The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly

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The Book of Lost Things begins and ends with a death, and is interspersed with quite a few other deaths in between. This is a rather grim setup for a children’s book, but The Book of Lost Things, like all good fairy tales, is a children’s tale that’s not meant for children’s ears.

After a long illness, David’s mother has passed away, leaving him only with a few hazy memories and a love of books. He is thrown into further turmoil when his father, who is a loving but not exactly comforting presence, remarries Rose and produces David’s half-brother, Georgie. Suddenly, David has to deal not only with the loss of his mother but with the unfamiliar, volatile emotions stirred up by the new additions to his family.

The new family moves into Rose’s family estate. David, determined to maintain his distance from Rose’s irritating but well-intentioned overtures, spends most of his time exploring his new home or perusing the old books in his new bedroom. Curiously, Rose tells him that the bedroom once belonged to a boy who loved books as well, but this boy – Rose’s uncle, Jonathan – disappeared along with his sister and were never found. This declaration becomes all the more ominous when David starts seeing the Crooked Man. As we wise grown-ups all know, anyone who calls himself the Crooked Man is probably up to no good. But a boy of twelve who is lonely and confused, and who hears his books’ and his recently deceased mother’s voices, likely does not give such obvious signs any consideration.

After a particularly nasty fight with Rose, David, feeling abandoned and rejected, follows his mother’s voice down to the garden. Crawling through a crack in the garden wall, David is thrust into a world that feels familiar but off-kilter. In this world, wolves follow their hybrid masters, the Loups; the seven dwarves are long-suffering laborers who failed to poison a fat, lazy, and demanding Snow White; Red Riding Hood is a seductress, bringing the Big Bad Wolf yet more victims; a knight bravely faces death for the man he loves; and the Crooked Man lives up to his name. There is also a king who is uninterested in ruling his kingdom, and it is he who is the owner of The Book of Lost Things, which supposedly holds the key for David to come home. Before he can go back to his own world, however, David must traverse the kingdom and confront his own fears, all the while not knowing who to trust or even if all his efforts will amount to anything. In the end, he learns what it means to let go, to sacrifice, and to love wholly and selflessly.

John Connolly uses an inspired premise to articulate a boy’s grief and anger, infusing a familiar situation with elements of the fantastic. The premise, however, was more interesting than the execution (wow, how diplomatic am I?). There were times when the writing fell flat; as I mentioned previously, I nearly gave up on the book as it was pretty slow-going. The wildly creative reimaginings of the fairy tales we all have grown up with kept my interest, however, as did the macabre tales that I must assume sprang solely from the author’s mind; I can’t recall ever having read anything about the huntress in the woods, who fuses game with humans because she is bored of hunting woodland creatures, and it does sound like it could be a news headline, doesn’t it?

Most affecting and surprising, though, is the emotional generosity Mr. Connolly gives all the characters. I thought it remarkable that the example of true love used in The Book of Lost Things was between two knights. How awesome is that? I take that as an affirmation that love, in any form, can exist if one has the faith to commit to it. This is the central theme of the story, and although the novel is not entirely consistent, there’s something universally resonant about David’s journey that makes me feel justified in saying that this is a piece of literature that should not be missed.

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Filed under Children's Literature, Speculative Fiction

Tags: england, fantasy, horror, John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things