I read this book years ago, back when I used to read physical books and remembered liking it, so when someone on the Rick O’Shea group on Facebook posted their excitement at the sequel coming out, I bought the audiobook for a re-listen before reading the next one.
By the way, I would thoroughly recommend joining the Rick O’Shea group on Facebook – it’s an Irish group for avid readers and I get a lot of book recommendations or nudges about authors I like having new works from that group.
Anyhoo, The Book of Lost Things is an Adult (or maybe young adult) faery tale. I think it’s aimed at people like me who always loved to read and look back with nostalgia at being lost in the world of the fey as a child or young adult and being both terrified and delighted and wishing it was all real while being relieved that it isn’t (or is it?).
There are dark themes and some violence and gore – but as one character pointed out, that is the tradition with fairy tales – to be dark and cautionary and teach the young about the very real dangers of life but in a safe and vicarious way. (I wish I’d said something like that when I was interviewed on the radio during my five minutes of fame when The Forbidden Room won the Wow Factor award – the interviewer asked me if I didn’t think my book was too dark and serious for a teen audience, and I said something inane like ‘oh, no, I don’t think so,’ instead of talking about the rich tradition of dark tales for children. Hey Ho.)
The world of Elsewhere (or whatever you want to call it) is shaped around the fears and experiences of the human protagonists who visit, and the main character, David is battling grief after losing his mother, and feelings of resentment toward his new stepmother and step brother and his quest really is to fight through those feelings in the form of evil magical creatures. It turns some traditional fairy tales on their head in a fun way and I like that it didn’t have a ‘happy ever after’ more a ‘complicated ever after’ like real life.
Sarah Wray Writer 