The Book of Lost Things
The Book of Lost Things • Book 1
Narrated by Steven Crossley
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
This is a fairy tale that will genuinely unsettle you — Grimm-dark, not Disney-dark.
- Great if you want: classic fairy tales twisted into something genuinely disturbing
- Listening experience: atmospheric and dreamlike, with mounting dread beneath the surface
- Narration: Crossley's measured, slightly grave tone suits the gothic folklore perfectly
- Skip if: you prefer emotional resolution over ambiguity and darkness
About This Audiobook
Twelve-year-old David has withdrawn into books since his mother died, and when the boundaries between his reading and his waking life begin to dissolve, he finds himself transported into a fairy-tale world that is stranger and more threatening than any story he has encountered on the page. The kings and heroes and monsters in this world behave with a logic that is not moral but consequential, and David must navigate it to find his way back to a grief he has been trying to avoid. John Connolly's ALA Alex Award novel is a dark fairy tale about the cost of stories and the necessity of facing what they can't resolve.
Steven Crossley's narration gives the story its atmospheric weight, his voice suited to both the contemporary Dublin scenes and the mythologized otherness of David's imaginary world. The tonal shift between registers is one of the book's primary pleasures, and Crossley manages it with ease. At nearly eleven hours, The Book of Lost Things rewards the patience it asks for, delivering an ending that earns its emotional impact through genuine difficulty rather than easy consolation.
