The Thief of Always By: Clive Barker

I guess I am lucky in the fact that I have a friend who has a mild (okay, moderate to severe) obsession with Clive Barker, AND has an impressive collection of his work readily available. Before I met this friend I had honestly never even heard of Clive Barker and I must admit, I am addicted.
This book is written as a fable and it is dark and twisted (as is his style of course). You follow this half horrible half courageous little kid who goes on this magical adventure into this alternate dimension of sorts where there is a house full of wonderful creatures and characters and where every evening its Halloween and every night its Christmas. Of course that's every kids dream yet of course all hell breaks lose. (quite literally indeed).
As with his other book I have read (weaveworld) the story has characters you love and hate, and even though you are rooting fro them along the way, you cheer just a tad when they get set back in any way. The overly story is long winded and complex (in all the BEST ways, I assure you) and as you go through the story, a new plot twist happens on almost every other page it seems. It is a pleasant occurrence when an author can do this so rapidly and so incredibly often, and so SUCCESSFULLY. I never get bored with his books, can finish them quickly because I am so absorbed in the intricate story line, if anything if I miss a day of reading I just get a little confused and have to reread the last few pages (which is a good thing in my opinion).
All in all its a fabulous book (even though as a kids book I find it a little too dark) and one I definitely intend for my nephew to read (in a few years of course).