Elfira Yolanda S

My second book this year. SECOND! Yeah, I know, I’m keeping the dust in my bookshelves. Anyway, it’s a novel by John Connolly. I read the Indonesian translation. My sister recommended it to me. She liked it and even bought the other book from Mr. Connolly (I can’t remember which one). The book is, the story is, well, it’s scary and sweet. I mean it.

The Twisted Tales

Shrek is a movie based on tales that we all know by heart. While Shrek twists the tale with comedy (and I have good laugh watching 3 pigs and the wolf, Pinokio, the Ginger Bread, the princesses, and a bunch other), The Book of Lost Things mixes the dough with dark ingredients. Like in this one (you might want to discontinue reading, spoiler ahead!):

The Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

What if it wasn’t the step-mother? What if it was the seven dwarfs who actually gave the poisonous apple? The step-mother had an alibi.

You see, the Snow White was actually one annoying girl. She was so bossy. Not one of the dwarf liked her. In fact, they all hated her. They planned to kill her and to frame the step-mother. They made it. Everyone blamed the queen, Snow White’s step-mother.

Unfortunately, the queen had an alibi and all charges were dropped. That time the queen was on her business trip, on one of her poisoning quest, but not for the Snow White. So, the court was to find out who the real culprit was. The fingers pointed at the dwarf eventually but there were just not enough proofs. The court let them go with a warning. If someday, something bad happened to the Snow White, anything, the dwarfs would be punished.

Imagine how the dwarfs felt after that. They had to serve the (still and more) annoying Snow White and they couldn’t do anything about that. The dwarfs were known as a grumpy creature and the whole thing gave them more grumpy-fuel that could last for a really long time.

When David, the main character of the book, met the dwarfs, they were still grumpy. But the sympathetic boy turned out could befriend the dwarfs. When they were apart, the dwarfs told him that someday they would like to find a prince that would marry the Snow White and that until that time they would dig their mine and collect diamonds (diamonds, not coal!) for the bribe to the prince. Yep, they were thinking to bribe a prince to marry the Snow White.

The Crooked Man

The dwarfs story was just merely few pages of the 472 page Indonesian translation that I read. There were so many tales that Mr. Connolly picked and he crafted it well. I love explanation and he gives it neatly. I think one tool that enables Mr. Connolly to do so is the crooked man.

The crooked man was another character in the book. He was not from any tale but he really liked to create tales, many of them. He offered a great deal of power, of solutions to one’s problems. He granted wishes. He was sweet with his words. He was cruel.

The crooked man was not a kind of antagonist that did bad things to seek revenge or power or wealth, no. He was a kind of man that loved to see others suffering. And I think that’s the worst type of antagonist of all. Psycho.

And So..

OK, no more spoilers. I’m glad that the book doesn’t fall into children novel category. It will damage their tale soul heavily. As for the adult, I’d like to recommend this very book. It touches the bitter part of heart which I believe grow larger in adults and at the same time, it pokes our treasure chests where we keep the tales from our younger years.

Not only that, when the chest is opened, the tale is just not the same anymore. It is so twisted. Really, really twisted. It is so twisted that it can keep us entertained not only with the nostalgic feeling but also with the excitement over the whole new plot. That is one of the sweetness that I talked about (I just notice that most part of my post focused on the scary part).

Again, about the book

The Book of Lost Things is a story of a boy named David who got lost in a country where everything was not like those in the tales we knew. There, he met Snow White, the Sleeping Beauty, the Red Hood girl, and the crooked man.

The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words:

‘Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king.’

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