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A review by tyto_alba
The Toymaker by Sergio Gomez
3.0
Because the other reviews affected my expectations (and thus, my experience) of this book, I feel I must discuss the oft-made comparison to Goosebumps and Slappy in order to review this book myself. I have been rereading a lot of the Goosebumps books (I'm gonna shorten this to GB), so I was excited to read what others described as "an adult GB book." I was essentially expecting Slappy BUT WITH A GUN, but that is definitely not what I got. Honestly, other than the presence of a living dummy (who is far more like Pinocchio than Slappy), this has little in common with GB. It feels like the author is a fan of GB, since the ideas themselves (and the imagery) are kinda silly and not meant to be taken too seriously, and the plot is so predictable that the characters themselves accurately guess the ending early on. However, if I had to make a comparison to other movies/books, I would say this is more like if Pinocchio was forced to be the killer doll in Child's Play, but set in Stephen King's It.
Since I feel most strongly about Lucas, let me start with…
THE "BAD":
My main problem with the book itself (as well as, unfortunately, my favorite part) is Lucas the ventriloquist dummy. Lucas is murderous, yes, but so painfully naive that he often feels unfairly innocent and undeserving of the life he was dealt (regardless of his origins, which he doesn't even remember). I actually stopped reading for almost a month after I got to "Momma" because I simply didn't want to see anything worse happen to him. And it's not that I didn't like the main cast, either. This book does an absolutely wonderful job at developing all of the characters (Raymond in particular broke my heart). But all of the circumstances surrounding Lucas felt so unfair, that I couldn't help but sympathize with him the most, which made reading it difficult. At least Slappy purposely chooses to be evil. He fully understands the gravity of his actions and gleefully does it anyway, because for all intents and purposes, he is an adult who is actually evil. Lucas is literally a newborn child with even less understanding of the world around him than his 12-15 year old "adversaries" do. That he immediately resorts to murder doesn't make me think he's evil because for one, he doesn't understand right from wrong, and for two, he feels as though he is fighting for his very life (and he is). The reason this is such a problem for me is that he is clearly supposed to be the "pure evil" the kids need to defeat, but he is more of a child than they are, and nothing about the way the plot unfolds around him is enjoyable to read because of this.
The ending (no spoilers here) feels like it goes further to "prove" Lucas was always super evil, but it only makes Lucas even more of a powerless victim of circumstance. I have no idea if this is intentional or not.
THE GOOD:
The character development is the strongest point of this book. Before the plot really kicks into action, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the characters' lives and how they interacted with each other. I don't think I have ever enjoyed the "group of kids from ye-olden-days" trope as much as I had here, because I liked all of them, and I even cared about the adults in their lives, who (aside from Big Bob) were all multidimensional people who were interesting in their own right. The drama of this little town because of the character relationships was interesting all by itself, which I find to be an impressive feat.
The writing style and the way events are paced (at least in the first half) make the story very compelling and quick to read through. The pacing with Lucas's creation, flipping back and forth between characters and having people mentally comment on something being off about Raymond, really upped the suspense and had me dying to see the moment Lucas was finished.
I also enjoyed (or rather, almost enjoyed) how silly the visuals were with Lucas using weapons. Had he been written differently, I would have taken the same enjoyment as seeing Chucky with a knife (a living doll is creepy, but a doll with deadly weapons is hilarious).
IN CONCLUSION:
Overall, for as "schlocky" as this book tries to be, it made a huge mistake (in my opinion) by making the villain far too sympathetic. I can love villains AND be happy when they get defeated, but having the villain feel like a victim sucks the enjoyment away. There is a reason the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster are seen as tragic figures and Freddy Krueger and Chucky are not. Pulling a Frankenstein's monster and framing it as Chucky just feels mean spirited.
So, if you are not the kind of person to easily sympathize with villains or you really just want more living ventriloquist dummy horror in your life, I would recommend this book. Just don't go into this expecting Slappy.
Since I feel most strongly about Lucas, let me start with…
THE "BAD":
My main problem with the book itself (as well as, unfortunately, my favorite part) is Lucas the ventriloquist dummy. Lucas is murderous, yes, but so painfully naive that he often feels unfairly innocent and undeserving of the life he was dealt (regardless of his origins, which he doesn't even remember). I actually stopped reading for almost a month after I got to "Momma" because I simply didn't want to see anything worse happen to him. And it's not that I didn't like the main cast, either. This book does an absolutely wonderful job at developing all of the characters (Raymond in particular broke my heart). But all of the circumstances surrounding Lucas felt so unfair, that I couldn't help but sympathize with him the most, which made reading it difficult. At least Slappy purposely chooses to be evil. He fully understands the gravity of his actions and gleefully does it anyway, because for all intents and purposes, he is an adult who is actually evil. Lucas is literally a newborn child with even less understanding of the world around him than his 12-15 year old "adversaries" do. That he immediately resorts to murder doesn't make me think he's evil because for one, he doesn't understand right from wrong, and for two, he feels as though he is fighting for his very life (and he is). The reason this is such a problem for me is that he is clearly supposed to be the "pure evil" the kids need to defeat, but he is more of a child than they are, and nothing about the way the plot unfolds around him is enjoyable to read because of this.
The ending (no spoilers here) feels like it goes further to "prove" Lucas was always super evil, but it only makes Lucas even more of a powerless victim of circumstance. I have no idea if this is intentional or not.
THE GOOD:
The character development is the strongest point of this book. Before the plot really kicks into action, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the characters' lives and how they interacted with each other. I don't think I have ever enjoyed the "group of kids from ye-olden-days" trope as much as I had here, because I liked all of them, and I even cared about the adults in their lives, who (aside from Big Bob) were all multidimensional people who were interesting in their own right. The drama of this little town because of the character relationships was interesting all by itself, which I find to be an impressive feat.
The writing style and the way events are paced (at least in the first half) make the story very compelling and quick to read through. The pacing with Lucas's creation, flipping back and forth between characters and having people mentally comment on something being off about Raymond, really upped the suspense and had me dying to see the moment Lucas was finished.
I also enjoyed (or rather, almost enjoyed) how silly the visuals were with Lucas using weapons. Had he been written differently, I would have taken the same enjoyment as seeing Chucky with a knife (a living doll is creepy, but a doll with deadly weapons is hilarious).
IN CONCLUSION:
Overall, for as "schlocky" as this book tries to be, it made a huge mistake (in my opinion) by making the villain far too sympathetic. I can love villains AND be happy when they get defeated, but having the villain feel like a victim sucks the enjoyment away. There is a reason the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster are seen as tragic figures and Freddy Krueger and Chucky are not. Pulling a Frankenstein's monster and framing it as Chucky just feels mean spirited.
So, if you are not the kind of person to easily sympathize with villains or you really just want more living ventriloquist dummy horror in your life, I would recommend this book. Just don't go into this expecting Slappy.