Will I love The Book of Lost Things?

This was one of those books that lingered long after I finished it. The Book of Lost Things doesn’t romanticise childhood or fantasy — it treats both as places of danger, loss, and transformation. Reading it last year reinforced my belief that the strongest fantasy doesn’t soften reality, but reframes it through myth, allowing difficult emotions to surface in honest and often unsettling ways.

This book feels like it's targeted at a young adult (or younger) audience at first. Don't be fooled! Like all the best fairy tales, it is dark, challenging and subversive. It also feels like recognition for anyone who ever sought out escape in stories and books.

This book starts in that familiar way fairy tales do, with a child that loses their mother and now must contend with that loss, a new stepmother, and then a half-sibling. Set in the modern world, our young protagonist hears books whispering to him and dreams of “The Crooked Man”. He finds himself in a dark fairy tale world full of odd and often terrifying characters. The story unfolds like a psychological thriller wrapped in lovely, lyrical prose, that keeps you turning pages until the very end.