This book is the long-awaited follow up to John Connolly’s fantasy tale The Book of Lost Things, although it can easily be read as a stand-alone.
Following a car accident, Ceres is waiting at the bedside of her injured daughter, hoping that she will one day wake up. Eight-year-old Phoebe is in a coma, but her mother feels that her essence is no longer there and that she is an empty body.
Reading Phoebe’s favourite fairytales in the hope that they will bring her back, Ceres has almost conceded defeat. However, when she discovers an abandoned house on the hospital grounds Ceres is drawn there. Pulled into a world that brings back flashes of the childhood stories her father told, full of giants, witches and other folklore characters, she has no idea of the danger that awaits.
This twist on the classic fairy tale was a familiar, dark, journey that I was more than eager to undertake. Full of treachery, corruption and danger, the quest that Ceres finds herself on was whimsical and frightening in equal measure. I was awed by all of the vivid mythical creatures, both friend and foe and was particularly intrigued by the portrayal of the Fae. The wonderful side characters such as the Woodsman and Saada, gave level of steadiness and comfort to the journey, but the inevitable showdown was the highlight for me.
If you enjoy adventurous fairytale retellings with a dark spin then this book is definitely for you. It’s one that kept me up way past bedtime.
Reviewed by Brooke Michie
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was born in Dublin in 1968, and have been writing fiction for money ever since my elementary school teacher, Mrs Foley, paid me to produce ‘Tarzan’ stories at five pence a time. This, though, wasn’t likely to be a sustainable model long-term, five pence only getting a person so far, even in 1974. Thus it was that I largely shelved the idea of writing as a profession, aided by the fact that I didn’t know anyone who did it.
I attended Synge Street CBS from the ages of seven to 17. I can’t claim it was an entirely happy experience, but I suspect that was rather the lot of most schoolchildren in Ireland in the ’70s and ’80s. I was sent to Synge Street because a) my father had gone there, and b) it was free.
After school I worked in local government, as a barman, a shop assistant ,and a dogsbody (go-fer) at Harrods department store in London before studying English at Trinity College, Dublin, and journalism at Dublin City University. After graduation, I began working at the Irish Times newspaper as a freelance journalist, and continued to do so while writing what became my first novel, Every Dead Thing.
With my wife, Jennifer Ridyard, I wrote The Chronicles of the Invaders, a science-fiction trilogy for young adults. I’ve always loved science-fiction, but it has always suffered from being somewhat male-dominated. (If it’s female, it’s fantasy; if it’s male, it’s science-fiction.)
Jennie and I continue to live in Dublin, where we walk our dogs, support various wine industries, and enjoy company of our grown-up sons and their significant others, as long as they don’t eat too much.”
0 Comments