Reviews tagging 'War'

The Book of Lost Things Illustrated Edition by John Connolly

24 reviews

kaziaroo's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I read this because of the connection to Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron, but was very disappointed.

This book is incredibly suspenseful and John Connelly is brilliant at creating atmosphere, but there were just too many sections that left a bad taste in my mouth. I had my misgivings at the start when racist slurs like "g*psies" were used casually, but it got worse and worse. The book is permeated with homophobia, fatphobia and misogyny. The complex characters are all men, while the female characters are either villains or damsels in distress (with the possible exception of Rose, who is still one-dimensional). There are two gay characters in the book (one briefly mentioned near the beginning and one with a major role later on) and both are linked with paedophilia and "unnaturalness". This was an incredibly spiteful book to anyone who isn't a straight, white, well-educated man.

I also didn't like how the author makes enemies of non-fiction books, encouraging the reader to look on reading the newspaper or textbooks with disdain:

"He couldn’t understand most of what they [the non-fiction books] were saying, but they spoke v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y as if what they had to impart was very important or the person to whom they were speaking was very stupid. Some of the books appeared to be arguing among themselves in blah-blah-blah tones, the way experts sometimes talked on the wireless when they were addressing one another, surrounded by other experts whom they were trying to impress with their intelligence."

"Newspaper stories were like newly caught fish, worthy of attention only for as long as they remained fresh, which was not very long at all. They were like the street urchins hawking the evening editions, all shouty and insistent, while stories – real stories, proper made-up stories – were like stern but helpful librarians in a well-stocked library. Newspaper stories were as insubstantial as smoke, as long-lived as mayflies. They did not take root but were instead like weeds that crawled along the ground, stealing the sunlight from more deserving tales. David’s father’s mind was always occupied by shrill, competing voices, each one silenced as soon as he gave it his attention, only for its clamour to be instantly replaced by another."

This is an incredibly dangerous idea to impress on potentially young readers of this book. Yes, fiction is wonderful, but reading and understanding non-fiction is vital.

Additionally, I found the key action scenes disappointing; after a lot of build-up, David seemed to get out of each situation relatively easily. The other characters kept praising how he was brave and achieved what grown men didn't and I was just like... Where? When did he do anything special that Roland (for example) couldn't have done? I felt like I was constantly being told to be in awe of David but I just didn't feel it.

The ending felt too easy as well. I suppose it's good that David decided not to sell his brother to the Crooked Man, but simply holding out for long enough magically solved all of his problems – his two main antagonists, the Crooked Man and the Loups, simply disappeared and David trotted off into the sunset leaving the kingdom potentially in chaos, being suddenly without its monarchy.

Overall, I don't recommend this book and I certainly would never encourage any under-18s to read it, no matter the target audience (the book is written in a fairytale style and the protagonist is ~13–14 years old for most of the story). The content is dark and violent enough to make it unsuitable for young children, but I would be worried about even teenagers being influenced by this book. There are so much better things out there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

navyblu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

lilcoppertop's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Ableism and Homophobia

mockingjayx16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and War

sam_uel_c's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia and Pedophilia

aliyas_encanto's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Nothing like what I expected from the book's description, but still pleasantly surprised by how engrossed I became in this story. Was near tears by the end, a beautiful celebration of growing up and learning to live a life of wonder despite hardships that come before you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

rkazoo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m incapable of reading this and not crying. So many beautiful themes and messages delivered by incredible characters. Ah!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Misogyny, Excrement, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

lea_liest's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: War

Minor: Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

vagrantheather's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Book of Lost Things was recommended to me when I put up a request for trashy paranormal romance books. So obviously it was not at all a proper recommendation lol. It's a well written, solid book. It follows David, a child during the first World War, who watches his mother die of a drawn out illness, then his father remarry and have a new child. He's dealing with a lot of difficult, heavy emotions and he's angry at everyone. David is pulled through a wall into a fantasy realm where all the usual fairy tales are just a bit different from how he knows them. On his journey to return home, he does a lot of reflecting and growing up. Essentially it's a coming of age story in a dark fairy tale frame. 

Connolly did a great job but it was certainly a more forthright distribution of life lessons than I'm accustomed to reading. The characters - the crooked man, the woodsman - were faithful representations of archetypes, rather than fully developed characters. It's a story that explored heavy themes via the familiar lens of centuries old stories. Connolly even goes so far as to dedicate the last quarter of the book to a discussion of the original material, from the first written versions to variations across cultures to the moral lessons portrayed in each. 

For personal enjoyment I'd probably give it a 4/5. It didn't hit emotionally for me, nor am I interested in a coming of age story at the moment. I thought the initial allusions to OCD were unfortunate in that David is cured of his compulsions by a couple words of fatherly advice. I would probably recommend this to literary teenagers. It's probably not compelling for fans of popular booktok fantasy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: War

queenshrike's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and War