This creepy fairy tale is the story of one twelve year old boy named David, who is deeply troubled by the recent loss of his mother. On top of this, David's father becomes intimate with another woman just months later, remarries, and the two of them have another son. When David and his father move into his stepmother Rose's old family home, David is still mourning his mother and feeling resentful and jealous of his stepmother and new baby brother. In addition, his country is at war (WWII), which for his father means late nights at work, and Georgie, the new baby, keeps both parents sleep deprived and on edge. It's a rough time in general, and David's emotional problems make this domestic scene worse.

David and his mother shared a love for books, and with this knowledge, the good-intentioned Rose gives David the room that once belonged to her great uncle Jonathan, because it still contains so many of the books her uncle loved, and David seems to be so much like him. David later learns that Jonathan, along with an adopted little sister, wandered off one day and the two were never seen again. It was a family tragedy that was never explained.

Until now. This is a coming-of-age fairy tale in which a boy is lured away by an evil force, but fights his way back to return as a young man. David's character is transformed through his adventures and the lessons he learns about life and himself along the way. The adventures that John Connolly conjures are very scary, the characters fascinating. I'm impressed. Many of the situations are recognizable distortions of familiar fairy tales; take one of the Grimm stories and turn it into a more adult, grotesque nightmare, and you get the general idea. This tale is paced well, and I enjoyed reading it. I was in the mood for something very different and I found it!

I loved this book! It is full of fantasy and adventure, while moving through a world that is both real and made-up all at the same time. This is one that we all can relate to! ( )

Wow...where should I start? I checked The Book of Lost Things out of my local library because I had heard that it was good, and I ended up buying my own copy and lending it to friends. I LOVED this book (and so did my friends).

Connolly has rewritten several classic fairy tales and woven them seamlessly into one larger, modern fairy tale. I particularly enjoyed that fact that the story revolves around a struggling adolescent male rather than the traditionally meek young female. In the story, David's mother dies then his father remarries and has another son rather quickly. In addition to navigating the challenges of childhood, David must now also deal with his feelings toward his new mother and brother. The pressure eventually becomes too great, so David escapes by entering the world of his books. However, instead of being a safe and comforting, David finds that the new world is even more dangerous and frightening than the one he left. He is forced to journey through the countryside and play parts in the fairy tales he remembers in order to find a way to return to his family.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It's a fantastic adult fairy tale that combines all the best elements of childhood tales with more mature elements to produce a truly satisfying experience. ( )

Although Connolly's take on several older fairy tales, woven into an overarching story, is certainly dark and disturbing, this book was heartbreakingly sincere and hopeful. Definitely not for younger readers, but I would recommend it to almost anyone else. ( )

John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things is a postmodern take on the classic fairy tale. Told through the eyes of David, a 12-year-old boy living in England at the beginning of World War II, it is a scrumptious book that is impossible to put down.

After losing his mother to a painful and debilitating illness, David's world seems to be crumbling around him. Not only does his father remarry quickly, but to add insult to injury, they have a baby, usurping the place David thought he should have within his family. Anger and jealousy fester within David, as he longs for things to go back to the way they were. Through an act of desperation, David is transported to an alternate reality, which seems to draw heavily on the fairy tales he grew up with.

During his journey through the un-named land, David encounters many strange and frightening beings. Many times, he wishes to be back in his own world with all the problems he had there, but he must conquer this new world in order to be released from it. By making his choice between good and evil, David begins to understand the true nature of love and forgiveness. He begins his journey as a child but ends it as a young man, and "all that was lost was found again."

Despite the fact that many of the creatures are shadows from tales of the Brothers Grimm, the story is wholly original in the telling. The Book of Lost Things sparkles with imagination and incredible detail. Connolly cleverly weaves the fabric of his novel around the classic fairy tales we all know and love, but focuses in on the darkness inherent in those tales. The book is well-written and told with the deliberate pace and style of a classic fairy tale. The characters are colorful and twisted versions of their familiar fairy tale counterparts, and the enemies step right out of the recesses of your deepest, darkest nightmares.

This is not a story for children (or for the faint of heart for that matter.) The Book of Lost Things is delightfully creepy, and I can't imagine the kind of nightmares it might produce in the child reading it. That being said, it was a truly delicious read, and I loved every minute of it. ( )