Estimated Reading Time 2 Minutes
Publisher: Washington Square Press (October 16, 2007)
Paperback : 480 pages
ISBN: 978-0743298902
Thoughts: I have mixed feelings after reading this book. It’s well written, and the number of wonderful quotes in this book is extraordinary. This is a horror/thriller fantasy novel, so some of the images were disturbing, but nothing over what you would expect if you are familiar with this type of book. In fact, if you are familiar with Fairy Tales in their true form, this story fits in with them perfectly.
I struggled with some of the attitudes in the book concerning religion and the generalization of how religious people act toward those who disagree with their beliefs; specifically towards a gay character in the book. But I agreed with other things. I agree with the author’s thoughts about growing up and finding yourself and learning how to make the most of life and yourself in a world that can indeed be a very scary place.
First sentence: Once upon a time — for that is how all stories should begin — there was a boy who lost his mother.
Favorite Quote From the Book: Before she came ill, David’s mother would often tell him that stories were alive. They weren’t alive in the way that people were alive, or even dogs or cats. (…) Stories were different, though: they came alive in the telling. Without a human voice to read them aloud, or a pair of wide eyes following them by torchlight beneath a blanket, they had no real existence in our world. (…) They lay dormant, hoping for the chance to emerge. Once someone started to read them, they could begin to change. They could take root in the imagination and transform the reader. Stories wanted to be read, David’s mother would whisper. They needed it. It was the reason they forced themselves from their world into ours. They wanted us to give them life.
Summary from Amazon.com:
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and 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 his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book… The Book of Lost Things.
An imaginative tale about navigating the journey into adulthood, while doing your best to hang on to your childhood.
