A Quick Note On This Review: This article includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org as a way of supporting both local bookshops and my own ability to write.
What happens when a boy finds himself in a world made of stories?
After David loses his mother to a protracted illness and his father remarries, the twelve year old boy finds himself in a old mansion in the countryside where he slips in an attic room surrounded by books. In time, David finds that he can hear the books whispering to him, and can even hear the voice of his mother calling to him from some unknown world. Then one night, as a German bomber comes crashing down beneath his window, David chooses to heed the voices and jumps into a garden patch which transports him to a world of woodsmen that battle werewolves in the forest, a sinister castle that hides a sleeping beauty calling to him with his mother’s voice, and a Crooked Man who needs David to give life to the evil that hides in men’s hearts.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is an interesting book because of how it turns the traditional fairytale story on its head. Lost Things is fundamentally a bildungsroman, following the traditional storyline of a boy who comes to realize that life isn’t as simple as he’d like to think it is, especially when it comes to doing the right thing. However, Connolly employs a way of weaving the old fairy tales into new stories that are darker than even the Brothers Grimm conceived, which is refreshing in its own way. It can easily prompt a writer to consider how to look at a tired old storyline and think of new ways of employing it to create a sense of nostalgia without relying on it to carry the narrative forward. Plus, Connolly’s eventual message of living – and loving – life with all its warts is a worthy reminder of what all people face, and his use of fables with new faces to tell it is a great way of remembering what we often forget once childhood ends.
Lost Things is a strong story from an entertainment perspective and writers can use it as a starting point for reworking old stories, but a writer should not rely solely on Connolly. While Lost Things tries to advocate nuance and meeting people where they are, there are points where it strays a little too heavily into more traditionalist views of good and evil, with an eventual end that pulls on religious tropes to develop a feel-good end. On its own, these were entertaining for a novel to explore and offered a great light read to work through, but from a technical standpoint, the heavy-handedness and eventual reliance on standard religious tools could turn off large groups of readers because it would break the spell for them.
Overall, The Book of Lost Things is a good book, and I’d encourage someone looking for an easy read to pick up a copy for their pleasure. For writers, it’s a book worth exploring for ideas on where to start when trying to make an old, tired tale new again.
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What’s Next?
I am an avid reader and have quite a few thoughts on how some books could benefit both people that want to be entertained and those looking to sharpen their literary skills.
If you’re interested in finding out more about what I’ve been reading – and how it could benefit you – I will be publishing those thoughts on Fridays on a weekly basis. Check back next week for a discussion of Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown!
The Writerly Review 