The plot line goes like this; David's Mum loves books, she's sick, she dies. David gets sad. He and Mum used to share book time, but when she dies his books start talking to him and he starts seeing shit that, strictly speaking, isn't there.
Also, David has a Dad, who manages to stay among the living and sends his son to therapy. He reads newspapers and is real serious. When Mum dies, Dad starts making time with Rose. One thing leads to another, and Dad and Rose have a baby and move into Rose's country estate. No love is lost between David and Rose
David's books start getting loud and he starts seeing things for serious and one night his dreams and whispers lead him to the mysterious sunken garden behind their house and David enters a magical fairy-tale land like the ones he's read frantically about. Adventure begins.
Despite my crankiness about this book, I liked the beginning a great deal and thought it was going to be a great read. In the beginning, it seems like readers are going to be given a unique way to look at a child breaking with reality. The first ten chapters honestly read like a really intriguing way to look at mental illness and compulsion; David's books talk to him and he has rituals that he has to follow to move through his day. But it turns out not to be that.
The book is a fairy tale, plain and simple. It skirts the issues and dares to be unremarkable. It is not discreet, there are several points where David (our protagonist) is described as less boy than man, or something very much like that, to indicate that his ass is grown.
The ending to this book feels like Connolly got tired of the story and quit. Or was facing a deadline. It's a short read, too. It's a bogus move to fill the end of your book with other people's fairy tales.
This book is perfectly nice; the fairy tale is good, and I LOVE WWII-era fiction...especially that fiction about nice English Kids living in the countryside during the war to escape bombing, and getting involved in fantastical adventure, but please don't try to occupy the same genre as The Chronicles of Narnia if you don't bring your 'A' Game.
Apparently, this book is being made into a movie sometime in 2009 or 2010. I think it will be WAY more convincing there.
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