...You might think that such knowledge would not be so terrible, and you would be wrong. We are not meant to know the time or nature of our deaths (for all of us secretly hope that we may be immortal)

John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things

Highly recommend reading this book. Not for its 'fantasy' aspects which are usually my preferences, but for its prologue, synopsis & short snippets scattered about. This book is not just a story of magic and lore, but of a child's development into an adult. In truth the plots were not exactly mind blowing; and some parts were predictable, being built upon popular fairy tales. However it made up for it with an excellent delivery which led the reader to really feel what the characters discovered within and without, and more importantly perhaps not what they found but what he then lost. Vulnerability, mortality, fate, free-will, kinship, and the loss of innocence are at constant play throughout the entire book.

sometimes a small cruelty is a great kindness