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"Twice upon a time—for that is how some stories should continue..."
In this "dark fairy tale" (Kirkus Reviews), Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident—a body without a spirit. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud the fairy stories Phoebe loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world.
But an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, to journey to a land colored by the memories of childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father—a land of witches and dryads, giants and mandrakes; a land where old enemies are watching and waiting...
The Land of Lost Things.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
September 19, 2023 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781668022306
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781668022306
- File size: 6732 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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April 1, 2023
As Ceres sits by the bedside of daughter Phoebe, desperately reading aloud the fairy tales she hope might pull Phoebe from her coma, she finds herself drawn to a tumbledown house on the hospital grounds. It's linked to an author who has since disappeared, and it promises all the delights (and terrors) of her childhood reading. Connolly, author of the New York Times best-selling "Charlie Parker" series, sets his latest in the world of 2006's beloved The Book of Lost Things. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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July 15, 2023
This dark fairy tale, sequel to The Book of Lost Things (2006), speaks volumes about a mother's devotion. Ceres, a single mother, keeps vigil over her 8-year-old daughter, Phoebe, after the child sustains a near-fatal head injury and enters a coma from which she may never recover. This world offers little hope, but there are "worlds upon worlds upon worlds." So Ceres is driven by an aggressive ivy, "a creature of verdure and hate," into a place of fairies and strange beasts. There, she is transformed physically into a 16-year-old girl, though she retains her 32-year-old mind. Threats abound from richly conceived creatures like the Crooked Man, whose "evil was without bounds" and who has a finger consisting of a "tangle of centipedes." And there are the Fae, who abduct and feed on children. A few others are Pale Lady Death, the Spirit of the Water, and Calio, a perfectly camouflaged dryad who refers to themselves in the plural, as in "We are Calio." And sprinkled among the pages are allusions to fairy tales, such as "Rapunzel" and "Red Riding Hood." Ceres meets a circle of wicked witches confessing non-sins such as "It's been five years since my last wickedness," which sounds like an AA (WWA?) meeting. Ceres finds a strong and wise ally in the Woodsman, although she is hardly a damsel in distress. She is a strong mother who wants her daughter back. "Whatever it takes," Ceres declares, "I want her returned to me." But the Woodsman replies that "This world, like any other, doesn't care what you want." Curiously, Ceres refers to the previous book: "That novel, The Book of Lost Things, has become the basis for a fantasy world in which I now find myself stranded." Readers may well wonder what some of the action has to do with reuniting the mother and child, but mom doesn't lose sight of her goal. A feat of imagination that will please Connolly's fans.COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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