Sunday, January 19, 2014

Review: The Book of Lost Things


Sorry about the long hiatus everyone, I don't read books as fast as other readers, and plus I just started college classes again. Also, I've been reading three books at a time, which was a really bad idea. But anyways, here's the latest review. I'm going to try to pick up/make up some memes so I can still update my blog without using reviews.

Also I updated my header and background :) 

Anyways, here's the review!


The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: November 7, 2006
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

Taking readers on a vivid journey through the loss of innocence into adulthood and beyond, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly tells a dark and compelling tale that reminds us of the enduring power of stories in our lives."



Taken from Goodreads

Start: 1/14/14  |  End: 1/19/14  |  Pages: 339  |  Rating: 5 Stars

My Thoughts:

I've always been a fan of fairy tales with a twist from the original stories, so The Book of Lost Things pretty much pulled me in immediately. The story starts off with David, a young boy around ten years old, and his beloved mother and father. Both him and his mother love books and stories, but once his mother dies, he is left all alone. His father remarries a woman named Rose, and they have another baby. David, stricken with the loss of his mother and the gain of a new family, begins experiencing visions and hearing voices from his books. 

The fantasy world begins when David accidentally follows his mother's voice into the sunken garden in his backyard. The world he enters is made up of the fairy tales that David loves, except not the ones he's familiar with. In order to escape the Crooked Man and go back home, David must travel to the King in order to find the Book of Lost Things, which holds the key to bring him back to his own world. 

Throughout his journey, he encounters many different characters, all of which are part of some fairy tale, but in a completely different way then you would think of. For example, the Snow White in this story was incredibly rude and mean, and she completely turned down the prince when he rescued her. I'm sure that there was some hidden meaning in every story, and I loved being able to match the characters to the modern fairy tales that I knew of.

Although there were some gruesome parts in the story, I didn't find anything I didn't like about The Book of Lost Things. This book greatly reminded my of the children's book The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making , which is probably the reason for the 5 stars. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely, and anyone who likes fairy tales or coming of age stories should pick this book up.   

4 comments:

  1. Love the background! The colours fit so well with your blog theme and header :p And great review, glad you liked the book.

    Reading three books at the same time is something I have recently attempted and failed at, so I'm just going one at a time right now XD

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    1. The only reason I end up starting three books at once is because I just got so bored of the books I NEEDED to read, that I "accidentally" start a book I WANT to read.

      All's well in the end though :P
      Thanks for the comment Hanna :)

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  2. This is one of the higher-rated books on my blog. I read it years ago, but I still remember how much I enjoyed it. It's dark, but I really liked the twists on the fairy tales.

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  3. Gah! This book is on my TBR list and I have yet come close to reading it! I have to read this soon because it sounds so good!

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