The Book of Lost Things

Synopsis: 'Once upon a time, there was a boy who lost his mother ...' As twelve-year-old David takes refuge from his grief in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when bad things start to happen. That is when the Crooked Man comes. And David is violently propelled into a land populated by heroes, wolves and monsters, his quest to find the legendary Book of Lost Things.

Review: This is the sort of book I really enjoy, one where you can let your imagination take flight. The story is set during WWII and centralises around David, a young boy who is struggling to come to terms with his mother's death and his father's re-marriage to Rose. He has a new little brother too - Georgie - to whom he feels jealous and resentful. His feelings are all muddled, he feels rejected and ignored and nearly everything he loved has become lost to him. Just when he might have been able to have his father all to himself along have come Rose and Georgie. David begins to have attacks .. black-outs which leave him hearing strange sounds and amongst these is the voice of his mother calling .. his books have begun to whisper too. David and his father have moved out of London to escape the bombing and into Rose's house so all familiarity has gone, his new bedroom is a little attic room filled with strange books which also murmur and grumble as they rub shoulders with David's own books... the fairy tales in these richly illustrated books intrigue David ... they seem more sinister than the tales he is used to and he is visited in his dreams by the Crooked Man who says 'we are waiting - welcome your majesty - all hail the new King.'

Following an argument with Rose, a particularly hurt and resentful David follows the sound of his mothers calls outside to the garden where he sees a German bomber hurtling towards him as it falls stricken from the sky. In order to escape a collision David dives, Alice style, through a gap in the garden wall to emerge in a land where the fairy tales in the books he's been reading have come to life. And the Crooked Man (an even more malevolent version of Rumpelstiltskin who can travel between worlds), is waiting for him there.

This is a typical boy to man journey but told in a unique way. It's easy to see the parallels between David's real life troubles and this perilous quest to rescue his mother (or keep her memory alive in another sense.) There are problems and riddles to be solved and a lot of lessons to learn and growing up to be done. Along his journey David encounters some well known fairytale figures, but they're slightly skewed and sinister versions of the tales we love .. we're more in the realm of Angela Carter and Grimm here than Disney. There are wolves, loups (half human/half wolves .. Little Red Riding Hood enjoyed the company of wolves much more than we were led to believe apparently), harpies, trolls, the animal mutilating huntress and witches who have a fondness for the flesh of children but there's also the odd comical tale .. like the one featuring Snow White who is as un-Disneyesque as can be .. in fact she's an obese harridan who is plaguing the life out of the dwarves .. and also characters that want to help David like the Woodsman and the Knight. And all the while as David makes his way towards the Fortress of Thorns where he feels sure his mother is, the Crooked Man is following, keeping David in view, is some cases keeping him from harm, for he has a darker much more treacherous purpose for him.

I am at my happiest engrossed in adult fairy stories, and this was another nice chunk of escapism, it's easy to read but that's because it's so engaging. It's not for children .. unless they are quite robust as there's a fair amount of violence and gore, although I suppose it does still read very much like a childrens book, just a very dark one. It doesn't quite go as far in originality and twisted storytelling as Neil Gaiman but it's very much in that vein.