Review #17: Out of a plane crash and into the fairy world.
Title: The Book of Lost Things
Author: John Connolly
Number of Pages: 339
Publisher: Atria Books
Where I Got It: Library
Cost: $23.00
Rating: 10- Watch Your Step. I Spewed FANGIRL All Over This Review
Inside Flap:
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.
An imaginative tribute to the journey we must all make through the loss of innocence into adulthood, John Connolly's latest novel is a book for every adult who can recall the moment when childhood began to fade, and for every adult about to face that moment. The Book of Lost Things is a story of hope for all who have lost, and for all who have yet to lose. It is an exhilarating tale that remind us of the enduring power of stories in our lives.
May I say that, from the moment I started reading this book, I was completely carried away by a world of magical whimsy, fear, love, bravery and sometimes sheer cheek? What's that? It's my book review journal and I can say whatever I want? Oh! Good, then XD
I believe the first thing to hook me with this book was the tone in the beginning. It opens with David losing his mother to cancer, relating all the things he'd done to try to keep her alive. There were no blood transfusions or double mortgages to pay the doctors; that's not what I'm talking about. What he did is called Magical Thinking; creating your own superstitions with the heart-wrenching belief that, if you do everything Just Right, then things will be okay. This part particularly spoke to me because of my own relationship with Magical Thinking, or OCD, if you like. It reared its ugly head after I found my dad dead in our back room but I was able to tamp it down. It really got raring to go after my brother was killed at work seven months later. It really sucked me into David's story and I felt for him immediately. That, combined with beautiful prose, assured me that I would fall in love with this book.
I also read this story in the middle of autumn, sitting outside on my porch. I'm from southern Ohio and our autumns are a bit nippy, with full-blown changing leaves. I also live smack in the middle of the forest with next to no neighbors. Talk about atmosphere.
This book is, at heart, a coming of age tale about the boy, David. It's a walk with a young boy who loves to read, into a world of fairy tales that are, at times, a bit darker, and also a bit funnier than we're used to.... unless, of course, you've read the Grimm brother's stories. Then they're probably just funnier. He ends up leaving England in the middle of the air-raids and falls into the forest of a world that's just as dangerous, if not more. His only way out is to find the Book of Lost Things... Or so he's told.
David is a character as real as I can imagine. He doesn't come by unlikely physical strength when forced into the fairy world, nor is he blessed with Intelligence and Wisdom Beyond His Years. He has the ability to be clever but, ultimately, is just a young boy. Throughout the story, we go with him as he learns that change is the most natural thing in the world and you can find a way to try to accept them and see the good for everything it can mean to you or you'll be left a little less happy with each day that goes by.
The enemy in this story is a figure named the Crooked Man and, let me tell you, he's just about the creepiest thing I've come across for a while. He's a riddler and a cheat and he's not human but I had nightmares about him for a week. His goal is to get David's little brothers name from him. That's all, just the name. That's all, just betrayal.
There are also two characters that David will make most of his journey with:
The Woodsman is an upright, good man, who lives in and protects the woods and so he protects David. The Woodsman also tells him some tales that you may or may not have heard before while protecting David from the Werewolves. And these aren't your normal werewolves. These guys creeped me out almost as badly as the Crooked Man.
The second character, Roland, doesn't so much agree to help David as to take him on as a squire. In return for David's assistance in his journey to find his lost friend, Raphael, he will take him to the castle and to the king. This is especially important to David as the king is the one who holds the Book of Lost Things. I guessed Roland's secret a bit early, but I think Connolly wanted the reader to catch on.
This book won't be for everyone. A lot of people, I imagine, will find it boring. It's dark and so much is taken away from the characters that I sometimes thought that nothing good could come of it and it was going to be a sad ending. It didn't stop me from reading, however, as I quite enjoy sad endings as much as happy ones. In some ways, it was sad. I was, however, touched by what David gained through his journey, be it knowledge, acceptance or reassurance.
The Mindless Rabble of Others?
Not really. No one that you'd really need to remember.
No, I love YOU!!! *kissykissy*
There is a love story and it is at the heart of the third "act," if I may use that word. Very touching but doesn't over power the story.
Dance, Magic, Dance!
Yes! All the fairy tale awesomeness you would expect from a book where the protagonist is plunged into queen mother of fairy tale lands.
Exactly Where Are You From?
Pretty positive that David is in England (it's set during the late 30's/early 40's and there are air-raids going on), I don't remember for certain whether the author mentions it outright.
Leave me alone, I’m Plotting…
The plot is a little loose and flowing, though it never completely falls apart. It can be rather slow at times but, for me, it's made up for by the excellent writing.
”Hey, what does this do?” “NO! DON’T TOUCH THAT!!”
Just about everything in the fairy world.
Why? WHY? Oh, the AGONY!!!!!
Why did it have to end? I was perfectly happy living in this world.
Awesome excerpt:
Hilarious take on the Seven Dwarves:
"Do you have names? Asked David.
"Names?" said the first dwarf. "Names? Course we have names. I"-- he gave a little, self-important cough--" am Comrade Brother Number One. These are Comrade Brothers Numbers Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Eight."
"What happened to Seven?" asked David.
There was an embarrassed silence.
"We don't talk about Former Comrade Brother Number Seven," said Comrade Brother Number One, eventually. "He has been officially excised from the Party's records."
"He went to work for his mum," explained Comrade Brother Number Three, helpfully.
"A capitalist! spit Brother Number One.
"A baker," Brother Number Three corrected him.
Next Up:
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves- P. G. Wodehouse
The Graveyard Book- Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman
Blood Trail- Tanya Huff