BiblioAddict

In light of the fact that I no longer have my WORLD WAR Z (tear, tear), I’ve begun devoting my time to John Connolly’s THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS. I’d considered reading this for my R.I.P. challenge, but the more that I read this the more I realize that this novel is more like a dark fairytale than a horror novel. There are a few nail-bitting scenes, but only in the way that Hansel & Gretal (a story that Connelly retells wonderfully) is scary to a child when the witch proposes to eat the children.

There are several stories built within this novel which is, in itself, a kind of fairytale, but the one retelling that I thought particularly interesting so far was this: a retelling (and reworking) of “Little Red Riding Hood”:

One day, as she walked in a dark grove, a wolf came. It was wary of her and tried to pass without being seen, but the girl’s senses were too acute. She saw the wolf, and she looked into its eyes and fell in love with the strangeness of it… “Lovely wolf,” she whispered. “You have noting to fear from me.”…And the wolf saw what beautiful eyes she had (all the better to see him with), and what gentle hands (all the better to stroke him with), and what soft, red lips (all the better to taste him with). The girl leaned forward, and she kissed the wolf…Other women came came, lured by the girl in the red cloak. She would wander the forest paths, enticing those who passed her way with promises of ripe, juicy berries and spring water sopure that it could make skin look young again. Sometimes she traveled to the edge of a town or village, and there she would wait until a girl walked by and she would draw her into the woods with false cries for help…None were ever seen again….

FYI: By the time the events in this story take place, Little Red Riding Hood i s already a young woman. That makes the story a little less weird, I think. I’m also pretty sure that it is not the way I remember the story told to me when I was a little kid. I love it.