The Book of Lost Things

By: John Connolly

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

High in his attic bedroom, 12-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for company.But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds that the real world and the fantasy world have begun to meld. The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words: "Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king."

With echoes of Gregory Maguire's and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, author John Connolly introduces us to a cast of not-quite-familiar characters - like the seven socialist dwarfs who poison an uninvited (and unpleasant) princess and try to peg the crime on her stepmother. Or the Loups, the evil human-canine hybrids spawned long ago by the union of a wolf and a seductive girl in a red cloak.

As war rages across Europe, David is violently propelled into a land that is both a construct of his imagination, yet frighteningly real - a strange reflection of his own world composed of myths and stories, populated by wolves and worse-than-wolves, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a legendary book...The Book of Lost Things.

©2006 John Connolly (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC.

A well crafted tale that honors all stories.

I enjoyed this story very much. It is reminiscent of all the classic adventure tales that I enjoyed as a boy, yet found its own original voice in the coming of age of the protagonist. I highly recommend it for sons and fathers to read together.

Really enjoyed it

Sort of two stories in one but I liked them both. I really liked the alternate take on fairy tales.

Excellent

A wonderful fairy tale. Extremely enjoyable story. I will get more books from this author.

Fairy tale for adults or bright child.

Superb performance by Steven Crossley. Loved this to the last word. Liked the author 's play upon the fairy tale form.

Hauntingly Interesting

I went into this book with the intentions of it being centered around fairy tales...it was so much more. The main character is entered into a world helping him cope with grief and change. Much like Pan’s Labyrinth, he gets there only to find it to be a twisted, corrupt fairy tale. This story continues to pull you in, in hopes of finding out “what’s next?!”.

a good story

Very good book. It had a slow start, interesting middle and a really nice ending.

Couldn't put it down!

this was an unexpected balm. Last few books were disappointing, but this was wonderful. I'd recommend this to just about anyone I know who listens too audio books,

Beautifully atmospheric but slow and boring

I really enjoyed the format of this book. It weaved short dark fairytales through out the book that is explained away as side characters keep feeling the need to tell the main character a story as a reference to something going on with the plot.

The short stories add a lot to the atmosphere and tone but most arnt very interesting. It's kinda like hearing the same stories you grew up with but given a darker edge to it. It's kinda boring and not very creative when it feels so same-same to what we already heard. Sometimes it feels a bit of a stretch though and makes changes for shock factor so consistently that it's gets kind of numbing. My favorite reinterpretation though was of Snow White. I found when her short story got brought up to be super funny in a dark way. My least favorite would have to be of Red Riding Hood, The huntress and Hansel/Gretel. I didn't like their plots because it felt kinda plugged in and unnatural. For example Hansel/Gretel is plugged in probably in the weirdest way. Essentially kid is hungry and tries to eat some found chocolate and then is stopped, told the story of Hansel/Gretel, and then the plot moves on. That's a weird way to tell someone not to eat something and felt overstuffed.

The overarching plot also is grim, slow and boring. It takes forever for anything to really happen that when the main plot gets going I just sorta glaze over and wait for the next short story to break up the monotony. It sometimes feel so dark and grim that it gets somewhat numbing. When so much darkness is going on its hard to be consistently shocked

The writing was super beautiful and was descriptive enough to make the world feel alive. Despite the boring plot I just kept wanting to finish this still because the world building elements were still super fun. I appreciate the recnogizable themes with the plot but overall wish something more creative could have been done with it to really make the best use out of such a cool world.

The main character is a child which is normally something I'd avoid like the plague. But he's super cute. The situations he gets involved in though are traumatizing and i found his consistent innocence to be a bit unrealistic. He doesn't often react in a recognizable way that i believe a actual human child would react. He feels like a well realizes character though with his overall innocence but the lack of flexibility on that makes him feel like more of a character to move the plot then someone that is living and breathing. At least he wasn't annoying too, that's a huge plus, it's oh most easy to ignore him completly and just let him take you from one short story/plot device to the next.

I dont know the kind of people I'd recommend this book to. I feel like there's better stuff out there to make a more efficient use of your time.

Not what I expected

The good reviews interested me into listening to this book. Totally out of the box for me.

A dark fairy tail that really grabbed me from the start. With an ending that felt complete and not left hanging. Which I thought that was the direction the book was going. But it didn't. Very enjoyable listen.

A portal story...

I happen to like portal stories. I was not fond of this one. There were very few female characters. The ones that existed were the stereotypical stepmother and a victim. Neither were particularly well developed. The male characters fell into a very strict good and evil split. They were also better characterized than the female characters. I am glad the main character developed agency eventually, The ending was telegraphed from early on. I prefer a little more mystery in my portal stories, and a good deal less misery.