I have three published novels and might write/publish more someday. Now I'm more of a reader – welcome!
About a third of the way into this book, I was almost wondering if it would be wrong to abandon the book (and the series) when I’d already read 9 and a third of the twelve books. I was bored by yet another protracted magical fighting scene. But…
Then it started to peak my interest – some clever plot twists, and (FINALLY) some movement on the Alex/Anna relationship will they/won’t they thread and by the end of the book I was actually excited to read the next one!
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.
This is a fun novella in Ben Aaronovitch’s River’s of London cannon. You could probably listen to/read it as a stand alone, as it’s entirely set in America with an American FBI agent who investigates ‘special’ cases as its main protagonist. The Native American spirits reminded me of two TV series I’m currently watching and enjoying – Reservation Dogs, and Dark Winds. I liked the female American narrator.
One strange thing was, at the end when they say the rights belong to the author, Ben Aaronovitch, the narrator pronounced it Aaron-OH-vitch (with the emphasis on the OH) whereas in my head I’ve always said AaRon-o-vitch – with the emphasis on the ‘ron’) do I need to rethink my world, or did the narrator mispronounce???
Before listening to this audiobook, the only things I knew about Sri Lanka came from a strange experience I had several years ago…
Back in 2011/2012 I was studying for an MA in Early Childhood Education and Care. The class was all women and we all worked in the early years sector as teachers or childcare workers, and one module on the course was about international perspectives on early years provision. One day in a sort of discussion group/tutorial, a male student who we hadn’t met before turned up. He was Sri Lankan, and he dominated our discussion with terrible stories of atrocities meted out against women and children in his homeland. We normally talked about topics such as ‘learning through play’ or ‘positive reinforcement of good behaviour choices in under fives’ and that days discussion was about rape and beatings and false imprisonment. It was as if someone had put a baby dragon into a nest of kittens. We didn’t know how to respond.
So, I guess I wasn’t surprised by the similarly terrible things described in this book set in Sri Lanka.
I liked the structure of the book – the magical realism element of the story being told from the perspective of a recently deceased young man who finds himself in a kind of Limbo or Bardo – a waiting room for the newly dead, queueing to speak to the officials seated behind rows of desks. He is told he has seven moons (ie seven days) to effectively be a ghost and work out what happened to him and how he died, so it’s kind of murder mystery.
I did find the book a slog to get through though. There are a lot of characters, and a lot of Sri Lankan politics and it just seemed very long. I’m kind of glad that I listened to the book, because it had it’s moments and it feels sort of worthy and important, but that said, I was glad/relieved when it was finally over (like how I felt at the end of the discussion group with the mysterious and disturbing Sri Lankan).
Emily St. John Mandel is a writer whose books I’ve really enjoyed in the past, and for some reason I’ve had this on on my kindle for ages but hadn’t read it. Many books by this writer have magical realism, which I love, but this one didn’t really (apart from a few ghost sightings) and yet it was still a really, really good book.
Anton Waker is trying to live an honest life even though his parents and adopted sister are career criminals. He reluctantly agrees to help them give fake documents to illegal immigrants, because he feels like this is actually a good moral choice as he is helping desperate people.
Unfortunately dipping your toe in the criminal world can cause ripples and implications, and small bad things can become very big and very bad things and poor Anton’s life is upended.
It’s not really a thriller, more a book about people and choices and relationships with a tense undercurrent! I liked it a lot.
This book gets very mixed reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but I 100% loved it!
It had everything I love in a story – wonderful literary writing, a relatable protagonist, magical realism, a cracking plot, pathos, mystery. It’s quite short (sadly) and has made me want to revisit Helen Smith as a writer I loved in the past but haven’t read for a while.
I really enjoyed this book, right up to the ending which was meh. I went online to see what other people thought of the ending and it seems that most people agree that the book just seems to run out of steam and end abruptly. (Quite a sizeable minority seem to just really dislike everything about the book!).
To me though, it was worth the ride – a mysterious lost ancient book that hides a devastating secret – clues to follow and bad guy to avoid, (and a mysterious multiplayer video game adventure which may or may not be related….) what’s not to love!?
[Also, in reading other people’s reviews, I stumbled across mention of a book I had never heard of by JJ Abrams and a writer called Doug Dorst called ‘S’ and I spent £23 (shockingly expensive, I know) on an actual physical book (a thing I never thought I would do again) because the actual book is part of the story – with things like photos or written-on napkins between many of the pages, and hand-written annotations by several different people – so exciting. Sorry, this paragraph is a diversion and nothing to do with Codex!]
I really enjoyed this book! It was on my son-in-laws wish list so I gave him a copy for his birthday, and he said it was his favourite book of the year (he might have been being polite! but I took him at his word and read the kindle copy I had and loved it).
Sadie and Sam met as children in hospital and bonded over playing Super Mario – Sam was devastated and uncommunicative after a car accident killed his mum and crushed his foot, and Sadie was at a loose end in hospital while her sister was receiving treatment for cancer.
There are lots of nostalgic nods to old video games (many of which I have played in my youth) which I liked, although lots of reviewers on Amazon said they loved the book even though they had previously had no interest in video games.
Sam and Sadie eventually set up a video game company and the book follows the highs and lows of their friendship, love, careers, health, etc. I don’t know what it is about the book that makes it so great – that magic alchemy that turns words on a page into real people who move you and become part of your world, if only for a while. I definitely want to read more from the author now.
I’m not sure what to make of this book. I was in places quite funny, and I did laugh once or twice, but on the whole I found it more annoying than funny. Like an elderly relative at a party thinking it’s really funny to make endless jokes about the young people and their ‘social media’ it gets a bit old.
The characters are supposed to be unlikeable, I guess, and they are. Its a farce, and maybe that is reason enough to forgive the stream of ridiculous coincidences. I don’t know, the book gets lots of stars on Amazon, so maybe it’s just not my cup of tea.
Typically of Adam Roberts sci-fi books, The This is quite mind-bending and sweeping in scale. The first couple of chapters were very ‘out-there’ and I wasn’t sure what was going on, but all did become clear as the book progressed.
The This is an interesting study of the evolution of humanity when technology to allow people to interact with their social media accounts using just brain waves (ie thoughts) became a massive hive mind entity that went to war with the individual humans not hooked up to ‘The This’.
The book raises moral and philosophical questions, as well as being a fun read. Not my favourite Adam Roberts book (which is still Bête) but still good.
Sarah Wray Writer