The Book of Lost Things

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly takes me back to my youth and all the fairy tales that I loved to read. The story is about a young boy named David who’s Mother has passed away and his Father has remarried and begins a new family. David is resentful of his stepmother, Rose, and his half-brother, Georgie. He longs for his life to return to the way it was when his Mother was still alive.

David begins to have episodes where he blacks out and sees flashes of another world. Soon the books in his room begin to speak to him, trying desperately to gain his attention and tell their stories. At night sometimes, David also hears the voice of his Mother calling him. She sounds like she is in pain and needs his help.

As David’s anger and resentment grows, so does the voice of his mother until she calls him one night to go to the sunken garden to find her. There in the garden, David is sucked into another realm. He is trapped in this other world, with no way back, but is determined to find his mother and bring her home.

Once David is in this world, he finds similarities between the stories that he loves to read so much. He meets a Woodsman, and a pack of wolves whose leader is half man/half wolf and who wish to destroy the King and kill David. His only hope for returning to his home is finding the King and asking for assistance before its too late.

In this other world, David also meets some classic fairytales, but with a twist. The characters aren’t quite as noble or honest and not all the endings are happy. He learns that not all is as it seems and to rely on his own instincts and courage to find the truth. David must let go of his rage and bitterness towards his new family for him to ever return home alive.

This is a classic coming of age story, and what I really liked about it is how Connolly combined favorite fairytales into the story. I liked all the different stories that David encountered and the spin that Connolly gave them. I also enjoyed David's progression from young boy to becoming a man. He faces some difficult challenges and instead of letting fear take over or taking the easy way out, he confronts these problems head on.

As Connolly wrote, “Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling … Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination, and transform the reader.” Stories do come alive when you read them, they work their magic in your mind and you can be lost for days within one.