Customer Reviews

The Reach of Children

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The Reach of Children is the story of a child protagonist and his father having to deal with the death of their mother/wife. This is told from the child's view and is very dreamlike in its tone. It is a tale of how the two deal with the loss, but with one twist, in the fathers room there is a box underneath the bed and it talks to the child which reminds the child of his mother. This book is sorta a horror story, but in reality it is just a tale of a family dealing with grief and overcoming it. I thought this was a really well piece of work written by Lebbon.

THE REACH OF CHILDREN, Tim Lebbon's new novella (Published by Humdrumming) is a hard one to pigeonhole.....It's being marketed as a Horror story, which it is, on a certain level....But it's not "Scary-Boogeyman-Boo!" Horror, but a creeping, Psychological Horror that will stay with you long after the last page has been finished.

When ten-year-old Daniel's Mother dies, after a long and debilitating illness, his world is turned upside down. He struggles to come to terms with his grief, with how his friends and acquaintances react to his loss, and his Father isn't helping matters any; He's taken to drinking whenever he's at home, and retreating to his locked bedroom, where he converses with a chained-up, coffin-shaped box he keeps under his bed......A box which seems to answer him back. Being ten, Daniel will move heaven and earth to find out what, or who, is in the mysterious box........No matter what it takes.

THE REACH OF CHILDREN is a quick little read, composed of short one or two page chapters, but Lebbon's prose is so dense and rich that it's still a substantial package that'll satisy most readers. At it's core, REACH is a tale of loss and grief and acceptance, and there are passages where Lebbon conveys Daniel's mourning of his mother so profoundly that I was almost moved to tears, or left feeling like I had been punched in the gut. I'm not a huge fan of Lebbon's work, but THE REACH OF CHILDREN is nothing short of excellent. Highly recommended.

The limited-edition from Humdrumming features an introduction by Michael Marshall Smith, and an Afterword by Lebbon, which relates the genesis of the story, which was inspired by the loss of his Mother, and is itself worth the price of admission.