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The Book of Lost Things

By John Connolly

(119)

| Others | 9780340899489

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Book Description

'Once upon a time, there was a boy who lost his mother . . .' As twelve-year-old David takes refuge from his grief in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when bad things start to happen. That is when the CrookeContinue

Critics

The Book of Lost Things

Shotsmag Reviews -The Book of Lost Things If John Connolly’s collection of short stories has shown us anything, it is that he is such a diverse writer who cannot be typecast. The Book of Lost Things highlights Connolly’s excellent writing skills. Fa ... (read full critics)

shotsmag published on Wed, 29 Sep 2010

An odyssey underground

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly 310pp, Hodder & Stoughton, £11.99 The Home Counties, 1939. David lives with his father, his stepmother Rose and Georgie, his new baby stepbrother, in Rose's big old house. It's not an arrangement of which he a ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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8 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

When David's mother dies and his father remarries, David withdraws into the world of books and fairy tales that his mother loved so much. But once the books start talking to him and the world within their pages intrudes on his real life, reality quickly becomes skewed; David escapes through a hole i ... (continue)

When David's mother dies and his father remarries, David withdraws into the world of books and fairy tales that his mother loved so much. But once the books start talking to him and the world within their pages intrudes on his real life, reality quickly becomes skewed; David escapes through a hole in the garden to a world of monsters and werewolves where every story definitely does not have a happy ending.
Lovely coming-of-age novel with a surprising denouement.

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annemarie said on Apr 25, 2009 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

The story is well written. It's really easy to enter the world created by the author and I enjoy reading it a lot. I especially like the way "new version" of the fairy tales is re-written in this book. As the author has said, the book is a book about childhood for adult. While reading it some of my ... (continue)

The story is well written. It's really easy to enter the world created by the author and I enjoy reading it a lot. I especially like the way "new version" of the fairy tales is re-written in this book. As the author has said, the book is a book about childhood for adult. While reading it some of my childhood memories, both happy and sad ones, came alive again. It's a book that make the reader think a lot about grief and loss in one's life. Really worth spend some time on it!

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Thelma said on Sep 5, 2007 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

i like how this book made me contemplate on some things after i finished it. and i think it has one of the best endings that i don't see very often in books now.

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Vickywt said on Mar 28, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

I simply loved it!

Starts like a novel only to become a thriller filled with good old fantasy more or less at a third of the book.
I thought it was kinda of fantasy for children: I was completely wrong. It is not a book for kids. Maybe for teens, but definitely target are adults, too.
I did love the way the old folk t ... (continue)

Starts like a novel only to become a thriller filled with good old fantasy more or less at a third of the book.
I thought it was kinda of fantasy for children: I was completely wrong. It is not a book for kids. Maybe for teens, but definitely target are adults, too.
I did love the way the old folk tales have been reviewed and re-written in this book. I laughed out loud when I got to the chapter where David meets the seven dwarfs and Snow White: who in the world would ever think to put Snow White's death on the... dwarfs? But Connolly did, and those two chapters are absolutely amazing.
I found quite interesting also the last part with the reading notes on the book, although I already knew most of them.

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Drawy82 said on Oct 9, 2011 | Add your feedback

Wonderful book. Connolly creates a rich world straight out of our shared cultural psyche. His characters are well-rounded, and his storytelling pulls one through the chapters as quickly as the pages can be turned.

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currerbell said on Oct 29, 2010 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

This was a great book about love and loss and facing one's fears. I liked the way David's wishes and fears influenced the kingdom as well as the interesting twists on the familiar fairy tales, myths and nursery stories. I especially liked the extensive section after the main story in which the autho ... (continue)

This was a great book about love and loss and facing one's fears. I liked the way David's wishes and fears influenced the kingdom as well as the interesting twists on the familiar fairy tales, myths and nursery stories. I especially liked the extensive section after the main story in which the author describes the origins of these stories, recommends some variations by other authors and then provides the original story.

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krin5292 said on Feb 21, 2009 | Add your feedback