A review by abitofmoxie
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
3.0
This book started out great, but was a bit disappointing. I'm pretty familiar with most fairy tales (from Grimm's to Disney), so it was kind of interesting to see how the characters or themes were woven into a cohesive story. However, several times it seemed as though the author was thinking, "OK next, I'd like to write about Snow White, how do we get from here to there?" and then just filled in the blanks with whatever was easiest.
It was also weirdly inappropriate for kids. This book is definitely intended to be read by adults, but I don't think that necessarily had to be the case. It is really the matter of a handful of paragraphs or references that could be changed (without impacting the story in the least - because these paragraphs seemed out of place even while I was reading it) and it could be better understood by middle readers.
It seemed like a fun book to write, because it didn't connect anything from beginning to end, and wasn't overly concerned with consistency.
I would call this genre: Fantasy Lite. Because it has fantasy elements, isn't for children, but lacks any sort of serious/imaginative world-building.
It was also weirdly inappropriate for kids. This book is definitely intended to be read by adults, but I don't think that necessarily had to be the case. It is really the matter of a handful of paragraphs or references that could be changed (without impacting the story in the least - because these paragraphs seemed out of place even while I was reading it) and it could be better understood by middle readers.
It seemed like a fun book to write, because it didn't connect anything from beginning to end, and wasn't overly concerned with consistency.
I would call this genre: Fantasy Lite. Because it has fantasy elements, isn't for children, but lacks any sort of serious/imaginative world-building.