It helps, though it is not necessary, to have some familiarity with written fairy tales as a genre to get the most out of The Land of Lost Things. I check this box big time, having read and reread the very dark versions of the more famous fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson and The Brothers Grimm as a child. A bit of knowledge of mythology also helps. Ceres, mother to 8 year old Phoebe, has reached the stage of hopelessness. We only know Phoebe as a child seriously injured in a pedestrian car accident and now in a coma with a very uncertain prognosis. Her brain shows some activity, but she has been moved to a long term care facility near a vacation cottage owned by Ceres’ mother. Ceres is exhausted from the worry and the the long term uncertainty. She moves into the cottage. Already, when she reads from a favorite book of fairy tales as she sits by Phoebe’s side, Ceres has experienced some inexplicable changes to the stories.
Ceres is drawn to to explore a house on the care home property, despite its falling down condition and boarded up windows and doors. She cautiously enters, has more inexplicable experiences and ends up in a magical land full of magical creatures, some good, some deadly. The story becomes a quest as various interactions lead Ceres to move on through the land, connecting her recent “real world” odd incidents to her purpose in the land. This book is a sequel to a 2009 novel called The Book of Lost Things, and it includes easy to follow references to a different person’s prior quest. Ceres has read about this in a disappeared author’s book and so has a framework for some of the dangers and some of the history of this place.
This is a wonderful fairytale with engaging concepts about magical creatures, some facing extinction, and the need to come to terms with the horrors of one’s own life and the horrors facing this magical land. It is well worth your time. It has moments where it dragged a little for me, but in retrospect those parts mattered. I liked this so much, I bought the earlier book to read. Recommend for older kids through adult. If your child is good with darker stuff, go for it.
They Called me Bookworm 