Review - The Gates: A Novel by John Connolly (4/5 stars)

I absolutely loved "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly so when I heard that he had written another fantasy I was very excited to read it.  This is a very entertaining book and a great read.  I didn't think it was quite as good as "The Book of Lost Things" but it was still entertaining.

Samuel spies something happening in his neighbors' basement.  Basically he thinks his neighbors have opened a gate to hell and demons have taken over his neighbors' bodies.  Meanwhile in Europe some physicists see a particle escape their particle accelerator; they have no idea what that means but potentially they may have inadvertently opened a gate to another realm.

Think of this book as some weird mix between a humorous treatise on particle physics and a tale of the end of the world.  Much of the beginning of the book is taken to explaining, in as layman terms as possible, the theory behind the big bang, particle physics, dark matter, and dark energy.  These little explanations are broken up by detailing the story of Samuel's life as he is chased down by the demon he saw open a gate to Hell.  Eventually the chapters with the physicists and the chapters with Samuel collide to make an interesting story.  There are many footnotes that either further explain the science discussed or further explain the strange actions of adults.

This book is targeted at the young adult crowd; there isn't anything bad in here that would make it inappropriate for that crowd.  It does a pretty good job of trying to explain quantum mechanics to the masses, but at times the footnotes get a bit length, silly, and plain out boring. 

Samuel's story is a good one.  The end of the book especially is action packed and really grabs the reader in.  Although there are certain things, like the scenes at the church with the vicar, that I never really did figure out the point of in regards to the main story.

The writing style itself is jaunty and humorous even at the darkest times in the book.  The characters are all a bit quirky and odd.  This book reminded me a lot of The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater or Going Bovine by Libba Bray.  At times the writing style (and the extreme number of footnotes) also put me in mind of Douglas Adams.  In general, although this was an entertaining read, I felt like I had heard this story in this type of jaunty tone before.  This is an entertaining read andhumorous but it is not nearly as original as "The Book of Lost Things" was.

Overall a great read, but not as excellent as "The Book of Lost Things".  I would still recommend this as a good book for all ages to read and I am still eager to read Connolly's future adult fantasy novels.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

 

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (5/5 stars)

I picked up this book quite a while ago and am just now getting to reading it. The book starts out a bit dry but ends up as a wonderful classic retelling of some of my favorite fairytales.

As so many of these books about children wandering into unknown lands start; this book starts with David who is in a bit of a slump. With his mother dead, his dad re-married, a new baby brother, and England at war; David is depressed and hateful of his position in the world. That is until the books start talking to him and he starts having fits of unconsciousness. In these fits he finds himself in a different world of castles and kings. After fleeing a warplane crashing into his house, David finds himself in the other world for good this time; and it is a darker place than the darkest of his fears.

David's tale is cleverly told as he weaves his way in and out of the classic fairytales we all know and love. Except that in this book, the darkness and goriness of the fairy tales David encounters make the Brothers' Grimm look positively sunny. The book is well-written and told at a deliberate pace; the writing style stays true to a classic fairy-tale style of writing. I love fairy tale retellings and re-imaginings and this book was an excellent and beautifully crafted fairy tale. As with all fairy tales the book teaches a lesson that both makes the reader hope and despair. The characters are colorful and twisted versions of the fairy tale characters we know and love. The enemies pull at your deepest, darkest fears.

As for this being a childrens' book. That, it is not. I found this book to be delightfully creepy but I can't imagine what kind of nightmares some of the gorier scenes would give a child. I could definitely see this being a good young adult horror book. It teaches a good lesson and is a delight to read. I loved it and couldn't put it down. Now I can't bear to part with the book and know I will read it again some time in the future. As soon as I finished it I started looking up other books that John Connolly has written; hopefully he will write some additional novels that fall into the dark fantasy category because he did a great job with this one.