The Land of Lost Things

Is it cheesy to say.. I get lost in this series of books that John Connolly has been writing? First, it was The Book of Lost Things and now, I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader’s copy of The Land of Lost Things and read that as an adult.

The premise of all of John Connolly’s storybooks is that they are based on a person (child or adult) going through a tough time in their lives, dealing with loss, that makes them so vulnerable. To me, it’s this vulnerability that makes them so open to the superstitious and the magical in their lives. They read a book of fairytales and the fairytale elements start seeping into their real life so that they end up walking between both worlds. There isn’t really anything I can pinpoint that makes it so magical except that the descriptions and the creepiness and otherworldliness of the elements draw you in. They’re so fascinating and unique that you just keep going and suddenly the 350 pages or so are done. There is emotional turmoil that you feel for the protagonist dealing with loss and yet the childlike interest in the magic of fairytales that they are walking through. These are the kinds of books you “fall into” and disappear into a new world for a few hours and emerge only when you finish the book and finally stop thinking about it after a week.

It makes me also want to re-read Black, Red and White by Ted Dekker (which I later learnt was a Christian allegory, but alas it was good).