Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

14 reviews

sam_uel_c's review against another edition

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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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swalk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A quintessentially English, gothic fairy tale; but if you are expecting a lighthearted fable, this is certainly not it. 
 
Set in 1939 during the war, David is just a 12 year-old boy, his mother is sadly dying. The terrible stress and trauma of this has lead to him trying to prevent her death, by performing tasks in a very obsessive manner and becoming withdrawn. After some time David begins to collapse when he is stressed or angry and his father takes him to see a doctor about it. As his mind spirals David begins hearing the words inside of books come to life, until one day he is consumed by another world entirely; A world filled with fairytale horrors, battles of good and evil, wolves, harpies, knights and a sinister crooked man.
 
 This tale has truly magical world building and a fantastic mix of malevolent and virtuous characters, I loved the the humour of the dwarves and how the story was woven with messages of overcoming grief and a sense of self discovery and growth. Honestly I absolutely adored this book and I even shed a few tears towards the end. Truly excellent.

Nick Rawlingson was an amazing narrator, his character voicing was excellent and really made the audiobook immersive. 
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zsabella's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

this is a deceptively simple coming of age story of a young boy transported into a dark, fantasy world. the story carries the same energy and atmospheric quality of the movie pan’s labyrinth (2006) by guillermo del toro but with a less fascistic, war-torn angle. at first I was pretty enchanted by the fairytale-like writing until the crooked man was introduced and I could literally feel my skin trying to crawl off my body. I liked the adult retellings of classic fairytales and fables, along with reading a few others that I had never come across before. I also really enjoyed the woodsman and roland characters who served david as interesting companions! such a solid read for any fantasy fan that needs a stand-alone novel and not an entire series to win them over.
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lisas_bookshelf's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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neni's review

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dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

I enjoyed the imagery and the writing style. The fairy tale vibes gone darker were quite well done. I didn't particularly care about the main character but the plot itself followed a path that made sense for a "fairy tale" type story, and these stories normally don't have main characters that are that complex and well developed anyways.
 I really liked how dark the fairy tale retellings were and it was nice to see the main character's relationships with other people develop as he "grew up". The depiction of grief and overall of negative emotions in the eyes of the main character was also fascinating. 
Overall a cool book, a great choice if you're into fairy tales and spooky stuff.
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syaluo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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

4.25

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alliallialli's review

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dark mysterious 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

2.75

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nicoley3's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

This story is an allegory about a boy named David losing his childhood innocence and being forced to grow up all too soon, told through fairy tales. 
It is definitely an adult fantasy with some mature themes and frequent violence. The darkness in it reminded me a little of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. None of the darkness or violence seemed senseless though . . . it all served the story's purpose and was symbolic, portraying David's headlong fall into adulthood. It offered me a new and interesting take on life and faith in a dying world--hope and light in conflict with darkness and despair. I may not be great at explaining what this book meant to me, but it was 100% worth the read.
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booksploration's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-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

1.5


The Book of Lost Things is a dark and twisted story about loss, grief, and growing up. Regardless of its playful cover and the age of the main character, it’s not a children’s book.

Here’s a short description (taken from another edition): "Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of his mother, twelve-year-old David finds himself violently propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly melded."

I find the premise of the book exciting, the cover is beautiful, the author’s love for books shines through the story, and he manages to convey the complex feelings of grief well. 
 
Despite all of this, I didn’t enjoy the book. "Disturbingly melded" summarises my overall impression (after reading the whole book) pretty accurately.

A few examples:

Blood and gore - I enjoy a good horror story and am not against scenes of graphic violence in general. However, I think the author sometimes overdid it a little in a way that didn't add to the story, especially since it’s about the adventures of a 12-year-old boy. 

Paedophilia and the way in which it is addressed - In other parts of the book, the author described scenes of violence VERY graphically, but on page 47, he used a horrible "euphemism" to talk about the heinous crimes of a child molester:
"Now, in another bedroom, he thought of Jonathan Tulvey and Anna, and wondered if a man from a clean little house, a man who lived with his mother and kept sweets in his pockets, had made them go down with him to the railway tracks. And there, in the darkness, he had played with them, in his way." I’m glad that Connolly didn't go into more detail here, but the choice of words ("played") seems VERY unfortunate.


Homophobia - I’m aware that David is "only" a child, but the same doesn’t hold true for the author who chose to write this:
"David was being dragged along on a quest for a man whom he had never met, a man for whom only Roland had feelings, and those feelings, if the Crooked Man was to be believed, were not natural. There were names for men like Roland where David came from. They were among the worst names that a man could be called. David had always been warned to keep away from such people, and now here he was keeping company with one of them in a strange land." (p. 237)


And there's so much to unpack here:
"A bedchamber contained a naked woman and a naked man, and the Crooked Man would bring children to them (not the special ones, the ones who gave him life, but the others, the ones he stole from villages or those who strayed from the path and became lost in the forest) and the man and the woman would whisper things to them in the darkness of their chamber, telling them things that children should not know, dark tales of what adults did together in the depths of the night while their sons and daughters were sleeping. In this way the children died inside. Forced into adulthood before they were ready, they had their innocence taken from them and their minds collapsed under the weight of poisonous thoughts. Some grew up to become evil men and women, and so the corruption was spread." (pp. 304-305)
 






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