t 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.

I read the Book of Lost Things as a young adult when it just came out in 2006 and I remember being completely lost in the book and it having a profound impact in me. Now as an adult, going to work I find myself getting just as lost in The Land of Lost Things in the subway and loving the feeling of submerging into this land before re-emerging back into the real world when my subway stop comes. I use this story because the parallel to what happens to the main character in the book is similar. She lives and moves in the real world but reads a book that drowns her in its world and also changes how she sees everything around her while she's reading.

Plot: The main character this time is an adult, a single mother, Ceres in London who works as a copywriter and has a daughter who in in intensive care from the first page of the novel. John Connolly does not waste time in tugging at your heartstrings, and you immediately feel her plight and fall in love with her. Her daughter Phoebe is in a comatose stage but Ceres refuses to give up on her and reads to her every day. When Phoebe is moved into a care home from the hospital, there is a gentle character by the name of Oliver who takes care of both the mother and daughter. Throughout the book, the lines between the fairytale world, superstitions, magical elements and the real world overlap and collide and seep into each other. You find yourself completely believing in the various superstitions that exist only in fairytales. I felt deeply for the mother and the daughter but as this is a book within a book, the fairytales were extremely interesting and took some of the heaviness away.

For anyone who has grown up reading Enid Blyton and fairytales as a kid and remembers seeing fairytale elements in their daily lives when looking at willow trees or imagining pixies/ fairies around mushrooms this book makes you feel like that again. I'm so glad to have lived that feeling twice with The Land of Lost Things coming out 17 years after I read the Book of Lost Things. I hope there will be a third.

Such a great followup book to The Book of Lost Things, totally enjoyable read! Ceres searches for some way to contact her daughter, Phoebe, who lies in a coma. Traveling to the Land of Lost Things, she finds her love of reading creates a tapestry of characters from her own mind. Enthralling and recommended reading !

My college years are a bit of lost years for me and my reading journey. Fittingly, there are only a few books that really stand out for me that I read during that time and one of those books was The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I devoured this book - it gave me everything I love about books, that Alice in Wonderland feel of being lost and having my books come alive. I’ve thought a lot about that book over the years and when I saw there was going to be a follow up published I was so excited to read it.

It’s been years since I read the first book but thankfully The Land of Lost Things stands apart from its predecessor. Although a lot of familiar characters show up, this is Ceres’ journey as she informs Elsewhere while also working inside the construct of many of David’s impressions of this other world.

Ceres is unlike David in that she is an adult with a child lost to her and she must go through this land in order to get home to her daughter. I loved being back in this world of stories and I so appreciate the opportunity to explore it again now that I am older.

The middle dragged a bit for me but I loved the ending so much and was so happy to be back (and a little frightened).

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Atria for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I got a free copy of this book against an honest review. Thanks to Atria and to the author for that.

What a pleasure to be back in the universe of The Book of Lost Things, one of my favorite book for all time. I didn't expect John Connolly to write a sequel (he didn't expect it either!) and the result is a beautiful novel that is almost as good as its predecessor.

If you haven't read the first book, you can read The Land of Lost Things and follow the plot, but I still recommend reading the first book to fully enjoy this sequel. I enjoyed meeting new characters as well as seeing some of the characters from the previous book. Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable read - but I'm a big fan of John Connolly's writing, so I'm a little biased. I never got bored, even when the story was perhaps dragging a bit, because John Connolly always knows how to make me interested in what is happening.

The only aspect of the book that makes me give it 4 stars instead of 5 is its ending. I couldn't help but find it underwhelming, especially in comparison to the ending of The Book of Lost Things that made me cry like I'd never cry before reading a book. It wasn't bad, but somehow I expected more.

I strongly recommend both The Book of Lost Things and The Land of Lost Things. If you like mature, dark fantasy, and fairy tales, this book is for you. Both books are beautiful and the sequel doesn't disappoint. Thanks to John Connolly for writing such beautiful stories!

A beautiful, spellbinding sequel to The Book of Lost Things. Both novels deal with loss, grief, and hope in a mythical fashion, on the fairy tale border between portal fantasy and dream allegory. I thought The Book of Lost Things would be hard to follow up, but this successor is worthy.

Thank you to NetGalley for this great opportunity to read “The Land of Lost Things” prior to its release. As a huge fan of the first novel, “The Book of Lost Things”, when I learned of its sequel…I was beyond excited. As with the first novel, I loved the characters. Both protagonists and antagonists alike. As a mother of a preteen, I found myself feeling everything our main character Ceres felt.. it was very easy to put yourself in her shoes and wonder if you would make the same decisions as she. It was a great story and I don’t want to give anything away! If you loved the first, I believe you will truly enjoy and appreciate this sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

This story takes you to a fantasy world, introduces you to some twisted fairytale creatures, and closes with an action packed ending. I enjoyed the dark retellings, complex plot, and whimsical writing style of this novel.

When I requested this ARC on NetGalley I had no idea it was the second book in a series. I actually didn’t know there was a first book until I was about a third of the way through! That being said, I was never confused about what was going on or felt like I was missing something. I am very interested in picking up the first book since I enjoyed this one so much!

Connolly’s writing is mesmerizing and this story is exactly what I want when I’m craving a dark fairytale.

The Land of Lost Things pub date is this Tuesday, September 19th! Makes sure to get your copy and let the story take you to Elsewhere!

Unfortunately, this book did not hold my attention, and I ended up not finishing it. It was marketed to me by the publisher as a thriller with dark fairytale elements. Don't get me wrong, it was dark; however, I couldn't relate to the book because it was a fantasy.

John Connolly wrote this book in a classic fairytale style with a modern twist. Regardless of my own reading preferences, it was beautifully written.

In my opinion, this would be a great book for someone who enjoys fantasy novels.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly is a novel taking place in a magical universe, following a mother trying to save her child. Mr. Connolly is a published author and an international best-seller author.

Ceres’ daughter, eight-year-old Phoebe, is comatose after being in a car accident. Ceres sits by her bed reading the fairy tale stories the Phoebe loved.

Phoebe is moved to a new hospital, where a book is calling to Ceres. She enters a magical land, which includes childhood memories, folklore, and enemies.

I never read The Book of Lost Things, which this book references that was published about 17 years ago. About half-way through, however, I realized that I might should have, as there are some references, I believe I missed.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly even though this book is not the usual genre I read. I do enjoy Mr. Connolly’s work very much, which is why I picked it up.

This book is fully of excitement and adventure, happiness and tragedy. The narrative flows and is very well plotted. There are many characters, which I assume were in the first book, but I wasn’t familiar with them. At times I felt as if I was outside of the circle of “those who know”, which is, of course, true.

The last fifth of the book dragged and the flow was interrupted. We read the story through the actions of several characters, and the shifts were a bit confusing and difficult to follow. I felt the ending was somewhat hurried as well.

One of the highlights was the incorporating of dark fairy tales in the narrative, either ones Ceres tells us, or are told to Ceres. I believe that these dark stories actually reflect the original fairy tales than the sugar coated ones we tell these days.

I enjoyed this book very much, but I would recommend reading The Book of Lost Things first. I wish I had.

I had never read or even heard of The Book of Lost Things before this so maybe I would feel differently if I had read that first. But I did not, and overall, I was bored.

Free ARC | Bored. | I'm yet another reviewer who loved The Book of Lost Things years ago and who was overjoyed to see a sequel was coming. I'm yet another who reread Book of... to refresh my memory before starting the ARC I was so excited to receive. And, well, Land of... bored the pants off me. It's possible that if I had relied on decade-old memory of the first book instead of rereading, that I wouldn't have realized how repetitive this was of that. But if I had gone that way there's much I would have missed, and resonance would have been lost. I didn't really feel the main character as a realistic woman, she reads as a man thinks a woman is inside, not as she really is, and I wasn't impressed with the plodding pace. Heartbreaking disappointment for me, this read

When I read the Book of Lost Things as a teenager long ago, it really opened my eyes to what could be done with folklore and fairy tales. This book continues that tradition. I love John Connolly's style of writing, it's so poetic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A beautiful novel with a lot to love. I haven’t read the first book that is related, but now I definitely want to.

I loved the stories within stories and the attention to detail. I learned about so many different elements of folklore and language, while also being touched by a beautiful story of a mother and child.

In The Land of Lost Things, John Connolly returns to the redemptive power of words and stories that he explored in his earlier novel The Book of Lost Things. Although the new novel is a standalone tale, it does reference characters and places from the older novel. I read The Book of Lost Things years ago and was thrilled to discover Connolly’s new treatment of how stories and words can save our lives.

The Book of Lost Things tells the story of David, a child searching for his lost mother, and The Land of Lost Things tells the story of Ceres, a mother searching for her lost child. Ceres’ daughter Phoebe has fallen into a coma after a devastating accident, and the book opens with Ceres’ attempts to come to terms with losing her daughter. Ceres moves her comatose child away from the city to a country facility, and it is here that she discovers the haunted house of the elderly writer who composed The Book of Lost Things. Ceres enters the forest, discovering another realm populated by wolves and woodsmen. She must navigate this new land in an attempt to restore her daughter to her.

Connolly’s writing is for readers who love complicated plots with stories inside of stories. In addition to the main narrative, the book relays fairy tales that Ceres shares with her daughter, stories that she channels, and folklore she remembers from her own father, a university librarian. Each chapter begins with a word from an ancient language followed by its definition, so as readers make their way through the text, they learn that Uhtceare is Old English for “lying awake before dawn too worried to sleep” and Teasgal is Gaelic for “a wind that sings”. Connolly’s story celebrates the power of language and proposes that “You can destroy a book. You can burn it, you can tear it to pieces and scatter them to the four winds, you can soak it until it reverts back to pulp or the ink turns the water black, but you can’t destroy the content of the book, or the idea of the book, not as long as there are those who care, who remember.” The Land of Lost Things beautifully explores the intimate relationship between readers and writers and between fiction and life.
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Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Too much going on in this book. I felt overwhelmed by the stories within stories. The writing did not flow for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. This is my own opinion and I feel that this book could be loved by many..just not me.

I actually DNFed this pretty early on. I felt like that was a lot of words being used in the paragraphs without really saying much. When the author was describing all the tings Ceres father had found, I got so bored. Maybe I'll pick this up in the future, if the mood strikes, but for now it's a no go for me

A fun tour through an imaginary world with just enough darkness for classic fairy tale fans. A charming, dark adventure that explores finding your way through the darkness of grief and loss.

💕You might like this book if:
🔹 you enjoy stories where characters slide into a new world such as The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland
🔹 you enjoy stories within stories
🔹you are a fan of classic fairy tales and folklore

Throughout this densely written story The Land of Lost Things made me think of personal losses in my own life. I highlighted more passages than I usually do when reading and thought a lot more about those passages after finishing. In terms of tone, it reminded me a lot of The Book of Virtues. There are life lessons here taught in an interesting way, as we follow Ceres through a land of mostly dark fantasy characters in a place called Elsewhere,. Ceres, the mother to gravely injured and comatose Phoebe, enters this fairy medieval world through a portal in an abandoned cottage near Phoebe’s caretaking facility. Adult Ceres quickly ages backward to teenaged Ceres (now armed with adult savvy, but also those awkward teenaged feelings) and begins her trek. Her trek to where we don’t yet know, except that she is meant to be here and that Phoebe’s recovery is tied to the success or failure here. She travels with the Woodsman, who she meets early on. I enjoyed Ceres and the Woodsman’s relationship, which was not always harmonious. He is her great protector and father figure, and she knows she can trust him with her life even when she wants to disagree with him. The Crooked Man, who is evil incarnate, needs to make a bargain with Ceres to regain his power and life . The Crooked Man, once dominated the land and lives by consuming others’ stories, both good and horrifyingly bad, He is very close to dying out completely. Ceres journey brings her ever closer to him. Her life (and her daughter’s back in the earthly world) now depends on whatever happens when they finally come together. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The story, while at many times engrossing, was so layered as to feel a bit suffocating. Even the chapter titles were unnecessarily obscure. I was happy to leave Elsewhere with Ceres, in what was ultimately a satisfying conclusion. I just wish it hadn’t been quite so tiring to get there. I would give it 3.5 stars.

The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly
5/5 stars
Pub date: Sep 19 2023

“We’re not creatures of flesh and blood alone, no more than a book is just ink, paper, and card. We’re beings of tale and fable. We exist as narratives. This is how we understand the world, and this is how we must be understood.”

My ARC of The Land of Lost Things was provided by Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
…And I cannot begin the tell you the excitement I felt when I was approved for this ARC because The Book of Lost Things has been in my top 5 favorite books of all time for so many years. This sequel did not disappoint.

Ceres is a single mother, struggling to hold on to hope that her young daughter, Phoebe, will recover from an accident that has held her hovering between life and death for too long. While Ceres is grieving for the life and future she feels has been stolen from them both, she becomes very interested in a book called The Book of Lost Things. She is intrigued by the author’s life and the eerie coincidence that she too has been inventing stories for Phoebe of a “Crooked Man.” Ceres’ life and circumstances continue to further entangle with that of the book, until she finds herself in a similar world shaped by the stories of her childhood where she must confront some of her deepest fears.

For me, this book is about the power of stories. The tales we were told as children, the books we read, and the stories we tell ourselves. There are so many beautiful lines like the one I quoted above about how we become a part of those stories, just as they become a part of us. They help us navigate and relate to our world. They help us empathize with one another and come to terms with difficult times in our lives. John Connolly writes the most beautiful and perfect endings to these stories, so that I am always left in tears with my heart somehow both broken and full at the same time.