The Book of Lost Things
by John Connollypublished
2006
(first published 2008)
by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
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binding
Paperback, 320 pages
isbn
0340932902
(isbn13: 9780340932902)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 3713)
bookshelves:
modern-fantasy
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in February, 2008
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borrowed
Read in September, 2007
Not long before the start of World War II, a boy named David loses his mother. David has always been an avid reader, but now his books begin to speak; his father remarries, his step-brother is born, and the war begins. Suddenly, David is pulled into a new worldthe world that lives in his fairy tales, only darker and more dangerous. With his way back to our world blocked by the Crooked Man, David must journey through this new world to find a way back homeand he must become a man. Alth...more
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Read in April, 2008
Which do you think will be read and savoured in 100 years time, the fairy stories of the Grimm Brothers with their roots in the old darkness of firelight nights or the latest Jodi Picoult about a life that the children of parents yet to be born will have no knowledge or interest in. Yet the same children when meeting the stories of world long faded even when written down by the Grimm Brothers will still be amazed and scared. Don’t believe me? Well I do story telling in pubs to adults and ha...more
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(4 people liked it)
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone who has a penchant for dark fairy tales or myths.
I have an admitted bias towards fairy tales, myths, and legends, the best being of an exceedingly dark nature. These archetypal myths were the first stories ever told in order to make sense of a frightening and dangerous world. Stories holding similar concepts of good, evil, or carrying a moral message often retain the most psychological and spiritual impact. Such images are more important because they are not unique (there is nothing new under the sun), and Joseph Campbell emphasized this m...more
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Read in March, 2007
I randomly selected this book from the young adult section and was immediately caught up in the narrative's quirky cadence. In fact the quirk is exactly what threw me off of what the book is really about.
In its barest form it is a tribute to the fairy tale's of the past. Very dark, but very good. The twist on Red Riding Hood or "The Woodsman First Tale", was the first blunt indication of this. But I sensed it before.
That aside, it was actually very engaging toward the end. It w...more
In its barest form it is a tribute to the fairy tale's of the past. Very dark, but very good. The twist on Red Riding Hood or "The Woodsman First Tale", was the first blunt indication of this. But I sensed it before.
That aside, it was actually very engaging toward the end. It w...more
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bookshelves:
book-club
Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
fairytale afficionados
I would have liked to give this book 3 1/2 stars rather than 4 but that's not allowed on here. I suppose the story was good; I don't have any complaints about the plot. Yet, I was never really pulled into the story. I had no qualms about putting this book down for a week to read a couple other books, which is sort of unusual for me. And the thing is, I usually adore fairytale-esque books. However, the characters all seemed sort of flat. I'm not sure why though. Perhaps because it seemed like any...more
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
Adults who like fairy tales
I love fairy tales, particularly the original versions where the bad children get eaten by monsters in the Black Forest and no one ends up living happily-ever-after. I used to spend hours reading my mother's childhood fairy tale books, which were quite a bit darker than the ones I had, and I used to read my grandmother's 1920's Oz books, which were also surprisingly creepy (one character, I remember, was cut in half lengthwise and had to walk around like that). So this book, which is more or l...more
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bookshelves:
adventure,
fantasy
Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
roos, runi, adisti
sejauh ini...terjemahannya bagus. banyak kata2 yang dah terlupakan bermunculan lagi.
rasanya kayak balik baca buku jaman kecil dulu, saat bahasanya masih terasa indah dan klasik. entah karena penulisnya yang hebat, atau memang penterjemahnya yang niat.
br sampe hal 55 sih, hehehe.
-----review-----
yaiii selesaaaaiiii, dengan sangat manis dan menyenangkan, although it depends on your own interpretation sih, tapi kalau gue sih mikir yang indah2nya ajah.
i think this writer, connoly...more
rasanya kayak balik baca buku jaman kecil dulu, saat bahasanya masih terasa indah dan klasik. entah karena penulisnya yang hebat, atau memang penterjemahnya yang niat.
br sampe hal 55 sih, hehehe.
-----review-----
yaiii selesaaaaiiii, dengan sangat manis dan menyenangkan, although it depends on your own interpretation sih, tapi kalau gue sih mikir yang indah2nya ajah.
i think this writer, connoly...more
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5 comments
Read in August, 2008
I have never read Connolly before, but after this book I plan to read more. I really liked this book. Set during World War II, it features a pre-teenaged boy who is grieving his mother's death while trying to get used to his father's new wife and son. David is a good boy, but he is struggling with his jealousy and bitterness. He also seems to have mental issues (he demonstrates OCD-like behaviors, and also has seizures) and believes the books in his room are talking to one another. An avid ...more
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bookshelves:
england,
horror,
paranormal_fantasy,
ww2_1939-45
Read in December, 2006
THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS (Dark Fantasy/England/WWII) – Okay
Connolly, John – Standalone
Hodder & Stoughton, 2006- UK Hardcover
*** 12-year-old David loves to read and, upon the death of his mother, hears books talking. Still mourning the loss of his mother, his father tells him he’ll have a new mother and a baby brother or sister. They move out of London to his stepmother Rose’s huge house in the country where he is given a room filled with books but feels angry and displaced by ...more
Connolly, John – Standalone
Hodder & Stoughton, 2006- UK Hardcover
*** 12-year-old David loves to read and, upon the death of his mother, hears books talking. Still mourning the loss of his mother, his father tells him he’ll have a new mother and a baby brother or sister. They move out of London to his stepmother Rose’s huge house in the country where he is given a room filled with books but feels angry and displaced by ...more
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Read in September, 2008
I really enjoy fairy tales given a new twist, especially a dark one and this book certainly delivers in that category. It is the story of a boy who, unhappy with the cards life has dealt him, suddenly finds himself in a different world, meeting some of the characters he's enjoyed reading about, but all with a brand new twist.
Right about the halfway point, I started getting worried that every tale he experienced was going to have the same type ending and the same feel to it, but as soon as th...more
Right about the halfway point, I started getting worried that every tale he experienced was going to have the same type ending and the same feel to it, but as soon as th...more
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fantasy
Hmmmm. What to say about this book...
Okay, in many ways, brilliant. It started off reading like a children's story and I was immediately thinking that I'd lend it to my 8-year-old niece. But as the book progressed, it moved further and further into a clear adult-fantasy. And like many adult-fantasy authors these days, Connelly has taken old fables/fairy tales and put his own twist on them. Rather than revelling them into an entire story, like Gregory Maguire does, Connelly just keeps them as...more
Okay, in many ways, brilliant. It started off reading like a children's story and I was immediately thinking that I'd lend it to my 8-year-old niece. But as the book progressed, it moved further and further into a clear adult-fantasy. And like many adult-fantasy authors these days, Connelly has taken old fables/fairy tales and put his own twist on them. Rather than revelling them into an entire story, like Gregory Maguire does, Connelly just keeps them as...more
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After the painful death of his mother, 12-year-old David must deal with a clashing relationship with his stepmother, the intrusion of a new baby half-brother, and the loneliness of seeing less of his father. Eventually David finds a curious hole in the back garden, which traps him inside an unforgiving world of dark fantasy filled with macabre fairy tales. Here he meets his trickster antagonist, the Crooked Man, and also runs into guardians, such as the Woodsman, who protect and guide David. ...more
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bookshelves:
2008,
fairy-tales-not-for-kids,
fantasy,
it-happened-in-england
recommends it for: people who like creepy fairy tales
Read in July, 2008
recommended to Beth by:
Sarah B. recommends it for: people who like creepy fairy tales
Anybody who thinks the phrase “fast read” is synonymous with pointless fluff has likely never read or heard of this book. It’s dark, twisted and extremely creepy at certain parts and it was wonderful!
The main character is a 12-year-old boy named David whose mother is extremely ill and dies shortly after the book begins. The boy had developed some slightly OCD tendencies (such as counting and touching doorknobs) prior to his mother’s death. Afterwards, some of his issues became m...more
The main character is a 12-year-old boy named David whose mother is extremely ill and dies shortly after the book begins. The boy had developed some slightly OCD tendencies (such as counting and touching doorknobs) prior to his mother’s death. Afterwards, some of his issues became m...more
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bookshelves:
2008-books-read,
fantasy,
horror
Read in June, 2008
This book is what would happen if you were to truly step into a world populated by characters from all the children's fairy tales that don't end so well. It would be a very scary world indeed. I started out not liking the author's writing style, but I was completely drawn in by the end. David's mother dies and his father remarries and has another child. Of course, David doesn't like this and loses himself in his books ... literally. One day he finds that he's stepped through the trunk of a tree ...more
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1 comments
Read in June, 2008
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