At times, this was a truly moving narrative. I found the alternation of narrative between Henry Day and the changeling Aniday one of the most compelling portions of the book. Henry and Aniday made great foils, speaking to what makes the human experience truly important and how social relationships, creativity and introspection each have integral roles. On the other hand, the book feels underdeveloped. Plot threads, characters, even themes are dropped completely, without a backward glance. At times the plot overwhelms any thematic development and inversely, especially at the end of the book, the reader is asked to endure some extremely contrived plots in servitude to hammered imagery. ( )

Imaginad que la vida que estáis viviendo no es la vuestra, que no sois quien siempre habíais creído ser... Este moderno cuento de hadas para adultos se basa en un mito de la Europa nórdica: los trasgos, unos duendes que se apropian de la vida de los niños adoptando su apariencia. Todo comienza en un verano de 1949, cuando el pequeño Henry es secuestrado y suplantado por un trasgo impostor que toma su lugar en el mundo. Con el paso del tiempo, Henry, ahora llamado Aniday, aprende a convivir con otros trasgos que esperan su turno para apropiarse de la vida de algún humano, mientras su doble se convierte en músico y se conforma con una vida mediocre. Ni el Henry humano ni el duende impostor se sienten cómodos con su existencia y, cuando se encuentran de nuevo, treinta años después, los dos personajes apenas recuerdan nada, pero tienen la sensación de vivir atrapados entre dos mundos.

I was not expecting this book to draw me in as much as it did. The story follows the lives of a changling who becomes a boy, and the displaced boy who becomes a changling. Fantastic characterization and one of the oddest stories I've ever read about finding oneself. ( )

It's like a male version of "The Lovely Bones" - ideas of things that are done and can't be undone, of loss how people grieve and come to move on. ( )

It was OK. Or, perhaps the problem was that I'd read "The Motion of Puppets" by the same author and my expectations were too high. While TMoP whetted my desire to read more of the author's works, The Stolen Child did not create any feelings. Whatsoever. It was a bit dry, and I was strongly reminded of Christina Henry's Lost Boy.
On the whole, however, try it, especially if you've not read any of the author's other works. ( )