Just Finished Reading: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (FP: 2006)
There are, it appears, worse things than watching your mother die of cancer. 12 year old David is about to find out what those things are. First he has to watch his father become involved with one of his mother’s nurses. Then he has be watch as his father marries again. Then they move to an old rambling house at the edge of London and then, the worst thing of all, a younger brother is born. As David feels pushed more and more to the outside of his family and his father begins to spend more and more time at the office helping the war effort young David begins to hear and see things. The books on the shelves in his bedroom start whispering to him and each other and a dark shape watches the house from the nearby woods. Leaving the house unobserved during an air raid David feels pulled towards a sunken garden and squeezes through a crack in the wall just as an enemy bomber crashes nearby. Digging himself deeper into the crevice David emerges in a wood the like of which he has never seen before – where trees bleed red blood and creatures who only look like wolves howl in the night. Rescued by the woodsman before night falls David has to learn the rules of this new yet strangely familiar land and make his way to the only person who can possibly help him get back to his home – a King reputed to own a powerful book with all of the world’s secrets in its pages, the fabled Book of Lost things. But as the King grows old and his grip on the kingdom lapses the world that David has so recently entered begins to fall apart with the forces of chaos determined that they alone will shape its future.
This was one of those ‘oh, this looks a bit different’ choices that I sometimes make when browsing in bookshops. Although clearly Fantasy it had the feel of something above the run of the mill we’ve all be getting used to in the last 10 years. There was definitely a familiarity about the whole thing which isn’t really surprising. The author has quite deliberately (and admittedly cleverly) reinvented some of the classic fairy tales added some modern (OK 1940’s modern) twists and plonked an intelligent pre-teen into the middle of it all. The quest theme throughout the book adequately holds everything together. There’s pretty of blood and action – definitely nightmare material for younger children but teens will probably lap it up – thrills and tense moments. David grows before your eyes, never completely sure of himself but maturing page by page. As a YA role model he works pretty well I thought. The good guys are suitably good (if often flawed) and the bad guys are very bad although sometimes redeemable. You never lose sight of the fact that this is a tale of a modern boy living inside a real fantasy but that certainly works. There are thrills, times when you can’t breathe with the tension, other tender moments and laugh out loud bits too. Aimed, I think, at the Young Adult demographic this can be read with equal enjoyment by older adults. I would hesitate giving it to pre-teens though as it might easily disturb them a bit too much! A different and fun read. Recommended.
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