The Book of Lost Things

I first came across this book while browsing the bookstore. As tempting as it looked, I didn't get it. However, I decided that I just got to read this one when an ex-colleague was facebooking about it. This is my first John Connolly outing.

This is the tale of a twelve year-old boy called David, who loves his books, stories and fairy tales. He mourns his recently departed mother, and now has to deal with the remarriage of his father (and the addition of a little step-brother). All this makes him bitter and angry.

Then the books started whispering to him and the Crooked Man made its appearance. Before David knows it, he was in a whole strange new world, one that is filled with myths and stories (think fairy tales gone awry). There he met the Woodsman and Roland (such a knightly name), and battled (and fooled) trolls, wolves including mutated ones, the huntress, the Beast, the Enchantress... It is David's journey from childhood into adulthood, from a timid boy to a courageous young man. He is indeed true to his name David, just as the biblical David had bravely battled Goliath.