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Dec 10, 2011

Stephen rated it:

Rumpelstiltskin…aka “the Crooked Man” is one seriously scary and diabolical CREEPSTER.

Trust me, after reading this book, the above image of a sadistic, powerful, child-slaughtering MOFO will forever displace your previous perception of old Rumpy being nothing more than a half pint, mischievous prankster with ethical deficiencies…

…a Disney tale this is not.
…a light, comforting “happily ever after” children’s story this is not.

However, what More...

53 comments like (63 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

mark rated it:

Fugue state, formally Dissociative Fugue... usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. Fugues are usually precipitated by a stressful episode.

in world war 2-era england, young David loses his mother after a lingering illness and begins to experience strange dissociative episodes, often involving the sounds of books whispering to him and usually ending with him falling into unconsciousness. soon enough, his fath More...

11 comments like (27 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

Bunga Mawar rated it:

Review yang agak sedikit serius berhubung sudah masuk bulan Februari

Lagi-lagi Ibu memergoki saya sedang cekikikan bersama sebuah buku, "Apa lagi, itu?" tanya beliau.

"Hmmm... coba Ibu bayangkan cerita Timun Mas. Waktu dia berlari melintasi gunung dan lembah dikejar Buto Ijo sambil mengantungi perbekalannya: terasi, garam, cabe (bukan jarum), ia melewati sebuah kebun timun. Di sana Pak Tani dan si Kancil sedang sibuk memanen timun dengan bahagia. Pak Tani mem More...

18 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2010

Ronny rated it:

2009#3

Saya ga terlalu berkesan baca bagian pokok buku ini, yakni soal pengalaman di "negeri dongeng" dan plesetan dongeng2 yg justru memenuhi hampir seisi buku. Sebagiannya mungkin krn saya sudah baca Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life Times (James Finn Garner) yg plesetan dongengnya jauh lebih asik (buku Politically Correct Bedtime Stories juga sempat disinggung oleh Tomo di thread GRI). Tapi saya terkesan dg ide dan "pesan" cerita b More...

16 comments like (15 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2008

Robotkarateman rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

9 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Wirotomo rated it:

Saat saya membaca buku ini terus terang saya langsung teringat buku "Politically Correct Bed Time Stories"nya James Finn Garner (1994) yang diterjemahkan oleh Gramedia pada tahun 1996. Buku itu "menjungkirbalikkan" dongeng-dongeng yang sudah kita kenal baik selama ini, dengan maksud untuk mendudukkan cerita dongeng seperti seharusnya (politically correct) dan tidak seksis, tidak diskriminatif, dan tidak merendahkan martabat para tukang sihir, binatang, jembalang dan peri (hal More...

15 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Ariyati rated it:

.... The story ...

It was started with David’s grief and loss for his mother. Being with books and reading was his way to lose himself from reality. The grief has not lost when his father married a woman name Rose. He still can not accept Rosi’s existence and later his half-brother Georgie. This situation drove him more onto his books and tales… and the back yard, the place where he was going to wander about.

The adventures of searching the lost mother was started in the e More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Kim rated it:

This is why I don't read the front jacket of books. I get sucked in thinking 'wow--this makes a good story'. Hmphf.

Okay, it's not a bad story. It had its moments. But, it lost me when it started twisting fairy tales to be all sorts of clever. Snow White as a hefty, insult laden uber wench? yeah. whatever.

The story outside of these sidebars is actually quite interesting, a boy's journey in a strange land, grieving over his dead mom, etc... but I still found myself wo More...

5 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

Lisa rated it:

Part fairy tale and part psychological study, I found this to be an engrossing and powerful book. Recommend to everybody, particularly those who have used reading and books to get themselves through difficult times, especially in childhood.

I don't look at this book the way some readers apparently have: as sci-fi or fantasy, but instead see it as showing the redemptive power of books and stories in children's and adults' lives. And as an account of one boy's inner life and imagination More...

3 comments like (26 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Abby rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

Dini rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

miaaa rated it:

The first few chapters remind me to Sally Nicholls' Ways to Live Forever, about how a child deals with death, although in this case it's not his but someone he loves, his mother. And as if it is not enough his father brought Rose into their lives, and from David's perspective, someone who came in a wrong time and tried to replace his mother, as he wanted to believe, is still alive somewhere. David then escaped from his domestic tension, especially after his half-brother has born, to his books of More...

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2009

Amang rated it:

Entah apa yang merasuki John Connoly waktu menulis novel ketujuhnya ini, ia seperti keluar dari jalur thriller dan kriminal-nya. Tapi buatku tak soal karena dengan karya ini, bolehlah kita sebut John Connolly adalah 'Quentin Tarantino'-nya novel fantasi. Mengapa demikian? Ingat adegan besutan Quentin yang berjudul "Kill Bill" yang diperankan Uma Thurman, ingat adegan demi adegan upaya The Bride aka Black Mamba mencari pembunuhnya yang tergabung dalam Deadly Viper Assassination Squad su More...

12 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Endah rated it:

Pada dasarnya saya ini penggemar fiksi realis, tetapi juga tidak menolak bacaan-bacaan bergenre fantasi walaupun tentu saya lebih banyak membaca jenis buku yang pertama dibanding yang disebut terakhir. Entah kenapa dalam pikiran saya sudah terpatri bahwa buku fantasi identik dengan buku anak-anak/remaja. Dan saya sudah lama meninggalkan masa-masa indah tersebut. Namun, diam-diam saya sering merindukan saat-saat itu kembali lagi. Barangkali itu salah satu alasan saya tetap menyukai kisah-kisah fa More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

ame rated it:

After finished reading the last page of this book, I took a deep sigh, and go to bed. And in the next morning, I hardly remember how the story goes.

John Connolly didn't offer any new idea. Some author did the fairy tales twisting before, and some of them did it better.

Although I have to say the first pages seems quite promising to me; when David struggling with his own feeling after his Mom's death, Rose shows up into his Dad's life, the new baby, and also about the war. More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2007

LJ rated it:

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...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2008

Kirsty rated it:

This book was fun. I liked the author's take on the fairytales I read as a child. They become very dark, and in some places very funny. I especially liked the tale of Snow White.

The characterisation was ok, for me there was something missing from the main character - I just can't quite figure out what. That said, I liked the character of The Crooked Man, even if he did creep me out a little.

There was a little more gore than I was expecting, and I'm not sure all of it was More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2007

Lori rated it:

Read this book without really knowing too much about it. Just that other reviewers were impressed and it centered around a little boy and some dark versions of fairy tales that I had grown up on.

Wow.

Wow.wow.wow.

That is what I have to say when I got to the last page.
It was a really really great story. 10 year old boy who loves to read, loses his mother, hates his new stepmother and stepbrother.... gets pulled into this fairy tale world where things are fa More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2008

J.B. rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. No, it's not for children. It's an adventure story and fairy tale for grown ups in the style of fairy tale masters Andersen and the Grimm Brothers. For those who like Disney fairy tales, forget this book. This is written in like an old-school fairy tale - those harsh and magical morality tales meant to teach a lesson by using monsters, beautiful women, and courageous children stepping from childhood into adulthood. I thought the World War backstory was excellent and g More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2009

Libby rated it:

I loved and highly recommend this book. To give you an idea of its content and style, it reminded me of the film Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s a vividly imagined coming-of-age fairy tale with a dark overlay. The fairy tales as used in this book are more akin to the traditional Brothers Grimm than the modern Hollywood version. I mention the darker aspects of the book simply to alert the potential reader that this is not a modern day Cinderella story that many expect when they hear “fairytale.” This More...

6 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 26, 2010

Hazel rated it:

This reminds me of the Spanish film, Pan's Labyrinth. In both the child's inner world is explored via stories, and the child enters into the story world in an attempt to come to terms with external reality. Come to think of it, in both there is an infant half-sibling who must be protected from the child's envy and resentment. I was really impressed with the first part of the book, and found Connolly's portrait of the child's psychological processes very accurate. There's magical thinking (of cou More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2008

Nielam rated it:

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. More...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

melanie (lit*chick) rated it:

Points for the clever imagination,the weaving of fairy tales into a dark and fantastical story of a 10 year old boy who loves to read. When he is pulled into a nightmarish forest he must use his wits & imagination to survive the perilous journey home. I'm not usually a big fantasy reader, but this was definitely worthwhile.
Things I could have done without:
- while I loved Roland, the not so hidden agenda of his character (anti God, in love with Raphael) seemed so ridiculously out of More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

April rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2008

Rachel rated it:

I picked this up blindly and bought it from the description on the book jacket alone. I wish I'd liked it more; rather, I wish it'd been better-executed.

My main trouble was with the telling-not-showing style of writing. In the words of Twain, "Don’t say 'the old lady screamed.' Bring her on and let her scream." The turbulence of David's inner life ends up muffled by the flat and dispassionate narrative ("He experienced a wave of pity for the dead man...", "H More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2008

Brooke rated it:

The Book of Lost Things is basically a fairy tale that pays homage to other fairy tales; the main character David disappears into a magic land after a German bomber plane crashes into his backyard and experiences a multitude of events culled from the books he's read (including, in the book's funniest scene, a book about Communism).

It's a story with many layers and an ambiguous end, which makes it a shame that the last 130 pages of the book are the author's notes and thoughts about th More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2007

Bethany added it

Okay, so I didn't exactly finish this book. I was listening to the audio book in my car, but I just kept losing interest.

Basically this book is a compilation of fractured fairy tales. A boy called David somehow crosses over into another dimension, one that is filled with various fairy tale characters. David is trying to find his way back home and is told by the "Woodsman" that perhaps the King can help him find the way with his book of lost things.

So in the More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Mith rated it:

I stayed up till 1 last night to finish this book.

I REGRET NOTHING.

Recently I've taken quite a fancy to fairy tale re-tellings. You can go right ahead and blame Gail Carson Levine for that. The Book of Lost things belongs to that genre, albeit a ~~bit~~ LOT more darker.

The book begins by introducing us to 12-year old David who has just lost his mum. He finds out that his dad is getting remarried and pretty soon finds himself with a baby brother, whom he hates on More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2009

Meliana rated it:

reading the book of lost things made me want to be forever a child. i miss those kind of adventures as well as the blue colour of pain it carried when things were not as good as they supposed to be. perhaps i just need a good reason, a strong determination to walk forward, to seek for the answer, though the road is tough and the the end is not a rainbow-to-be.

not all stories should end up with a line, and they live happily ever after.. but still, it doesn't mean that the story, the m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Amy rated it:

This was a thought-provoking and intriguing book. There were many links with Grimm Fairy Tales and Anderson's Fairy Tales but it was truly coming-of-age versus happily ever after. There were historical/political subtexts as well as religious challenges - many of the very human decisions we all have to make as we grow from children to adults. What is it that makes human challenges worth living through and would we choose pain over fairy-tale endings? These are some of the questions readers are a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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