Although the work is fictional, the name of the protagonist is James Gunn.

The novel flashes back and forth between the character Gunn's drug-addled, sexually abusive adult life, and his life among his childhood friends.

A positive review in The Austin Chronicle states that The Toy Collector "satirizes both Seventies melodrama and Nineties cynicism as Gunn barrels through life looking for beauty and love.

But every page in this novel has something to laugh at and something sad to remember, and it's better than anything you'll see on TV.

"[1] Although Gunn started as a novelist after he began working in the film industry,[2] he became much more successful as a screenwriter with films such as Dawn of the Dead (2004), and as writer-director, in particular with Slither and the Guardians of the Galaxy.