Review: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

The Book of Lost Things: A Novel

John Connolly

I love fairy tales, particularly the original versions where the bad children get eaten by monsters in the Black Forest and no one ends up living happily-ever-after.  I used to spend hours reading my mother's childhood fairy tale books, which were quite a bit darker than the ones I had, and I used to read my grandmother's 1920's Oz books, which were also surprisingly creepy (one character, I remember, was cut in half lengthwise and had to walk around like that).  So this book, which is more or less pitched as a dark fairy tale, sounded good to me.

I would have to say that this is one of the absolute best stories I've ever read.  It's extremely dark, and is an allegory for adult life.  But most of all, it captures exactly what it's like to be in the "in-between" years of being not quite a child or a teenager.  In this case, it is set in 1940's Britain, so there is the added drama of WWII as well as the time period making it believable that a twelve-year-old is still fairly innocent.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book... The Book of Lost Things.

Although parts of this book were predictable, as all fairy tales can be, it never descended into the trite or sappy.  The ending, for example, was absolutely perfect - one of those stories where you shut the book and the story stays with you for days.  It is bittersweet, but incredibly well done.  I love Connolly's writing style, and I will definitely be checking out his other works now.  I highly recommend The Book of Lost Things, and will be putting it on my wishlist to remind myself to pick up my own copy.