jenkepesh 's review for:

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
4.0

A reasonably good fantasy, probably best aimed at late middle-schoolers, though ostensibly for adults. Connolly is a good writer, and the story is fairly absorbing. When I compare this to something like "The Lord of the Rings," I notice how much better Connolly is at dialogue, inner life, shaping a scene, than Tolkien (although of course the story isn't on nearly such a grand scale). In some ways, this book shows how far fantasy writing has come in the last fifty years. But there is something a little workmanlike about the book that, for someone who is no longer automatically absorbed by fantasy, this was a diverting but not masterful read.