The Door to Lost Pages

by Claude Lalumiere

Paul Di Filippo (Introduction)

On her tenth birthday, Aydee runs away from home and from her neglectful parents. At first, surviving alone on the streets is harsh, but a series of frightening, bewildering encounters with strange primordial creatures leads her to a bookshop called Lost Pages, where she steps into a fantastic, sometimes dangerous, but exciting life.

• ISBN13: 9781926851952
• Publish Date: 5 May 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: ChiZine Publications
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 280
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

In truth I barely know where to start with this review so bare with me.

The Door to Lost Pages is a series of short stories that all revolve around the bookstore Lost Pages and the dark god Yamish Lot. These have apparently been published separately before and are now in one novel. I found this is to be a really cool idea and was really looking forward to seeing what fantastical world Lalumiere had created. They are surprisingly complex short stories and from the description of the novel I wasn't quite expected what I received. I was expected more fantasy based storyline but instead there is a sort of gritty realism to the novel as a whole. There are of course fantastical elements that are linked to the worlds mythology and parallel universes but it's somewhat over shadowed by the straight forward manner in which the author describes the human interactions.

I enjoyed the stories Bestial Acts, Let Evil Beware!, and Lost Girls. Mainly because these are the three that deal directly with Aydee and I enjoyed the near straight forward plot of them. But the other three stories I wasn't very fond of at all (Dregs, Dark Tendrils, and Coda). I found these to be confusing and far too blunt to be enjoyable. I can admit that this is impart my fault as I was expecting what I was giving in the first two books which follow children, but instead of that same childish fantasy I got graphic scenes of sex. I found it tad misleading. The writing of these three are choppy and confusing, and at times downright frustrating as you try to figure out exactly what is going on.The short stories also do not offer anything in the sense of a normal plot structure so don't expect to transition smoothly from one story to the next, it will not happen and it might only confuse you more.

I'm giving it a three because those stories I did enjoy were wonderfully written and hint at deeper meanings, though it may take more then one read through to pick up on them. The author clearly has talent and a vast imagination, but I feel that overall this was just not for me. I really only recommend this to those who enjoy gritty fantasy that do not necessarily have to have a plot structure. Also it's probably best if this were read by adult as it does tend to be fairly graphic at times.