You'll never look at a magpie in quite the same way again! (The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly)

Member Name: kristajoy

Product:	The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
Date:	04/02/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A wonderful adventure and heartwrenching at the same time! Very diverse!

Disadvantages: Not for the faint of heart!

I've seen a pattern in the things I read; it's clear I'm hanging on to my inner child, and still can't get enough fairy tales. The Book of Lost Things, however, is defiantly a fairy tale for adults, and is probably the darkest one I have ever read.

Like a good many fairy tales, little David's story begins with a death, that of his mother, and the event of his new step mother moving into the house. Having used the books in his house to cope with the loss of his mother and coping with Rose, the step mother, David retreats into a world of fantasy, and this is exactly where he finds himself when he escapes a crashing German aeroplane in his back garden. In a time of turmoil at the beginning of the Second World War, David begins his own war against a cruel and unforgiving fantasy world that seems to have been formed out of all the worst parts of the books he has collected.
Among the characters we will see seven Communist dwarfs and a somewhat unusual version of Snow White, a merciless hunter with an unusual interest in science, the 'beast', a host of mythalogical character, and one of the most dreadful and stirring villains I have ever read about. You'll never look at a magpie in quite the same way again!
Incredibly human, heartfelt and in some places even a little gut wrenching, The Book of Lost Things tells the tale of a remarkable little boy as he makes the most terrifying journey of all, out of childhood and into the oblivion of the rest of his life, as the world around him seems to fall apart at the clutches of war.
I am honest when I say I cried at the end of this book (despite being on the bus at the time!) and when I passed it on to my mother she did the same. Although this was a book I judged by the cover and brought purely based on the book jacket (a plight of the illustrator) I am certainly glad I did as it was incredibly enjoyable and defiantly something I would read again, as well as one I told everyone I knew about! Bravo John Connolly!

Summary: A journey out of childhood and into the oblivion of the rest of his life...