Author: John Connolly
Date Started: May 20th 2013
Date Completed: May 25th 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery
Rating: Four stars
Review:
This book mainly reminded me of my childhood. It's a charming story with beautiful writing and it's just a lovely, lovely book.
During the beginning of World War Two, a little boy named David loses his mother. As David comes to terms with this lose, his father remarries and has another son. Typically, David is none too happy about this, but when he suddenly finds himself transported to another world that seems to be build around the fairytales he reads, he discovers that actually hate and jealously can be very dangerous things for both himself and his new family.
This is not a Young Adult book, and therefore the writing is slightly more sophisticated than the common novels I read. however it was just as wonderful as Cornelia Funke's writing, and managed to keep my attention, despite the slow progress I made.
The story was very good. I expected something a little more complex, but the simplicity of the story reflected it's origins and actually increased the charm of the book. I would have preferred for certain parts to have gone on for longer (I really liked Roland and he was in very little of it) so that we could have gone deeper into the plot and characters, but there isn't anything especially disappointing because of this.
The Book of Lost Things is one of those books that is very like lots of little stories woven into one with a smaller underling plot throughout. I, personally, like links to different parts of books and stories, which was not included - however I still enjoyed it.
The thing I especially liked was that Connolly put his own twist on the traditional stories so that the typical fairytale story of the book was different enough to avoid boring readers who may have experienced similar works before.
The War was featured a little bit, but not too much. I'm still not sure whether I approve of that or not: when the War was mentioned and involved it added to the story a great deal. Maybe Connolly decided not to include it more so that it didn't distract from the main story, or maybe he just decided not to use it. I don't know, but maybe the events in David's world could have added more detail to the novel.
David was a brilliant protagonist. I'm usually dubious about younger heroes, since they're often portrayed as something unlikely for their age, but David was very real to me and acted how I would expect an 11 year old to act - yet he still managed to be the hero of the story.
I really wish Roland had been around for longer. Roland was a brilliant character and I really would have liked to be able to get deeper into his relationship with Raphael.
I felt that with a lot of the characters: the Woodsman, the Huntress, Anna etc. I felt that they had very short roles that could have been prolonged so that we could have learnt more about them. (The reason I'm so harsh about the lack of their time in the book is that I loved these creations so much I wished there was more of them - that's a positive thing!)
I also would have liked to learn something about the Crooked Man's past. That would be very interesting.
The end killed me.
I hate happy endings. I find them unrealistic and I get the impression that the book stops being for the reader, and ends well so that the author can get something out of it.
But for once, I am content with this happy ending. Although, you can argue that it isn't a very happy ending. But it was very touching and I almost cried - almost.
The one problem I had with this book was that the consistency of information was extremely varied throughout the story: I felt like at the beginning the story was very simple - not necessarily a bad thing - but then a large amount of information and past was crammed into the last 50 or so pages. If this had been required due to the story, I wouldn't have minded much, but I feel like certain parts could have been included earlier on in the story so that things made more sense quicker.
I also became a little overwhelmed near the end, so that the climax and action was lost in the sea of new information I was given.
The other thing I loved about the book is that it has over 100 pages of extras at the back (so the actual story is only 348 pages long!) John Connolly decided to feature all the original tales that influenced and inspired his writing, however he adapted them and why. I really enjoyed this part since, having been brought up on fairytales, I understand a great deal of Connolly's reasoning for including aspects of the folktales.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy and fairytales. It's a lovely book that put a smile on my face, despite the lack of in-depth knowledge we gain from it. The writing is a little harder than normal, but it still isn't difficult. It's just a lovely book that was a nice break from the serious fiction I usually read.
Image Source: https://www.palmertrinity.org/ftpimages/
241/photo/large_photo28639_191181.jpg
This book mainly reminded me of my childhood. It's a charming story with beautiful writing and it's just a lovely, lovely book.
During the beginning of World War Two, a little boy named David loses his mother. As David comes to terms with this lose, his father remarries and has another son. Typically, David is none too happy about this, but when he suddenly finds himself transported to another world that seems to be build around the fairytales he reads, he discovers that actually hate and jealously can be very dangerous things for both himself and his new family.
This is not a Young Adult book, and therefore the writing is slightly more sophisticated than the common novels I read. however it was just as wonderful as Cornelia Funke's writing, and managed to keep my attention, despite the slow progress I made.
The story was very good. I expected something a little more complex, but the simplicity of the story reflected it's origins and actually increased the charm of the book. I would have preferred for certain parts to have gone on for longer (I really liked Roland and he was in very little of it) so that we could have gone deeper into the plot and characters, but there isn't anything especially disappointing because of this.
The Book of Lost Things is one of those books that is very like lots of little stories woven into one with a smaller underling plot throughout. I, personally, like links to different parts of books and stories, which was not included - however I still enjoyed it.
The thing I especially liked was that Connolly put his own twist on the traditional stories so that the typical fairytale story of the book was different enough to avoid boring readers who may have experienced similar works before.
The War was featured a little bit, but not too much. I'm still not sure whether I approve of that or not: when the War was mentioned and involved it added to the story a great deal. Maybe Connolly decided not to include it more so that it didn't distract from the main story, or maybe he just decided not to use it. I don't know, but maybe the events in David's world could have added more detail to the novel.
David was a brilliant protagonist. I'm usually dubious about younger heroes, since they're often portrayed as something unlikely for their age, but David was very real to me and acted how I would expect an 11 year old to act - yet he still managed to be the hero of the story.
I really wish Roland had been around for longer. Roland was a brilliant character and I really would have liked to be able to get deeper into his relationship with Raphael.
I felt that with a lot of the characters: the Woodsman, the Huntress, Anna etc. I felt that they had very short roles that could have been prolonged so that we could have learnt more about them. (The reason I'm so harsh about the lack of their time in the book is that I loved these creations so much I wished there was more of them - that's a positive thing!)
I also would have liked to learn something about the Crooked Man's past. That would be very interesting.
The end killed me.
I hate happy endings. I find them unrealistic and I get the impression that the book stops being for the reader, and ends well so that the author can get something out of it.
But for once, I am content with this happy ending. Although, you can argue that it isn't a very happy ending. But it was very touching and I almost cried - almost.
The one problem I had with this book was that the consistency of information was extremely varied throughout the story: I felt like at the beginning the story was very simple - not necessarily a bad thing - but then a large amount of information and past was crammed into the last 50 or so pages. If this had been required due to the story, I wouldn't have minded much, but I feel like certain parts could have been included earlier on in the story so that things made more sense quicker.
I also became a little overwhelmed near the end, so that the climax and action was lost in the sea of new information I was given.
The other thing I loved about the book is that it has over 100 pages of extras at the back (so the actual story is only 348 pages long!) John Connolly decided to feature all the original tales that influenced and inspired his writing, however he adapted them and why. I really enjoyed this part since, having been brought up on fairytales, I understand a great deal of Connolly's reasoning for including aspects of the folktales.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy and fairytales. It's a lovely book that put a smile on my face, despite the lack of in-depth knowledge we gain from it. The writing is a little harder than normal, but it still isn't difficult. It's just a lovely book that was a nice break from the serious fiction I usually read.
Image Source: https://www.palmertrinity.org/ftpimages/
241/photo/large_photo28639_191181.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment