Sam Shouthall y sus amigos son como cualquier otra pandilla de jóvenes. Holgazanean por los alrededores de su ciudad mientras desafían a los adultos a poner a prueba su libertad... hasta la noche en que Sam encuentra una duende a los pies de su cama. No una duende bondadosa como las de los cuentos infantiles, sino una presencia malévola e inquietante que se mofa de sus miedos y limitaciones y abre las puertas a su lado más tenebroso.

While a very enjoyable novel, I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. It's a coming of age story about a boy who also discovers the tooth fairy. Unfortunately the tooth fairy is not quite the friendly magical creature that we think. In fact, the relationship that develops between Sam, the main character and the tooth fairy is often antagonistic and brutal, but also loving and seductive. Obviously this has many profound effects on Sam and in turn on his friends. And we stay with them all from a young age of five or six to their late teens, experiencing along with them things like a first kiss, lost toes, a genius and death. Joyce's character development throughout the book is wonderful and very involving. I know that I'm not getting it across here but I found myself not wanting it to end. If you want an off beat tale about kids growing up, then this is definitely a book for you. ( )

I first read this book back in 1997 and it still haunts me. Beautiful, sad, earthy, fantastical and real. ( )

While out playing with his two friends Sam inadvertently loses a tooth. Determining to find out if the tooth fairy really does exist he places it under his pillow before falling asleep and has managed to keep the loss from his parents. Unfortunately for Sam (and the fairy) he awakens to find the tooth fairy skulking about his room and after a brief verbal exchange the fairy takes the tooth and leaves a sixpence in return (this is middle England of the 1960's) and admonishes Sam not to tell anyone of his existence or bad things will happen. What follows is a coming-of-age story with the continual appearance of the mercurial tooth fairy especially at momentous times during Sam's maturing from young boy through adolescence and into young adulthood. A lot of these experiences are not pleasant for anyone involved as the author takes us to the darker edge of what it's like growing up.

I really enjoy Joyce's writing and he's not afraid of making his readers uncomfortable with the situations and thought processes of his characters. He sets the tone perfectly with the fairy tale allusions being firmly grounded in reality. The friendship and travails of the three boys is very well handled and evoked some memories of my own childhood. They go through some tough times but always manage to remain together throughout. I enjoyed the book immensely but not everyone will and I will leave this review with a warning that sexual content and profanity feature heavily in this novel so if that's not for you then you should probably avoid. ( )

A Jungian coming of age story that straddles both the genre of horror and (dark) fairytale. Well-written and complex, it follows a boy's journey from childhood into that of a young adult. The brilliant part of this book, is that reader is never quite sure if the main character (Sam) is imagining the tooth fairy (which would make she/he a metaphor for the loss of Sam's childhood), or if the tooth fairy is indeed real. I would have given the book 5-stars, the writing was very good, but there were parts of the story I found a bit too graphic for my tastes. Definitely worth a read, however. ( )