score: 10
Intriguing and heartbreaking novel about alienation and the need we all have to know who we are and where we came from. This resonated with me mostly as I thought of my daughter -- abandoned, and adopted from a foreign country, it's highly unlikely she will ever know her blood roots. Is she also a stolen child in some ways?
The novel didn't enrapture me the way some do; I never found myself having to stay up and read just one more chapter. But a worthy read nonetheless, and one not so easily forgotten.
The novel didn't enrapture me the way some do; I never found myself having to stay up and read just one more chapter. But a worthy read nonetheless, and one not so easily forgotten.
Helpful Score: 8
A really interesting and strangely engaging story. The truly interesting part of this book was how Donohue intertwined the two stories of Henry Day; the changeling that took his place in the big world and the stolen child (the real Henry Day). Both boys are in search of what they have lost and trying to survive in their new worlds. A true fantasy book for those who are not necessarily fantasy readers.
Helpful Score: 6
I dont know what made me purchase this book, creative product placement I assume, but it sat on my shelf for over a year. It wasnt until I noticed that it was a wishlist book on this site that I decided to try to read it before posting it for another member. WOW. It was truly a fascinating and interesting read. Different but very creative, well worth the time, this story and its characters will stay with me for a long time.
Believable and haunting. One of the few opposite and alternating viewpoint (chapter by chapter) books I've read that converges without destroying the plot while holding your interest
Helpful Score: 4
Very good read about a boy and his changeling. Highly recommended.
Helpful Score: 4
Read it for a book group. Fairly interesting watching the 2 parellel lives of the real person and the changeling and how their lives are connected. Should make for interesting discussion.
Helpful Score: 3
I have a hard time parting with this book, but I am passing it along as I can't keep all my books forever, it is THAT good.
I call this a "fairy tale for adults" because it has the fancy of a children's story, but is also complex in nature. I liken it to Joanne Harris' Chocolat as that "kind" of story, although the main character is male, not female.
This is a magical story I enjoyed reading more than once. It is believable and yet fanciful.
I call this a "fairy tale for adults" because it has the fancy of a children's story, but is also complex in nature. I liken it to Joanne Harris' Chocolat as that "kind" of story, although the main character is male, not female.
This is a magical story I enjoyed reading more than once. It is believable and yet fanciful.
Helpful Score: 3
I've never really read fantasy/ sci-fi books and this was my first. I loved it. It made for a great discussion at our book club meeting. I highly recommend it to anyone who is just looking for something different.
Helpful Score: 3
I loved this book. It held me in its grip all night long and into the rest of the next day. You really get caught up in the story line and how the changelings live and go on to become a human child and how the once human child becomes a wild forest creature waiting a century to take their turn at life again. Conflict, surprises, and all the great stuff you love to see in a great novel.
Helpful Score: 3
This felt very much like a fairy tale. I highly enjoyed it. The book was very original and the presentation/structure fit perfectly. It would've been nice to know a bit more about how the real Henry Day ended up, but I suppose it is best left to the imagination. I would definitely recommend this to others. And a great debut by this author!! I hope his second book is as successful!
Several people recommended this to me; I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I liked it okay, but didn't feel like there was much to it and found myself skimming the last few chapters so I could mark it off my list. I thought the ending was a tad cheesy.
Helpful Score: 2
Slightly slow, this novel began to grip me about halfway through. You start to root for the characters and pick sides.
Helpful Score: 2
Unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not find this book hard to get into but rather the end was so long and drawn out that I almost gave up on it then. All in all I liked and it is different than anything else that I have ever read.
Helpful Score: 2
Enjoyable read. A dark modern day version of the Peter Pan story.
Helpful Score: 2
I was enchanted with this story. It's hard to believe that this is the author's first book! To truly appreciate the beauty of this book, you must be willing to accept the idea of magic and unexplainable events. If you can do that, you will experience a story that is utterly unforgetable!! Seven year old Henry Day in a fit of temper runs to the woods and hides. While he is gone, he is exchanged by hobgob I lins for another stolen child who has been waiting a century in the forest for his chance to grow up in the world. The changelings have been studying Henry for over a year to make sure his replacement can fool his new family. Now it will be Henry's turn to spend a century or so in the woods as a permanant "child" with the other changlings, a dozen or so in all until it is his turn to replace a "real" child and grow up. The story is told from the point of view of both "Henry's" the origional and the new one. There are many, many layers to discover and embrace as their lives unfold in alternate chapters until the stories intersect. The enchantment of being forever a child, versus the very real need to grow up, experiencing the belonging of family while being true to yourself, the unique gifts that make us who we are yet push us onward to discover who we can become are only a few of questions that are suggested by the authors wonderful prose and lyrical style. Certainly a book that will leave you thinking long after the last page. I did not want it to end, and strongly recommend as one of the BEST BOOKS I have ever read!!!
Helpful Score: 2
The Stolen Child is the story of a boy that was kidnapped by changelings and the changeling that replaced him. It is told in chapters alternating between the perspective of the boy that has become one of the changelings, who live stuck in time, and the changeling that replaced him, who has finally returned to society. It was a great story that made the reader think of deeper issues such as identity and truth. The book moved a little slow for me, I found it easy to put down, but overall it is a unique story told in a beautiful way. It is a fantasy novel that I think could be enjoyed by those that do not usually read the genre.
Helpful Score: 2
Hmm...another dark adult fairy tale. The ending is very, VERY cheesy but it leaves you wondering who exactly was narrating the whole story to begin with. This book reminded me a bit of Peter Pan. It's fun to read but the philosophy kind of bogs things down. Oddly, I'd start falling asleep but then hit on a paragraph or description that intrigued me. My favorite lines would have to be when the changeling who was pretending to be Henry Day realizes his "mother" (Henry's real mother) saw through his impersonation act but loved him anyway.
Helpful Score: 2
Really interesting. Written as two intertwined autobiographies and just felt so real when reading. Like it a lot, really started some interesting conversation between myself and my sister who also read it at the same time.
Helpful Score: 2
I just finished The Stolen Child, so I'm reviewing it while it's fresh in my mind.
A dark, sad, uplifting, wistful story. Henry Days, both old and new, are such sad and likeable characters that I spent 300 pages worrying about them...about their relationships, their safety, and their emotional fragility. This was a funny, delicate story, beautifully written. It's heroes and their stories unfold themselves slowly, beautifully and tragically. I heartily recommend it for a quiet winter's day.
A dark, sad, uplifting, wistful story. Henry Days, both old and new, are such sad and likeable characters that I spent 300 pages worrying about them...about their relationships, their safety, and their emotional fragility. This was a funny, delicate story, beautifully written. It's heroes and their stories unfold themselves slowly, beautifully and tragically. I heartily recommend it for a quiet winter's day.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the best book I've read in a loooong time. One of those that you couldn't put down. it is not appropriate for younger teens because there are a few sexual scenes.
Helpful Score: 1
This was a wonderful story I had also gotten the audio to it and it was narrated great. it is about a hob goblin and a boy and how their worlds switch and how they each handle it. It is written with both characters coming to life and you are able to understand how both feel. It was just a fabulous read. I took my time reading it but it has really taken a place in my heart so this book I will not be trading this is going on my never give away shelf. I hope you get a copy though and read the book it is a fantastic read.
Helpful Score: 1
A modern day fairy tale. Very moving and sad. Greatly enjoyed it.
Helpful Score: 1
Wow! What a story. This is unlike anything I've read before. It's a memorable book with a very interesting premise. It's not horror or fantasy but something unique unto itself. I really enjoyed the book. It's a haunting and poignant tale of two stolen lives. An American boy snatched from his family by changelings who are a tribe of unaging magical wild children who live in the woods, and replaced with a look alike changeling who himself was stolen a century earlier from his family. The imposter tries his best to be the boy he has replaced though not everyone is fooled. The highlight of the book comes many decades later when their paths finally intersect.
Helpful Score: 1
I have had this book for a while to read and was excited to finally get to listen to it. I listened to this on audiobook, I pretty much finish every audiobook I get because I am driving anyway while I listen to them. This is one I almost didn't finish as an audiobook. It was boring and pointless.
As mentioned above I listened to this on audiobook. The audiobook was well done; there are two different narrators...one for each character. They both do a decent job of narrating. It wasn't fantastic but it was decent.
The book is about a boy named Henry Day who is stolen by changelings. He ends up being called Aniday by the other changelings and ekes out a living with them; an endless existence that is a struggle for survival. Meanwhile the changeling that takes his place takes on the name of Henry Day and takes over Henry's life.
The book basically alternates between Aniday's struggle to survive both an eternal existence as a child and everyday life. Meanwhile the new Henry Day is struggling to fit in and also struggling with his guilt over having taken over Henry Day's life.
Mostly the story is just boring; like put me to sleep while driving boring. This is just a story about these two characters living their lives. The characters are not likable or even all that interesting. The most interesting part to the story is the new Henry Day's search for information about his family before he became a changeling.
All of the characters are angsty and discontent throughout, mostly causing trouble and bringing down the characters around them. I just didn't enjoy it.
This is supposed to be based on a Yeats poem about changelings and I wish we had seen more of the mythology around changelings rather than all this day to day life drama. This book reads more like a soap opera in which the two main characters happen to be changelings than anything.
Overall I didn't enjoy the book and don't recommend it. I am not sure what all the hype around this book is about; I personally would skip it.
As mentioned above I listened to this on audiobook. The audiobook was well done; there are two different narrators...one for each character. They both do a decent job of narrating. It wasn't fantastic but it was decent.
The book is about a boy named Henry Day who is stolen by changelings. He ends up being called Aniday by the other changelings and ekes out a living with them; an endless existence that is a struggle for survival. Meanwhile the changeling that takes his place takes on the name of Henry Day and takes over Henry's life.
The book basically alternates between Aniday's struggle to survive both an eternal existence as a child and everyday life. Meanwhile the new Henry Day is struggling to fit in and also struggling with his guilt over having taken over Henry Day's life.
Mostly the story is just boring; like put me to sleep while driving boring. This is just a story about these two characters living their lives. The characters are not likable or even all that interesting. The most interesting part to the story is the new Henry Day's search for information about his family before he became a changeling.
All of the characters are angsty and discontent throughout, mostly causing trouble and bringing down the characters around them. I just didn't enjoy it.
This is supposed to be based on a Yeats poem about changelings and I wish we had seen more of the mythology around changelings rather than all this day to day life drama. This book reads more like a soap opera in which the two main characters happen to be changelings than anything.
Overall I didn't enjoy the book and don't recommend it. I am not sure what all the hype around this book is about; I personally would skip it.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book, it's a wonderful fantasy, and an amazing first novel by the author!
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this novel! It has a very interesting and unique storyline. One of the best I have read this summer.
Helpful Score: 1
wonderful book. Will read it again. Good book about growing up and coming to terms with things you have or have not done the right way.
Helpful Score: 1
Rather haunting; like a Neverland gone awry. It was hard to get into the book, but once in it was hard for me to put down.
Helpful Score: 1
Enjoyable, easy read, liked how it switched back and fore between the two characters.
A strange, yet enjoyable, story.
A very good concept for a story. Taking a human child and replacing her/him with a fairy child from the woods.
That child then takes over the humans life, grows up, and his replacement stays the same age for centuries until its his turn to become another human. Told from the views of both the fairy child and the human. I found it very interesting.
That child then takes over the humans life, grows up, and his replacement stays the same age for centuries until its his turn to become another human. Told from the views of both the fairy child and the human. I found it very interesting.
Well written, I simply couldn't get into the story.
What a interesting idea of one child being replaced by another.
Told in two different perspective-from the main characters.
I liked the well developed characters and how they each tried to better understand what was happening to them and how to handle the information they come to know.
I felt bad for both boys throughout the whole story, each not sure if they fit in and the longing to know who they were before the change.
The struggle to survive mentally for each was sometimes overwhelming and heartbreaking.
I did like the ending and the realization each came to.
Makes you think.
Told in two different perspective-from the main characters.
I liked the well developed characters and how they each tried to better understand what was happening to them and how to handle the information they come to know.
I felt bad for both boys throughout the whole story, each not sure if they fit in and the longing to know who they were before the change.
The struggle to survive mentally for each was sometimes overwhelming and heartbreaking.
I did like the ending and the realization each came to.
Makes you think.
The Stolen Child is a fantacy about a seven year old boy, Henry Day, who is stolen by the wood fairies who are changelings. The oldest wood fairy changes himself to look like Henry and takes his place. The remaining fairies are in charge of teaching the original Henry, who they now call Aniday and has been changed into a fairy, how to survive in the wild as a member of their troup. The story follows both characters' lives through their new lives and the cofussion they go through living in their new worlds. It is an interesting story but not a page turner.
Ona summer night, Henry Day runs away from home & hides in a hollow tree. There, he is taken by the changelings-an unaging tribe of wild children who live in darkness and in secret. They spirit him away, name him Aniday, and make him one of their own. Stuck forever as a child, Aniday grows in spirit, struggling to remember the life and family he left behind. He also seeks to understand and fit into this shadow land, as modern life encroaches upon both myth and nature.
In his place, the changelings leave a double, a boy who steals Henry's life in the world. This new Henry Day must adjust to a modern culture while hiding hismtrue identity from the Day family. But he can't hide his extraordinary talent for the pianp ( a skill the true Henry never displayed), and his dazzling performances prompt his father to suspect that the son he has raised is an imposter. As he ages, the new Henry Day becomes haunted by vague but persistent memories of life in another time & place, of a German piano teacher and his prodigy. Of a time when he, too, had been a stolen child. Both Henry and Aniday obsessively search for who they once were before they changed places in the world.
The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search for identity. With just the right mix of fantasy and realism, Keith Donohue has created a bedtime story for adults and a literary fable of remarkable depth and strange delights.
In his place, the changelings leave a double, a boy who steals Henry's life in the world. This new Henry Day must adjust to a modern culture while hiding hismtrue identity from the Day family. But he can't hide his extraordinary talent for the pianp ( a skill the true Henry never displayed), and his dazzling performances prompt his father to suspect that the son he has raised is an imposter. As he ages, the new Henry Day becomes haunted by vague but persistent memories of life in another time & place, of a German piano teacher and his prodigy. Of a time when he, too, had been a stolen child. Both Henry and Aniday obsessively search for who they once were before they changed places in the world.
The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search for identity. With just the right mix of fantasy and realism, Keith Donohue has created a bedtime story for adults and a literary fable of remarkable depth and strange delights.
A type of story I've never read before but I felt the writing was a bit guevenile.
