‘The Book Of Lost Things is about stories, and their power to transform the world in which we live, and the manner in which readers use stories and fictions to interpret that world (something that doesn’t change as we get older, I feel. I often wonder about the extent to which my view of the world is coloured by the books that I’ve read).
This book deals with the transition from childhood to adulthood, with all the consequent confusions, including sexual confusions.
On another level the book tries to reinterpret these old fairy tales, or at least to discover what it is that gives them such potency that they’ve survived so long. . There is a very real value in these tales - outside their capacity to reveal adult concerns - but they are, at heart, designed to educate children about the adult world.’ John Connolly

The Black Angel is not an object.
The Black Angel is not a myth.
The Black Angel lives.

He could see the steel of the hook in front of his face, could taste it on his tongue and feel it against his teeth. He tried to raise a hand to grasp it, but he was already growing weak and his fingers could only brush the metal before falling down to his side. A gleaming trail of blood was being laid on the leaves and dirt. Above him, the canopy appeared like a black shroud across the sky. The forest gathered around him, and he stared for the last time toward the river as the woman dropped the sheet from her body and turned, naked, to look at him. And deep inside himself, in the dark place where all that was truly Landron Mobley dreamed of visiting pain on others, a host of scaled women fell upon him, and he began to scream.