The Book of Lost Things

The Book Of Lost things by John Connolly 2006

This was a book I picked up at a book sale and what made me do so was the interesting title. I didn't really check it out fully and maybe I should have done so.

It is a very unusual work of fiction. A young boy David, in wartime England has an unhappy childhood. He finds a secret passage and it leads him into another world. This is not a children's book like The Chronicles of Narnia, as it gets increasingly horrific as it progresses. it reminds me of the TV series, “Once upon a time”.

It takes the common children's fairy stories, like Snow White and Red Riding hood and turns them into a tale the Brothers Grim would have relished. So why did I continue to read it?

Well it is so well written that despite the gruesome happenings it is very creative and interesting. For instance we have seven dwarfs who turn out to be communists and tell young David that they were the ones who tried to kill Snow White but they messed up and now have to live with her and she is just a terrible person. There are equally mixed up tales throughout the book with hints to the original fairy tales. You also want to find out whether this lost book is ever found and what it contains and whether it all ends happily ever after like all good fairy tales.

It's the only book I have ever seen with notes at the end of the book On Fairy tales ,Dark Towers and other such Matters . It also contains a interesting conversation with the author about the book.

Indeed a very different kind of fiction.